This blog was submitted by VVOB - education for development and a consortium of other organizations in the framework of the Teacher Task Force #TeachersMissing advocacy campaign to showcase members' good practices in addressing teacher shortages worldwide. It is authored by Loran Pieck, Strategic Education Advisor Online Learning, VVOB - education for development in Rwanda; Maruf Hossain Mishuk,  Manager & Senior Psychologist, BRAC Institute of Educational Development; Saalim Koomar, Research lead, EdTech Hub; Rupert Corbishley, Regional Education and ECD Advisor, Aga Khan Foundation; and Jef Peeraer, Global Strategic Education Advisor, VVOB – education for development.

The shortage of trained teachers is a critical issue that affects the quality of education worldwide.

Among the consequences are larger class sizes, overburdened teachers and reliance on underqualified staff. The scarcity of qualified teachers is particularly noticeable in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, especially in rural and remote areas (UNESCO and TTF, 2024).

While the crisis in teacher training has existed for many years, evidence shows that the lack of trained teachers has worsened in many high-income and low-income contexts alike. Between 2010 and 2022, the proportion of primary school teachers with the minimum required qualifications in sub-Saharan Africa fell from 75 to 64 per cent. Meanwhile, in Europe and Northern America, the proportion of primary teachers with minimum qualifications decreased from 97 to 93 per cent between 2017 and 2023 (UNESCO-UIS, 2024).

In addition to the need of reinforcing that all teachers complete a recognised pre-service teaching qualification, continuous professional development (CPD) is also important to ensure teachers can fill gaps in their training, remain abreast of new knowledge, innovative pedagogies, digital skills and other competencies related to assessment, administrative tasks and other responsibilities they have.

While there is a need for all teachers to complete a recognised teaching qualification, continuous professional development (CPD) is also essential to help them stay up to date with new teaching techniques, digital skills, and other job responsibilities

In terms of CPD, the data are not much more encouraging with about half of countries reporting fewer than 80 per cent of primary teachers receiving in-service training during the previous year (UNESCO-UIS, 2024).

While face-to-face training is still preferred by many, the COVID-19 pandemic sped up changes in how we teach and learn. School closures forced CPD providers to find new ways to train teachers and school leaders. Blended learning for continuous professional development became more popular during this shift.

What is blended learning?

Blended CPD offers teachers flexible ways to learn, whether in person or online, in groups or solo, at their own pace or in real-time. This approach is a departure from the more traditional, top-down, centralised methods of teacher training which are especially common in low- and middle-income countries (Education Commission, 2019: Hennessy et al., 2022).

By using online courses and collaborative tools, blended learning allows teachers to gain additional skills and qualifications without the limits of in-person schedules. This speeds up certification while improving teaching quality, which benefits students. An additional advantage is the lower cost due to scaling.

Given the lack of qualified teachers, blended CPD can help address qualification gaps by offering flexible, accessible professional development and certification programmes for current and aspiring teachers.

Blend ON! How to implement blended learning

With a lack of clear guidance on how to create major changes in teacher education using blended learning programmes, VVOB – education for development and a consortium of organizations including the Aga Khan Foundation, BRAC IED, EdTech Hub, Plan International, Pratham, Right to Play, STiR Education, and VSO, developed "Blend ON!", a comprehensive guide on how to blend in-person and remote learning for teachers’ CPD.

To help ensure teachers from a wide range of countries and social backgrounds all remain engaged and motivated, the Guide focuses on making CPD inclusive, scalable, and effective. It uses a step-by-step approach to CPD, offering a framework for analysing, designing and developing, implementing and evaluating CPD programmes (Figure 1).

Lessons on blended learning

Professional development is effective when it results in sustainable changes in participants' knowledge, skills, or attitudes. More importantly, it should lead to changes in their teaching, which can improve educational outcomes, such as better test scores, socio-emotional well-being, or student retention (McAleavy et al., 2018).

How can we measure the effectiveness of blended CPD?

And how can we use the insights gained to improve and redesign future programmes?

Careful analysis of blended CPD under the auspices of the BLEND ON! consortium in low and lower-middle-income countries has led to several lessons and insights that can be scaled up and shared widely.

Digital evaluation of CPD for continuous improvement and tailored interventions

VVOB collaborated with the University of Rwanda’s College of Education and the Rwanda Basic Education Board to transition from paper-based evaluations to digital assessments for blended CPD. To collect data on the effectiveness of the ‘Effective School Leadership’ CPD programme, which has already been rolled out to a total of 1911 school leaders, a digital system was put in place. Evidence shows that the digital approach allowed for faster feedback and continuous refinement of CPD. The data highlighted significant differences in performance, which led to developing more specific approaches for teachers from various backgrounds (VVOB - education for development, 2024; Pieck & Leroy, 2024).

As trainers in a blended CPD modality, we know our trainees’ learning gaps, and we know which gaps to remediate. We identify these gaps from the online learning progress. This was not possible in the face-to-face in-person modality. Now we can give trainees more individual support.”  - Facilitator/ lecturer, University of Rwanda – College of Education

Overcoming participation challenges and increasing motivation

To address low participation rates in some of their CPD programmes in Bangladesh, BRAC’s Institute of Educational Development (IED) began integrating smartphones and providing SIM cards for better connectivity. This led to uninterrupted online learning sessions which helped improve participation.

To complement this, field managers worked with content team members to encourage project participation and monitor implementation by creating targeted communication, ensuring accessibility and providing constant guidance.      

A pilot project with primary school teachers showed positive impacts on teachers’ motivation and practices, with all teachers responding well to the training content, duration, facilitators and delivery. However, one in three teachers had difficulty completing the training during school time.

Discussion, sharing our thoughts and exchanging opinions helped us to correct unwanted mistakes very easily. Effective learning through this training can be applied in real life and the training will be very useful for us and the students. - Teacher from Bangladesh

Addressing inclusivity in rural areas

Blended CPD participants have different personalities, knowledge, and learning needs. To support personalised learning, programmes should be designed to consider everyone's needs and create a safe, inclusive environment.

EdTech Hub, in partnership with Aga Khan University, Aga Khan Foundation, and the Tanzania Institute of Education, identified a number of relevant issues to consider in the implementation of the MEWAKA CPD programme in rural Tanzania, including electricity and connectivity, digital literacy, and gender disparities in participation.

Insights led to various programme adjustments to improve inclusivity and engagement, such as using a more inclusive learning management system (LMS) design. This allowed teachers with disabilities to work together with their colleagues on the course content (Koomar et al., 2023a; 2023b).

[the] activities have helped me improve my ability to teach difficult topics and large classes, an ability I did not have before. Similarly, [the programme] has provided me the ability to make tools and use them”.  - Teacher from U.R Tanzania

Cost and sustainability

Analysing the costs of different parts of a blended CPD programme and the cost per participant is key to scaling and sustaining these efforts. While blended learning may need higher upfront investment for infrastructure and materials, its ability to scale can lower the cost per participant.

The Aga Khan Foundation’s blended learning initiative, now in its tenth year, is a model for cost-effective scalability. It mixes video-based learning with interactive in-person sessions, and their portable video-lab setup lowers costs while empowering local teams to create and share their own courses.

By offering high-quality learning resources for free, AKF has reached a global audience. Their custom-built LMS avoids the typical pay-per-user model, allowing courses to scale with minimal annual costs. Since launching in January 2022, their Learning Hub has had 1.6 million page views from 46,000 users across 196 countries.

To ensure teachers have better access to training, we must adopt blended CPD solutions

Post-pandemic, blended CPD is becoming the educational norm in many more contexts. In brief, the "Blend ON!" guide serves as a practical resource for providers, offering frameworks and real-life examples to support the effective design and development of blended CPD programmes.

By continuously evaluating and adapting CPD, educators can meet diverse needs and improve teacher quality and education outcomes. Today, with increasing global connectivity, evolving digital technologies, and the emergence of artificial intelligence, such resources will play a key role in developing teacher' skills and qualifications.

References

Education Commission. 2019. Transforming the Education Workforce: Learning Teams for a Learning Generation. New York: Education Commission. https://educationcommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Transforming-the-Education-Workforce-Full-Report.pdf.

Hennessy, S., D’Angelo, S., McIntyre, N., Koomar, S., Kreimeia, A., Cao, L., Brugha, M., & Zubairi, A. 2022. Technology Use for Teacher Professional Development in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A systematic review. Computers and Education Open, 1, 100080. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeo.2022.100080.

Koomar, S., Massam, W., Gervace Anthony, G., Mrope, W., Adam, T., Hennessy, S., Mtenzi, F., Proctor, J., Komba, A., Mwakabungu, F., Barretto-Mwaka, J. 2023a. MEWAKA in Tanzania: Emerging findings on tech-supported teacher professional development. https://edtechhub.org/2023/03/03/mewaka-in-tanzania-emerging-findings-on-tech-supported-teacher-professional-development/.

Koomar, S., Massam, W., Chachage, K., Anthony, G., Mrope, W. J., Malibiche, M., Mutura, E., Adam, T., Hennessy, S., Mtenzi, F., Komba, A., Mwakabungu, F., Paskali, J. H., & Nkya, H. 2023b. TCPD in Tanzania: Design-Based Implementation Research Cycle 1 Recommendations Policy Brief [Policy Brief]. EdTech Hub. https://doi.org/10.53832/edtechhub.0166.

McAleavy, T., Hall-Chen, A., Horrocks, S., & Riggall, A. 2018. Technology-supported professional development for teachers: Lessons from developing countries. Education Development Trust. https://docs.edtechhub.org/lib/FXXS4882.

UNESCO and TTF. 2024. Global Report on teachers: Addressing teacher shortages and transforming the profession. Paris: UNESCO. Global report on teachers: addressing teacher shortages and transforming the profession - UNESCO Digital Library.

UNESCO-UIS. 2024. UIS database. Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Photo credit: VVOB - education for development