In anticipation for World Teachers’ Day, Alice Albright, CEO of the Global Partnership for Education, co-authored an op-ed with Cassandra Hallett, Secretary General of Canadian Teachers’ Federation, to assert the urgency of improving quality of education in the world’s poorest countries. Quality education is based on quality teaching, quality tools, and quality environments for teaching and learning, however the needs are enormous and often beyond the current capacity of government.
There has been good progress in education over the last decade and a half, but it is too slow and cannot keep up with rapid population growth. GPE seeks support from donor and recipient countries to strengthen education systems for the benefit of all. In Tanzania for example, GPE worked with the government to improve literacy and numeracy through improved teacher training and the provision of adequate teaching materials. Close to 23,000 teachers have been trained, and the number of students per teacher and class are slowly improving. Governments across the world need to fully fund education systems so that all children and youth will have access to quality education.