“Over the years I have learned that we are so much more than ‘just’ teachers. We are also role models, friends, mothers, and confidants for our students.”

After working as a data analyst in Jamaica for 18 years, Sheryl Miller made the bold decision to quit her job, return to university, and study towards a degree in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). Ten years after graduating, she hasn’t looked back. 

“People always told me I would make a good teacher, so, at the age of 39, I decided it was time to change my career, and go into teaching."

Sheryl spent two years studying for her diploma, and a further four years for her degree in Early Childhood education. Today, after a decade in the early childhood sector, Sheryl is still confident that she made the right choice.

“This job can sometimes feel thankless. It requires so much of your time and energy and resources. But the reward at the end of the day is in seeing the children thrive,” says Sheryl. 

“It's not just my job, it’s my profession”

According to UNICEF, early childhood education forms the foundation of high-quality basic education. It helps children develop critical numeracy and literacy skills as well as the social and emotional skills they need to succeed in life.  

“Over the years I have learned that we are so much more than ‘just’ teachers. We are also role models, friends, mothers, and confidants for our students. Sometimes they tell us things that are happening at home, and we need to take action and intervene for their safety. Sometimes they just need a hug, or encouragement.”

ECCE teachers and schools face a number of obstacles

While early childhood education is recognized as a critical foundation for every child, ECCE teachers still face many obstacles around the world. 

“We try to make our lessons as interactive as possible to capture the attention of the three, four, and five-year-olds. They learn by touching, seeing, tasting… and to do this, we need resources. Teachers often end up purchasing things like stationery, books and learning materials out of their own pockets. In my classroom, I buy many of the resources for our science area and literacy corner.

“I joined the Jamaica Teachers’ Association Early Childhood Committee so that I can help lobby for teachers, and raise awareness about our lack of access to support and resources.”

Teachers need more recognition and respect for their commitment to education

According to Sheryl, another obstacle for the ECCE sector is a general lack of recognition of the importance of foundational learning. 

“Sometimes parents see you as just a ‘babysitter’. But you have to remind yourself that you are not there for the adults. You are there for the students. 

“Just as children progress through crawling, creeping, standing, moving around, and walking step by step, early childhood education is the same. We guide them through the steps of learning their letters and numbers, shapes and colours.”

Sheryl believes that although the COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted learning, it also had some positive outcomes. 

“It helped parents realize how important early childhood education is. When they supervised their children during online lessons, it was the first time that they really saw what we do, and how we do it. It helped build an even more trusting relationship between parents and teachers,” says Sheryl. 

Although they may have received more support and respect from parents during the pandemic, many early learning teachers had to devise their own strategies, and use their own resources to help their students continue learning during lockdowns. 

UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring Report on Non-State Actors in Education found that only  55% of countries provided pre-primary school teachers with instructions to ensure learning continuity during the pandemic, compared with nearly 70% of countries for other levels of education. 

COVID-19 also highlighted the need for governments to invest in equipping schools with resources and technology

“Many children lost out on education during the lockdowns, as they didn’t have access to devices, or data. And when children returned to school, we noticed that literacy and numeracy levels declined,” says Sheryl. 

The social-distancing rules also forced many schools to reduce the number of children in the classroom. 

“In Jamaica, social distancing rules are still in place. So, some students haven’t been able to return to school as the affordable institutions are full, and parents don’t have the resources to enroll them in alternative schools.”

The pandemic also led to widespread teacher burnout, and resignations 

“To encourage teachers to stay, and continue transforming education at this level, we need more financial support and resources. We need to ensure teachers have more respect and recognition for the work that they do,” says Sheryl.

UNESCO is organizing the World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from 14-16 November, to reaffirm member states’ commitment to supporting “the right of every young child to quality care and education from birth”. 

Read more:

•  #TeachersTransform advocacy campaign

Photo credit:  Sheryl Miller

This blog has originally been published on 17 October 2022, on the Global Partnership for Education website. 

As a new school year kicked off in many countries, the media was flooded with stories of a growing crisis of teacher shortages, with even the most dedicated and passionate educators growing tired of the lack of support, resources and recognition. A new report looks at trends in the teaching profession around the world and makes recommendations for improvement.

According to the latest calculations carried out by the Teacher Task Force and UNESCO, released to coincide with World Teachers’ Day, recent data show that sub-Saharan Africa alone needs to recruit 16.5 million more teachers in order to reach the education goals by 2030.

This means 5.4 million new teachers are needed in primary and 11.1 million in secondary education, in order to meet the needs of the growing school-age population in the region, and to mitigate growing numbers of out-of-school children.

Some of the biggest challenges are in the Sahel, including Niger and Chad, which need to double their primary teacher workforces to meet the goals.

In Southern Asia, despite progress in some countries, a substantial shortfall of seven million teachers remains: 1.7 million teachers will be needed in primary and 5.3 million in secondary education. This is nevertheless a considerable reduction from earlier projections.

The lower primary level teacher projection may be attributed to progress towards universal primary education in Bangladesh and India, as well as to declining birth rates.

Elsewhere in the region, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the annual growth rate of primary teachers would have to increase by about 50% or more than 10 % annually to achieve universal primary education by 2030.

Teacher shortages are not just a developing world crisis but one being experienced around the world, including in countries like Australia, China, Estonia, France, Great Britain, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the United States and others.

 

COVID-19 merely exacerbated the existing teacher crisis

COVID-19 has been blamed for some of the shortfalls – with poor health or pandemic-related stress pushing teachers out of classrooms. But we know that COVID-19 was just the tipping point – and has served to worsen shortages that were already starting to become a problem before the pandemic.

Teachers leaving the profession – teacher attrition – is a major concern facing the profession with serious implications for learning. A Guardian article reports that 44% of teachers in England plan to quit in the next five years, with most blaming their heavy workload, while in New South Wales, Australia, a survey of 8,600 teachers found that more than half are planning to leave the profession in the next five years.

Teacher attrition has many causes, including a lack of financial incentives, poor working conditions, high workloads, lack of preparation, little autonomy, poor administrative support, poorly designed classrooms and a lack of teaching resources.

Emigration in search of better opportunities is also a source of attrition. In France, a recent study found that, in the 1980s, a beginning teacher was earning 2.3 times the minimum wage. Today, this is equivalent to just 1.2 times.

In underserved regions and crisis contexts, already-challenging teaching conditions are made worse by a lack of qualifications and professional development opportunities for teachers and by inequitable forms of deployment that appoint the least qualified and experienced teachers to the areas where the best are needed.

Urgent action is needed to reduce the teacher gaps

Some countries are implementing short-term solutions by dealing with the symptoms, rather than the cause, of teacher resignations. Some schools in the United States of America are doubling up classes and increasing the workload of the teachers left behind, while others are lowering the requirements and employing less qualified teachers.

Meanwhile, some countries are adopting controversial recruitment strategies, including the increased use of contract teachers. In Italy, where teachers are on average among the oldest in the region, 150,000 teacher posts have already been filled by contract teachers.

In order to help curb global teacher shortages, in line with recent global consultations as part of the Transforming Education Summit, the authors recommend that governments need to urgently:

• Improve the status and social standing of the teaching profession to attract more candidates, including through reinforcing social dialogue and teacher participation in educational decision-making.
• Formulate and implement teacher policies that calculate and cost the needs for expansion of the teaching workforce and progressively integrate contract teachers into the public civil service, while also improving contractual conditions.
• Improve financing for teachers through integrated national reform strategies and effective governance, allocating 4% to 6% of GDP or 15% to 20% of public expenditure to education.
• Ensure teacher salaries are competitive to those of other professions requiring similar levels of qualifications, and include incentives to remain in the profession based on experience and qualifications, while providing vertical and horizontal mobility throughout teachers’ careers.
• Promote gender equality in the teaching profession and address gender biases at different education levels and specializations, supporting women to take on leadership roles.
• Develop more flexible qualification and accreditation processes that allow multiple entry points to attract additional candidates into the profession while maintaining quality standards.

Download the paper here. 

Photo credit: GPE/Kelley Lynch. Mr. Ibrahim, psychology supervisor at the Saâdou Galadima Teachers Training college in Niamey, Niger with student teachers.