Around 63 million primary and secondary teachers around the world are affected by school closures in 165 countries due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

They are on the frontlines of the response to ensure that learning continues for nearly 1.5 billion students, a number that is predicted to rise

Everywhere, together with school leaders, they have been rapidly mobilising and innovating to facilitate quality distance learning for students in confinement, with or without the use of digital technologies. They are playing a key role also in communicating measures that prevent the spread of the virus, ensuring that children are safe and supported.

This unprecedented situation is putting teachers, students and families under stress.

In some cases, teachers who may already be exposed to the virus themselves are trying to manage the anxiety of being told to work in situations where the COVID-19 risk is spreading. Others are dealing with the stress of of delivering quality learning with tools for which they have received little or no training or support. In many countries, contract teachers, substitute teachers and education support personnel risk seeing their contracts broken and their livelihoods disappear.

The Teacher Task Force, an international alliance working for teachers and teaching, has issued a Call for Action on Teachers to ensure that teachers are protected, supported and recognised during the crisis. Leadership and financial and material resources for teachers are necessary to make sure that quality teaching and learning can continue at a distance during the crisis, and that recovery is rapid.

The Task Force is calling on governments, education providers and funders – public and private – and all relevant partners to:

• Preserve employment and wages: This crisis cannot be a pretext to lower standards and norms, or push aside labour rights. The salaries and benefits of the entire teaching and education support staff must be preserved.
• Prioritise teachers’ and learners’ health, safety and well-being: Teachers need socio-emotional support to face the extra pressure being put on them to deliver learning in a time of crisis as well as provide support to their students in these anxious circumstances.
• Include teachers in developing COVID-19 education responses : Teachers will have a crucial role in the recovery phase when schools reopen. They must be included at all steps of education policy-making and planning.
• Provide adequate professional support and training: Little attention has been given to providing teachers with adequate training on how to ensure that learning continues. We must move swiftly to ensure that teachers receive the necessary professional support.
• Put equity at the heart of education responses: Greater support and flexibility will be needed for teachers who work in remote areas or with low-income or minority communities, to ensure that disadvantaged children are not left behind.
• Include teachers in aid responses: The Teacher Task Force urges financing institutions to help governments support education systems, particularly the teaching workforce’s professional development. Such support is particularly urgent in some of the world’s poorest countries, which are already struggling to meet education needs because of critical shortages of trained teachers.

For more information, download the call in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.

As the world has raced to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, 191 countries have closed schools, from pre-primary to tertiary level, affecting at least 1.5 billion - or more than 9 out of 10 - students worldwide.

To minimize the disruption, many governments and institutions have turned to distance education to maintain teaching and learning. Online learning allows teachers to maintain a classroom-like environment for students, to send assignments and receive completed work to be assessed. It also permits teachers to maintain daily communication with students, checking not only their educational progress but also their well-being.

Yet, according to recent figures compiled by the Teacher Task Force, based on data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the International Telecommunication Union, almost half of the world’s students face significant barriers to online learning. Globally, some 826 million – 50 per cent – do not have access to a household computer, while 43 per cent – about 706 million – do not have access to internet at home. In low-income countries, rates of access are even lower. In sub-Saharan Africa, 89 per cent of learners do not have access to household computers and 82 per cent lack Internet access.

Mobile phones have demonstrated great potential for connecting learners with information and one another, but about 56 million learners worldwide live in remote locations not served by mobile networks, with almost half of them living in sub-Saharan Africa.

Some countries have turned to more traditional media to ensure access to those affected by this digital divide. In Peru, the Ministry of Education uses an online education platform, “Aprendo en casa”, to develop programmes accessible via television and radio for students with no internet and computer/mobile phone access. Countries were able to share their experience in distance education learning strategies during UNESCO’s fifth COVID-19 Education Response Webinar.

Moreover, an estimated 63 million primary and secondary teachers worldwide have been affected by the unprecedented disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even for teachers in countries with reliable information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and household connectivity, the rapid transition to online learning has been challenging. For teachers in regions where ICT and other distance methodologies are not available, such as Cameroon, where only 20-25% of teachers have access to a computer, the transition has been difficult or impossible.

Teacher education is a particular challenge in low-income countries. Across sub-Saharan Africa, just 64 per cent of primary and 50 per cent of secondary teachers, have met the national minimum training requirements to teach. In many countries, training seldom covers ICT skills adequately.

In addition, there are not enough teachers in low-income countries, resulting in large classes in which teachers struggle to give personalized instruction to each child. Compared to the international benchmark of 1 teacher per 28 pupils in primary education, there is only 1 trained teacher per 56 pupils in low-income countries, and 1 per 60 in sub-Saharan Africa.

To ensure teachers receive appropriate support during this crisis, the Teacher Task Force joined UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition, and recently released a Call for Action to support teachers affected by the pandemic.

Infographic: COVID-19: a global crisis for teaching and learning

COVID-19 Education Response webinars:

• Supporting teachers to maintain continuity of learning during school closures, synthesis report
• Distance learning strategies: what do we know about effectiveness?

The Teacher Task Force, UNESCO and the International Labour Organization have developed guidelines to support national authorities in their back-to-school efforts, in particular looking at how best to support teachers and education support staff in return to school planning and processes.

From the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, teachers have been vital to ensure learning continues through distance learning, where feasible, and that learners’ well-being is considered. With the return to school, teachers, school leaders and education support staff will continue to play key roles in creating safe learning spaces, adjusting curricula and assessment, and supporting marginalized learners.

Following on from the Call to Action on Teachers launched by the Teacher Task Force, the joint UNESCO/Teacher Task Force/ILO guidelines present a series of recommendations to policy-makers, while recognising the necessity for countries to identify their own priorities based on national and local contexts. These guidelines highlight how to guarantee that teachers and education support staff receive adequate support in back-to-school efforts. This includes:  

• Including teachers and their organisations in return to school planning

Countries should ensure that all perspectives are heard when planning for school safety and developing teaching practices to mitigate post-pandemic learning loss. Teachers, education support staff and their representatives need to be consulted in decision-making and planning, including the timing and processes for the safe reopening of schools.

• Guaranteeing the safety of learners and all education staff in school environments

Measures to ensure safety and health in schools for learners and staff should be adapted to local contexts, with national authorities providing information to teachers on risks in the school environment.

Teachers and their representative organisations should be involved in discussions about how to apply international standards in their classrooms and school-wide, on developing evaluation criteria and on regulations for reorganizing classroom learning. They should also take part in the development of measures to facilitate physical distancing.

• Recognising the importance of psychological and social-emotional well-being of teachers and education support staff

Reopening schools sees teachers having to deal with both health risks and an increased workload to teach in new and challenging ways—often with inadequate training. National authorities need to ensure teachers and education support staff receive ongoing psychosocial support to meet their social-emotional well-being. This will be especially critical for teachers who are tasked with providing the same support to students and families.

• Helping teachers adapt to the new teaching conditions

Including teachers and their representative organisations in discussions about the return to school is also key to ensure teachers and education support staff are given adequate training and resources to resume classroom instruction, while adhering to regulations on physical distancing.

They need to be involved during national consultations to identify key education goals, reorganise curricula, and align assessment based on the revised school calendar. They should be consulted on questions pertaining to classroom reorganisation.

• Ensuring that teachers’ working conditions don’t suffer

The return to school efforts could reveal gaps in human resources and create difficult working schedules and routines. Teachers and their representative organisations should be included in dialogue on the development of rapid recruitment strategies respecting the minimum professional qualifications and protecting teachers’ rights and working conditions.

• Maintaining or increasing financial resources

To ensure learning continuity, education authorities will need to invest in teachers and education support staff, not only to maintain salaries, but also to provide essential training and psycho-social support. It is important that governments resist practices which could harm the teaching profession and education quality, such as increasing teaching hours or recruiting untrained teachers. Governments should also encourage private providers to maintain regular salary payments to teachers and other support staff.

• Giving teachers a say in the monitoring of the return to school situation

Close monitoring and evaluating of the return to school will be critical to adapt strategy and inform decision-making. Teachers and school leaders should be consulted to inform the development of frameworks to measure and benchmark the progress of back-to-school efforts

You can download the Guidelines in English and French (Spanish will be on-line soon).

UNESCO is seeking qualified experts to explore the future of the teaching profession. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic and in alignment with UNESCO’s initiative on the Futures of Education, UNESCO will commission a series of research papers and think pieces to investigate key issues and trends that will impact the future of teachers and teaching in four key thematic areas:

1. Students and curriculum;
2. Pedagogies and learning environments;
3. Teacher education and development; and
4. Teacher leadership and governance.

More details can be found in the Request for Proposals.

Deadline for submissions is 11 September 2020.

The reopening of schools that had been closed because of COVID-19 is raising many questions for school leaders. They need to put the school community’s safety and health first. At the same time, they have to ensure that schools’ front-line workers – teachers and education support staff – have the help, protection and tools they need to resume work.  Teachers have played a key role during school closures by ensuring that learning can continue and by keeping in touch with students and their families. Their role during school reopening will be just as important.

UNESCO, the Teacher Task Force and the International Labour Organization have released a toolkit to help school leaders support and protect teachers and education support staff in the return to school. The toolkit complements the joint Framework for Reopening Schools and the Task Force's policy guidance released last month. It breaks down the seven dimensions identified in the policy guidance into a series of actionable guiding questions and tips.

As schools reopen, we are learning more and more about the challenges and opportunities faced by school leaders and the whole school community. In the coming months, we look forward to hearing from those on the front line and sharing these stories and lessons learnt with you.

Figure 1. Seven dimensions to support teachers and staff as schools reopen

The toolkit recognizes the importance of local context. In many countries the pandemic is evolving daily. Local decisions about when to reopen schools will be determined by a broad range of considerations; what is right for one school may not be right for another. In all contexts, school leaders will need to set priorities and recognize that trade-offs may be needed. To facilitate physical distancing, for example, schools may have to reduce the number of teachers and students on site by reopening selectively and staggering the return by grade and/or level. They may also have to privilege certain population segments or learner groups, such as vulnerable and at-risk learners and the children of essential workers. In some cases, closing schools again may have to be considered. Alternatively, available resources may be reallocated to ensure the readiness of school buildings and safety equipment, or to better prepare teachers and education support staff.

The toolkit shows us that school leaders will need to think about key issues in relation to teachers and education support staff as they adapt national directives to plan to reopen their schools.

• The importance of consultation and communication

Teachers, school staff and their representative organizations should be actively involved in setting out policies and plans for school reopening, including occupational safety and health measures to protect personnel. Communication with teachers, learners and education support staff about reopening can ensure clarity about expectations and highlight their role in the success of safe, inclusive return-to-school efforts, including overall well-being, and the teaching and learning recovery process.

As decisions to reopen schools are made by central authorities, it will be important to communicate early, clearly and regularly with parents and school communities to understand their concerns and build support for plans to reopen. Parents will want to know what safeguards have been put in place to minimize health risks. They will also need to hear about the school’s ongoing commitment to key educational principles and goals. As teachers are often the first point of contact with parents, they will need to be prepared to ensure everyone is informed continually.

• Reassuring teachers and school staff about their health, safety and rights

Concern for the well-being of teachers, support staff and students is at the heart of decision-making. It is important to balance the desire to return to school with consideration of the risks to (and needs of) teachers, support staff and learners, so that the needs of the most vulnerable members of the school community are met.

School-level responses may include ongoing psychological and socio-emotional assessment, and support for teachers and learners. School leaders and teachers should be free to address their own needs, exercise self-care and manage their own stress. School leaders can help teachers develop stress management skills and coping mechanisms, so they can teach effectively and provide much-needed psychosocial support to learners. It is also critical to understand that schools are a workplace and that it is more vital than ever to respect the rights and conditions of the people who work there.

 “Before schools reopened, the teachers were worried about resuming work and contracting the virus, as were the parents. We had no WASH facilities, no masks and large classes. Discussions with health staff would have helped us a lot. It would also have been reassuring to have psychologists in schools for psychosocial care. In the end, we were able to obtain sufficient sanitation and masks from an international NGO, and only one grade returned to school to prepare for exams. The classes were split in two", stated a Primary school principal from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

• Using teachers’ expertise in the new classroom environment

In most contexts, when children return to classrooms it will not be business as usual. In some cases, only some students will be present, or there will be double shifts. Lesson plans, assessment and overall curricula will be adapted, and remedial lessons will need to be developed and deployed.

School leaders need to ensure teachers are empowered to make decisions about teaching and learning. They can work with teachers to adjust curricula and assessment based on revised school calendars and instructions from central authorities. School leaders should also support teachers to reorganize classrooms to allow for accelerated learning and remedial responses, while adhering to regulations on physical distancing.

Teachers’ key role in recognizing learning gaps and formulating pedagogical responses remains critical. This is especially true for vulnerable groups, including low-income families, girls, those with special needs or disabilities, ethnic or cultural minorities and those living in remote rural areas with no access to distance education.

To manage the return to school, it is important for teachers and education support staff to receive adequate professional preparation to assume their responsibilities and meet expectations. Training, peer-to-peer learning and collaboration with other teachers, both within the school and more broadly, will be critical. Such support is particularly important where additional strain may be placed on teachers’ time if they are required to conduct both face-to-face and distance education.

This is the first edition of the toolkit for school leaders to support teachers and other education personnel in back-to-school efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. This toolkit has been drafted as a living document. It will be updated in late July 2020 with new information and lessons learned as the crisis and response continue to evolve.

Download the Toolkit