The International Task Force on Teachers for 2030 has just published its 2018 annual report. 2018 was the first year of the implementation of the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030’s new 2018-2021 Strategic Plan.
Adopted during 2017 annual meeting, the 2018-2021 Strategic Plan reaffirms the Teacher Task Force dedication to ensuring that every learner is taught by a qualified and trained teacher, and that teaching is considered a valued profession.
The main goal of the Teacher Task Force over the next four years is to bridge the teacher gap by working to improve teacher quantity and quality. The Strategic Plan also sets out the objectives and main lines of actions (MLA) for the partnership to achieve this goal.
Three main lines of actions were identified: Advocacy, Knowledge creation and sharing, and Support to countries. This report gives a detailed overview of the activities and results linked to this framework.
MLA 1: Advocacy
The Teacher Task Force has been very active in ensuring teacher issues are put at the forefront of education talks.
In June 2018, the Teacher Task Force organised a Lab Debate during the European Development Days on “Female teachers and gender equality in gender education” that looked at the ways we can support women to enter and remain in the teaching profession. A very pressing issues given that 132 million girls are out of school and they are 1.5 times more likely than boys to be excluded from primary school.
In October 2018, the Teacher Task Force contributed to raising awareness on the fact that having a qualified teacher in front of every student is a staple of the right to education. Together with UNESCO, the TTF penned a blog entry on the Global Partnership for Education’s website. This blog ended being featured in GPE’s top 10 blogs of 2018.
We also created a series of partnerships with international entities, resulting in the MasterCard Foundation officially joining the membership, NORRAG coordinating a subtheme during the last Policy Dialogue Forum (PDF) and the Teacher Task Force joining the Advisory Group of the Education Commission’s Education Workforce Initiative.
MLA 2: Knowledge creation and sharing
In 2018, the Teacher Task Force has continued its collaboration with the World Bank and published six country reports using the Systems Approach for Better Education Results tool (SABER-Teachers). The reports published cover Singapore, Norway, Croatia, Slovenia, Namibia and Mexico.
Held annually, the Policy Dialogue Forum (PDF) is the Teacher Task Force’s biggest knowledge-sharing platform. The 2018 edition was held under the theme “Strengthening Teacher Education: A prerequisite for quality teaching, training and learning” and looked at teachers’ competencies and skills beyond basic education.
The 2018 PDF was marked by the first ministerial panel organized at a PDF. Two Ministers of Education (Estonia and Lao PDR) joined the host Minister and a representative of the Minister of Education of Togo, to present the reforms they are implementing in their countries to strengthen teacher education and training.
MLA 3: country support
In 2018, two countries, supported by the Teacher Task Force concluded their work on teacher policy development with the adoption of a national teacher policy.
Togo completed the elaboration of the teacher policy in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Teacher Task Force and the UNESCO Regional Bureau of Abuja. The Government has adopted a new legislation on the statute of teachers inspired by provisions in the Teacher Policy Development Guide. To the nine dimensions laid out in Guide, Togo has added a 10th one on “Social dialogue” as an enabling factor for the successful implementation of the policy. Printed copies of the policy were distributed to some participants at the PDF in Jamaica, and other countries of the region invited the Togolese national team for experience sharing.
After two years of support, Madagascar finalized its teacher policy officially endorsed by the Ministry of Education in March 2018 during a validation ceremony organized by the Teacher Task Force in collaboration with the UNESCO Regional Bureau of Nairobi. Local Education Group members and Teacher Task Force members contributed to the review of the draft policy, which is now part of the broader framework of the sectoral plan for education 2018-2022 financed by the GPE.
You can read our 2018 annual report in English or French here.