This is a blog drawing on the conclusions of the 2020 World Teachers' Day fact sheet published by the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030, UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the Global Education Monitoring Report. 

COVID-19 has closed schools around the world, separating students from their teachers and classmates. Even as many teachers attempt a return to some normality, reopening schools and reintegrating students brings its own challenges. 

This World Teachers’ Day (October 5th), we are taking stock of some of the challenges facing teachers and identifying what needs to be done to help them provide quality education for all.

The world needs more teachers

‘Quality education’, the fourth UN Sustainable Development Goal, has never been more important. For all the disruption, the pandemic is also an opportunity. By focusing on educating and energising younger generations, societies can plan a route out of COVID-19 that leads to a better world.

For this we need more qualified teachers. There are already 28 million more teachers worldwide than there were 20 years ago, but this does not meet the demand for the 69 million teachers previously estimated to ensure universal primary and secondary education by 2030. The need is greater in disadvantaged regions. For example, 70% of countries in sub-Saharan Africa have teacher shortages at primary level, with an average of 58 students to every qualified teacher. Compare this with South-eastern Asia where the average ratio is only 19 students to every teacher. 

Levels of teacher training also differ greatly between global regions: 65% of primary teachers in sub-Saharan Africa have the minimum qualifications required trained, compared with 98% in Central Asia.
 

It is a complex conundrum: education is the best way for disadvantaged societies to redress global inequalities, but they are fundamentally handicapped, with neither the capacity nor teacher training to give every student the support they need.

Who teaches the teachers?

There are some concrete proposals that aim to increase the level of support teachers receive. The African Union, for example, has developed universal standards for teacher qualifications that will ensure all teachers are equipped with the knowledge, skills and values they need. This means those teachers will be better prepared when they enter the classroom, and this, coupled with wider recruitment to decrease classroom sizes, can greatly improve the quality of education systems in the region.

COVID-19 has forced a transition to remote and online learning. Teachers therefore urgently need better training in information and communication technology (ICT). Yet research shows that only 43% of teachers in OECD countries feel prepared to use ICT to deliver lessons. Help is coming, but again the pandemic shines a light on global inequality as too many homes in low-income countries lack the devices and connectivity to learn online. Teacher in low income countries also struggle given that only 41% of them receive teachers practical ICT guidance, compared with 71% in high-income countries.

Look to the leaders

Leadership training can mitigate the worst disparities of COVID-19, empowering individual teachers to lead their colleagues through this difficult time. 

Strong leaders create a culture of trust in schools, instilling a collective sense of responsibility, and offering support and recognition. For example, Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are forums where teachers can support one another’s training and development. In Rwanda, 843 school leaders, having completed a diploma in school leadership, are using PLCs to share the benefit of their training with colleagues. In South Africa, school leaders are encouraged to set up PLCs and use them to induct novice teachers into the profession, giving them the confidence to take responsibility for their own professional development. And in Ecuador, 287 school leaders participate in PLCs to exchange best practices and organise themselves into a supportive network.

What else do teachers need?

Better training and strong leadership within schools will benefit global education systems for years to come. But another issue made more urgent by the pandemic is inclusivity. As students return to school, the ability of teachers to promote an inclusive environment is a vital skill to mitigate disruption and ensure students aren’t excluded from learning.

61% of countries from a recent survey claim to train their teachers on inclusivity skills, but very few guarantee such training in their policies or laws. However, the pandemic has already done  enough to distance teachers from their students and students from each other. With many schools still observing physical distancing to slow the spread of the virus, specific training in inclusive teaching is necessary to ensure a cohesive and effective learning environment.

Much work done, much still to do

Teachers must be given guidance and professional development opportunities to ensure they feel equipped to hold their classrooms together, physically or virtually. In many parts of the world, this is sorely lacking.

Work is underway to improve the situation. New standards are being set, training is being implemented, and everywhere strong leaders are creating inclusive, supportive learning environments. For true progress to be made however, governments must listen to teachers and teacher unions. Real change can only happen if teachers' voices are heard. Teachers and policymakers need to navigate this new world together.

Consult the 2020 World Teachers' Day fact sheet published by the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030, UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the Global Education Monitoring Report.

This blog is part of a series of stories addressing the importance of the work of, and the challenges faced by teachers in the lead up to this year’s World Teachers’ Day celebrations.

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Cover photo credit: GPE/Kelley Lynch

School improvement rarely occurs without effective leadership, and school leadership is only second to classroom teaching in its influence on student achievement. A new evidence review report from Global School Leaders paints a complex and ever-changing picture of school leaders, with their roles, responsibilities, and impact varying around the world.

In the lead up to World Teacher’s Day (5 October), we’ve outlined three ways that school leaders are vital for teacher success and student outcomes:

1. School leaders establish great teaching practices

School leaders can support educators and their pupils by establishing effective teaching practices. They can harness the talents and motivations of teachers, students, and parents; develop inclusive and inspiring learning cultures for the whole school; and provide intensive, individualised, and sustainable teacher training.

The impact of strong school leadership on education is clear; a recent study spanning 65 countries found that students led by the top 25 per cent of school leaders receive the equivalent of three extra months of learning every year compared to those led by the bottom 25 per cent. There is considerable interest in targeting school leaders amid efforts to improve outcomes for students in a cost-effective manner, with one study finding that a one-point increase in scoring on school management practices is associated with a 10 per cent increase in student performance.

In order for leaders to develop the best teaching practices for their schools, it is essential that they are not burdened by unnecessary administrative responsibilities (they commonly spend less than 25 per cent of their time managing student learning activities), and that they receive appropriate training. 

Where training for school leaders is limited, there are a number of free resources available online.  For example, the UNESCO Institute for International Capacity Building in Africa’s training manuals for school leaders – which were deployed in Guinea, Lesotho, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone – can help plug these gaps in training. We have also published this Toolkit to help school leaders support and protect teachers and education support staff in the return to school following COVID-19.

2. A good school leader understands the needs of their school

Since the 1980s, decentralisation efforts have shifted decision-making powers to the lower levels of education systems in many countries. This transition is based on the premise that school leaders are familiar with the specific needs of their school, and are therefore better placed to make and execute decisions about how they are run.

Autonomous school leaders may make their own decisions about budgets, curricula, and personnel, rather than being overly restricted to implement government policies. This freedom can allow schools to adjust quickly to changing educational expectations and the particular needs and interests of their students. A study of schools in South Korea found that school leader autonomy over curricula and assessment had a positive association with achievement in mathematics, particularly for lower-performing pupils.

At present, however, some school leaders are appointed based on seniority or political considerations rather than on skills and experience. In order to ensure that decentralisation benefits teaching and learning, increasingly-autonomous school leaders should also be held accountable and armed with necessary skills and resources. According to the Global School Leaders report, this should include training on interpreting and utilising learning data.

3. School leaders show the way through troubling times

When schools are facing adverse circumstances, strong leadership is critical for resilience, adaptation, and recovery. Natural disasters, conflicts, and health crises like the coronavirus pandemic severely disrupt education and force educators to adapt to challenging circumstances.

The best educators may seize opportunities in the midst of a crisis. Dr Sara Ruto, chair of the Kenyan Ministry of Education’s Covid-19 response, has said that the current COVID-19 crisis “is giving energy to some of the pillars of the curriculum that had not found a voice before - for example, parental engagement, empowerment, and values-based education.” He advised school leaders to use this opportunity to engage parents to help them enrich the student experience.

Evidence points to strong leadership as a critical factor in seeing school communities through crises. For instance, preliminary evidence from Puerto Rico appears to suggest that strong school leaders were better placed to utilise remote learning tools and retain student engagement throughout Covid-19 school closures. And an analysis of school closures during Hurricane Matthew in Haiti in 2016 showed that despite devastating infrastructure damage, schools with strong management still improved the reading grades of early year students.

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This blog is part of a series of stories addressing the importance of the work of, and the challenges faced by teachers in the lead up to this year’s World Teachers’ Day celebrations.

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Cover photo credit: GPE/Ludovica Pellicioli

Five years have passed since the UN set its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and there is serious concern the world is not on track to achieve them. Even before the COVID crisis, a July 2019 report warned that progress has been slow, with inaction on the “existential threat” of climate change having the potential to compromise all other SDGs.

In order for teachers to contribute to achieve Target SDG 4 – which aims to ensure quality education for all – they must be supported through the unfolding challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.

The Teacher Task Force 12th Policy Dialogue Forum, which was held in Dubai in December 2019, brought together educators to discuss how teachers’ experiences and needs will change over the next decade. Attendees debated how teachers may seize opportunities and show resilience in a rapidly-changing world, while contributing to a more equitable and sustainable future.

The Forum recommended that models of teaching, teacher training, and professional support for teachers must evolve as the meaning of a ‘foundational education’ shifts; for instance, versatile future-facing skills like critical thinking, digital skills, and entrepreneurship can be at odds with traditional top-down educational models, and remain on the periphery in many countries. It also called for teachers’ education to be adapted to brace for coming crises, which could result in more large, linguistically diverse, and virtual classrooms.

How classes could change

Teachers warned that it is “increasingly urgent” to prepare for large class sizes, multilingual classrooms, and scarcity of resources, particularly as migration – which can drive these challenges – is likely to increase in the face of climate change and political instability.

Teachers are already grappling directly with climate change as flooding, wildfires, and other extreme weather disrupts education infrastructure and networks; Dr Natalio D Wheatley, Education Minister of the British Virgin Isles, told the Forum that 90 per cent of the territory’s educational infrastructure was destroyed by a “devastating” Category 5 hurricane in 2017.

Preparing for future crises

Education systems can prepare for crises by taking cues from flexible teacher training and continuous professional development models which have been adapted to crisis settings. For instance, the Teachers in Crisis Contexts Collaboration created an open-source training pack to quickly build basic competencies for unqualified and under-qualified teachers recruited to teach in emergency settings. It was deployed in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp, where just three per cent of children eligible for secondary schooling enroll, largely due to a shortage of teachers.

Teachers called for training in pedagogies that leave behind rigid concepts of didactic teaching and rote learning, and instead seek child-centred approaches that support every child with consideration for their prior experiences and education. This is essential for teaching children who have lived through distressing experiences such as displacement.

William Mushobya, a teacher at Jamhuri Primary School, Kenya, explained that his school handles many refugee children with trauma and psychosocial issues: “Children from conflict areas have limited social skills and need a lot of guidance and counselling,” he said. Training to prepare teachers for diverse and challenging educational settings could include units focused on wellbeing, stress management and inclusive education. Save the Children Jordan and MIT’s TREE programme, for example, aims to promote education of refugee children by focusing on teachers’ social and socio-emotional traits with the hope that the school can become a more friendly, nurturing and inclusive environment.

Developing digital

Over the next 10 years, education systems must respond not just to emerging challenges but also to emerging opportunities like technological advances. Digital technology offers almost unlimited opportunities for teachers – from accessing open-source resources to undergoing professional training remotely – and the Covid-19 pandemic has proved that the internet can be a lifeline for educators in crisis settings.

Yet there are serious disparities in access to digital infrastructure and remote learning is not possible for at least 500 million students: “Private schools in urban areas are investing in online schooling for their pupils. However, the level of investment is not standardised and not consistent among schools,” commented Nadya Faquir, a teacher from Mozambique. “Online education is not a feasible option in a country where most people have no access to the internet.” In order to expand these opportunities, teachers supported calls for sustainable and socially-responsive investment in digital infrastructure.

Across the globe, there is wide disparity in access to resources, infrastructure, and current levels of educational attainment. As teachers and education systems work towards the goal of guaranteeing inclusive, equitable and quality education for all, it is important to remember that – while there is shared interest in modernising models of teaching to prepare teachers for new responsibilities and diverse, challenging classrooms – there is no one-size-fits-all solution for teachers.

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Consult the full report from the 12th Policy Dialogue Forum on The Futures of Teaching in English, French and Arabic.

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This blog is part of a series of stories addressing the importance of the work of, and the challenges faced by teachers in the lead up to this year’s World Teachers’ Day celebrations.

Today, on International Literacy Day, we’re celebrating the teachers at the heart of five award-winning organisations that use literacy education to help adults and children fulfil their potential, benefitting not just their students but entire communities. 

As countries around the world plan their routes out of COVID-19 disruption, having literate, empowered citizens is vital. Literate communities are communities equipped to build a better world. These are the winners of the UNESCO International Literacy Prizes who have greatly contributed to this goal.

Winners of the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize for the development of mother-tongue education:

Ageing Nepal, Nepal

In a country where the majority of adults are illiterate, the teachers of Ageing Nepal are on a mission to empower people with basic skills in reading, writing and numeracy, in both English and Nepali.

Their work is innovative and instructive. Teachers use role play to build student confidence and to help them to see the relevance of lessons for everyday life. Classes are also taken into the real world, touring the local markets so students can practice their reading on street signs and market displays. Ageing Nepal’s senior teachers and facilitators encourage students to use their new skills to express themselves in the form of reciting poems, telling stories as well as cracking jokes. 

Since 2016, this pioneering, experimental approach has helped 180 older people build the confidence to better share the benefits of their age and experience with their communities.

United World Schools, UK

United World Schools (UWS) is an international charity ‘teaching the unreached’ in remote and marginalised communities in Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal. Its mission is to help communities develop sustainable education structures. Educators provide ongoing support until each school is self-sustaining and able to provide education for all the community’s children. 

Crucially, it trains teachers from within the community. This preserves indigenous languages, customs and culture all whilst providing children with the foundations of mainstream Burmese education so they can qualify for Burmese-language government schools. Since 2008, UWS have trained nearly 400 teachers and had over 35,000 children enrolled in their schools, transforming the prospects of 225 communities.

COVID-19 may have made this mission more difficult to achieve, but UWS has built the infrastructure to act fast and assist its teachers in navigating the crisis to keep students learning. 

“UWS supports our supply of soaps, and materials like paper and pens to make posters for our COVID-19 awareness campaign...We are also getting training on regular education topics like subject knowledge, teachers’ guide, and lesson plan development," says Stellar, 35, a teacher at a UWS school in Eastern Shan State, Myanmar.

Winners of the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy for the promotion of literacy amongst adults in rural areas and out-of-school youth:

Just Commit Foundation, Ghana

Teachers at the Just Commit Foundation (JCF) take a holistic approach to the idea of ‘literacy’. Reading, writing, comprehension and grammar, in both local languages and English, is at the core of the Foundation. But their broader mission is to help students become life-literate. They design lessons that teach students the management and leadership skills they need to build and maintain their own businesses, even when resources are limited. For the teachers, it’s a joy to see their hard work pay off, “The feeling is always unique when you have the chance to teach Creative Arts for entrepreneurship to...the most disadvantaged students in Ghana.” JCF have so far helped hundreds of children develop the skills they need to support themselves and develop their communities through business, with more than 30 home and school businesses set up and running successfully.

Learning By Teaching, Mexico

The ‘Learning by Teaching’ programme at the Centro Universitario de Participación Social (CUPS) in Puebla, Mexico elevates teachers and community members alike. Running for nine weeks over the summer, the programme transforms bright young university students into teachers, sending them to remote communities otherwise marginalised from mainstream education. The university students gain thorough training in teaching methodologies, and an opportunity to develop and make use of their social conscience. The adults they teach gain a solid grounding in literacy, science and the arts. Over 3,000 adults in the state of Puebla have benefitted from the programme so far, helping to boost the overall literacy rate in the region.

General Literacy Office, Yemen

Since 1998, the General Literacy Office in Sana’a, Yemen has organised the 'Educating and Integrating Refugees in Literacy Classes in Yemeni Society’ programme, operating in 21 provinces and overseeing 215 literacy centres. Its aim is to help refugees complete the formal education courses required for them to be able to access preparatory and secondary education in the country. Despite six years of war bringing widespread disruption to education, the future has not been forgotten. Teachers in Sana’a remain committed to educating not just local children, but the refugees now in their care. 652 students were enrolled in the programme in 2019 alone. By 2023, the General Literacy Office in Sana’a plans to open a further 34 literacy centres, to help  integrate even more refugees into Yemeni society with classes in Arabic literacy, numeracy, and essential life skills.

What unites this year’s prize winners is the understanding that literacy is a means, not an end. Literacy education equips these institutions’ students with the basic tools to build a life for themselves and a better future for their communities. Though often operating in difficult circumstances, each of these organisations demonstrates how bringing education to the marginalised benefits us all.

For media inquiries find out more here.

Image credit: Sidsel Sørensen

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This blog is part of a series of stories addressing the importance of the work of, and the challenges faced by teachers in the lead up to this year’s World Teachers’ Day celebrations.