Following the adoption of the Education 2030 agenda, putting teachers at the centre of the right to quality education, the Government of Togo set out to develop a comprehensive national teacher policy. The International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 is called upon to support countries requesting technical assistance on teachers and teaching. It is in this context that the Teacher Task Force responded to Togo’s demand for technical assistance in developing their national teacher policy, through the use of the Teacher Policy Development Guide.
Why was a policy needed?
According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the population of primary school age children was 1 180 321 in 2015 but the number of teachers in primary education was only 33 900. Out of this number, only 32.6% of primary education teachers were qualified according to national standards and the pupil-teacher ratio was 41 to 1 for this level. Togo had resorted to the use of “contract teachers” in the 90’s and is now aiming to endow its educational system with a stronger teaching force.
Development process
In order to facilitate the implementation and achievement of equitable access to a quality education, Togo developed a national teacher policy encompassing all levels of and facets of the teaching profession. This policy was developed concurrently with the revision of Togo’s Education Sector plan with the objective of integrating it into the revised sector plan.
Togo’s national teacher policy aims to propose measures to improve teachers’ working conditions and motivation.
A national multisectorial technical team was put in place involving the different education stakeholders in the country: ministries representatives, parents’ associations’ representatives as well as teacher unions’ representatives and representatives from the education sector. The technical team was placed under the overall authority of a ministerial committee. Their task was to develop the national teacher policy following the approach proposed by the Task Force’ Teacher Policy Development Guide.
Togo’s national teacher policy was built around three main lines: teachers’ efficiency, motivation and professionalization. Each main line covers a set of the dimensions described in the Teacher Policy development Guide. During its development, the national technical team decided to add a tenth dimension on the participation of teachers to social dialogue.
The concept of efficiency as defined in Togo’s teacher policy is linked to teachers’ competencies and performance. More particularly, it deals with professional standards, qualification frameworks as well as recruitment, deployment and retention strategies.
Regarding motivation, the focus is on defining structured career pathways, improving teachers’ working conditions, defining remuneration standards in line with the remuneration of professions of equal qualifications and responsibilities in the country, and increasing school governance role in monitoring and following up teachers’ good performance.
In terms of professionalization, the policy looks at teachers’ accountability through performance: self-evaluation,peer evaluation and evaluation of learning outcomes It also elaborates proposals to improve teachers’ representation and participation in social dialogue.
What’s next?
National authorities will review the policy document produced by the technical team for formal adoption. The most important phase will be the implementation of the national teacher policy. Continuous engagement with stakeholders, adequate mobilization of financial resources, the creation of the implementation and monitoring structures and reliance on accurate and reliable qualitative and quantitative data on teachers will help Togo in its efforts to achieve national educational goals and the SDG 4 Teacher target. The Teacher Task Force will remain a key partner in this process.
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