In an opinion piece in Teacher Magazine, Julia Gillard, Board Chair of the Global Partnership for Education, shares her appreciation for teachers. Teachers, as she puts it, are and will always be the backbone of the education system. It is why they constitute the largest single expenditure in education budgets around the world.
It is no surprise that in a survey conducted by GPE and partners, participants singled out low competencies in teaching skills as the cause of low learning outcomes for students. However, improving the quality of education is complex and requires more than just investing in teachers. Reason for which GPE is working in a number of different ways to ensure that support for teachers in developing countries is holistic.
The number of teachers trained with support from GPE has gone from 98,000 in 2014 to 238,000 in 2016. The challenge now is to scale up this training to stamp out teacher shortage, especially in sub-Saharan Africa where it is highest.