How is addressing the national and international organizations the topic of teachers?

Infographic from Global Partnership for Education

Teachers is one of the most important topics in education. The governments, the organizations national and internationals, the NGOs and institutions always include this topic in their agendas. This topic is relevant by the important role that teachers have in the goal of quality education.

I would like to start this post by quoting the challenges that mention the Global Partnership for Education:

• The world will need to recruit 25.8 million school teachers to provide every child with a primary education by 2030. This total includes the creation of 3.2 million new posts and the replacement of 22.6 million teachers expected to leave the profession. (UIS Factsheet 2015)

• In low-income countries, there is an average of 43 students per teacher (EFA GMR 2013/14, Table 10 p. 391). This means that in many schools, teachers have much larger class sizes, making their job much more difficult.

• In one-third of all countries, less than 75% of teachers were trained according to national standards (UIS)

• Countries with more female primary teachers are more likely to have higher enrollment rates for girls in secondary schools. Unfortunately, in some countries, less than 25% of primary teachers are female. (UNESCO eAtlas of Teachers)

• It is difficult to recruit and retain teachers in remote rural areas and in conflict-affected areas, where the majority of out-of-school children are.

• Highlight existing state and district systems that are working to support teacher leadership;

• Share resources to create new opportunities for teacher leadership; and

• Encourage people at all levels to commit to expanding teacher leadership.

Taking in count these challenges, the national and international organization address this topic in different ways. In the next lines I share the perspectives of some organizations.

International:

UNESCO in its Education Strategy 2014 – 2021 explain the three key priorities in this topic. The first priority is to address the challenge of teacher shortages by strengthening national institutional capacities to increase the supply of qualified teachers at country level. The second priority is to contribute to improvement in teaching quality. The third priority will be to inform the global debate about teaching with comparative evidence.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is working to provide valid, timely and comparable information to help countries review and define policies for developing a high-quality teaching profession.

Global Partnership for Education are focus in Improve teacher effectiveness by training, recruiting and retaining teachers and supporting them to provide a good quality education.

Inter-American Development Bank supports the education systems of the Latin American region to attract, develop, motivate, and retain the best professionals into the teaching profession. It also fosters initiatives that strengthen the principals’ roles and instructional support structures.

The World Bank in its Education Sector Strategy 2020: Learning for All has a comprehensive staff learning program will support education staff to strengthen their capacity to implement the new education strategy and develop cutting-edge knowledge and skills in technical and operational topics in order to deliver high quality advice and services to country partners.

National:

U.S. Department of Education has the initiative TEACH TO LEAD to advance student outcomes by expanding opportunities for teacher leadership, particularly those that allow teachers to stay in the classroom.

This initiative seeks to:

The Council of Chief State School Officers  (CCSSO) have an initiative focuses on what are arguably the most important factors in student achievement-effective teachers and leaders. CCSSO is calling for states to change the rules, encourage innovation, learn from other sectors, and apply new principles to transform these professions.

The National Education Association mission is to advocate for education professionals and to unite their members and the nation to fulfill the promise of public education to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world. They believe individuals are strengthened when they work together for the common good. They work in improve the professional status and the quality of public education when they unite and advocate collectively.

By Jaime Solano Cardoso