When I was 10 years old, my favourite teacher was called Mr. Poli. It wasn’t because he was nice. He didn’t often give us fun things to do. In fact, he berated me constantly for my (still) awful handwriting and made me do extra projects when I talked too much in class (almost always). He was my favourite because he went out of his way to make sure we learned something every day – even if it was something incredibly boring like rock formations (sorry, geologists).
For most children, a teacher is a pretty fundamental part of life – in much the same way as their family, friends, toys, mealtimes and bedtimes. Their teacher is the person who helps them with their reading, looks after them at playtime, asks them questions, gives them fun activities to do, tells them off when they’re naughty and, more often than not, inspires them. But for millions of children, a teacher is simply not part of their lives. This is not because of a lack of classrooms (although there is a lack of classrooms), it’s not because of a lack of books (although there is a lack of books) – and it’s certainly not because of a lack of interest. There is simply a huge gap in the number of teachers needed for every child to have a quality education. Just to get every child into and through primary education by 2015, the world needs 1.7 million more teachers – and sub-Saharan Africa needs almost 1 million more.
To give you some idea of the scale of this, Chad has just one pre-primary teacher for every 1,815 children in this age range. 114 countries need to expand their total number of primary teachers by 2015 if they are to ensure at least one primary teacher for 40 pupils. At lower-secondary level, seven countries have no more than one teacher for every 100 children or more. And this really is the tip of the iceberg. Many of the children who are counted as being ‘in school’ are sitting in classrooms with untrained teachers, meaning they are likely to leave education – even if they complete it – barely being able to read or write. For example, in Mali, only half of all primary school teachers are trained – and only a quarter of these have had training lasting six months or longer. At lower secondary level, Niger records having only one trained teacher for every 1,318 children of lower-secondary age.
According to the latest figures from the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS), 31 countries report that fewer than three quarters of teachers are trained to any accepted national standard. Teachers must also be treated as professionals – with access to ongoing training, decent salaries and work conditions – otherwise we will continue to lose professional and once-motivated teachers, and the gap will never close. The combination of insufficient numbers, poor treatment and the lack of quality training represents a disastrous under-investment in teachers and makes the repeated commitments for ‘education for all’ ring hollow. If we truly believe in education for all, then we must invest in trained teachers for all. A new campaign Every Child Needs a Teacher was launched today by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), with the support of Education International (EI), to draw the world’s attention to the global teacher gap. It calls for immediate action by countries to realize the right of everyone to a quality education. It will run until 2013 and kicked off with a high-level event during the 2012 United Nations General Assembly, on the eve of the launch of the UN Secretary-General’s Education First initiative.
During the event, we launched a new report, Every Child Needs a Teacher: Closing the Trained Teacher Gap, jointly produced by GCE and EI. The report identifies the scale of the teacher gap, and –more importantly – highlights examples of countries making good progress towards closing their national teacher gaps. The report recommends a series of measures to tackle this global crisis, focusing on the need for planning, investment and accountability for trained teachers for all. In terms of planning: governments must develop cost plans, agreed with parliaments and civil society, to meet the full gap in trained teachers and to deploy those teachers equitably. Donors should publish their plans to support these state efforts. In terms of investment: governments must allocate a minimum of 20 percent of national budgets, or 6 percent of GDP, to education, of which at least half should be for basic education. Donors should allocate at least 10 percent of their total aid budgets to basic education, and give more as long-term, predictable budget support, so that it can be used to support teacher costs.
In terms of accountability, the availability of trained teachers should be a primary indicator of whether systems are set up to provide quality education. Governments should measure and publish their Pupil-to-trained-Teacher ratio, indicating regional variation. Donors should report on their support to filling the gap in trained teachers. It is a huge development for the UN Secretary-General to turn his attention to education through the Education First initiative, and it is a much welcome development that teachers are identified as fundamental to the achievement of education for all. Indeed, Education First asserts that ‘no education system is better than its teachers’. The global efforts to realise education for all are manifold and complex – ranging from the role of different actors in shaping national education planning to assessment methods for teaching and learning. With this in mind it is perhaps not surprising that, sometimes, differing concepts can be at odds with each other. But what is not controversial is that children need teachers – teachers who are trained, motivated and supported – to become empowered, to realise their potential and to transform their lives and those of their families and communities.
Read the Report: Every Child Needs a Teacher(PDF)
More about the ‘Every Child Needs a Teacher’ campaign:
www.campaignforeducation.org/teachers
www.facebook.com/globaleducation
www.twitter.com/globaleducation #everychildneedsateacher