The International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 (TTF), as stated in its mission and as one of the specific objectives of its 2018-2021 Strategic Plan, is called upon to support countries requesting technical assistance on teachers and teaching. It is in this context that the TTF supported Madagascar in developing its national teacher policy through the use of the Teacher Policy Development Guide. The policy was validated in March 2018.
Identifying the needs
Madagascar is facing significant challenges in its recruitment of a qualified teacher force. Indeed, according to data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the pupil to qualified teacher ratio in primary education in the country was 40 to 7 in 2016. Furthermore, the proportion of teachers who have received at least the minimum organized teacher training was 14.87% in 2016. It is estimated that 22 000 new teachers will need to be recruited by 2022.
Development process
The country started the review of its national education sector plan in 2014 and aimed at including a teacher policy component. While developing its new education sector plan, the country created a thematic group dedicated to the conduct of a diagnostic study on the situation of teachers in the country, using the UNESCO Methodological Guide for the Analysis of Teacher Issues. This group, under the supervision of the ministries in charge of education, included various stakeholders: economists, demographists, ministries representatives, teacher unions’ representatives, education NGOs representatives, Ministry of Finance representatives, parents’ associations’ representatives, sociologists and representatives of from the Ministry of Public Service.
Through a large consultation process, the diagnostic study highlighted amongst other things, the increasing demands for teachers, the low performance of students, the increasing number of teachers recruited with no professional training, the incapacity of teacher training institutions to train and the need for better teacher recruitment planning. Based on the diagnostic study results, the dedicated thematic group, involving the country’s three ministries of education, provided training on needs analyses, data collection and teacher policy development.
Following guidelines from the Teacher Policy Development Guide, the national teacher policy was developed with means of action that articulate how the nine different dimensions established in the Guide should be implemented by each of the Ministries involved.
What’s next?
Following its adoption by the Government and National Assembly, Madagascar will begin implementing its policy, starting with mobilizing resources and doing advocacy work to raise awareness on the teacher policy within the national education community.