Teacher Policy Development

Teacher policies

Policy documents present the concrete choices made by countries across various teacher policy dimensions, such as recruitment and retention, teacher education, deployment, career paths, working conditions, remuneration, teacher standards and accountability. While each policy document reflects regional and national challenges, many of these are shared globally or regionally. As such these policy documents can be the starting point for lesson sharing and policy learning leading to the emulation of good practices across countries and regions.

The Teacher Task Force Knowledge Hub makes available a variety of resources such as comprehensive national teacher policy documents, teacher policy action plans, continuing professional development frameworks, teaching standards and competency frameworks. The list below will be regularly updated as new policy documents are added.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Madagascar

• Politique enseignante. Madagascar

Malawi

• Malawi's continuing professional development framework for teachers and teacher educators

Rwanda

• The National Teacher Continuous Professional Development Framework. Republic of Rwanda
• Certification standards for ICT teacher training initiatives, based on the Rwanda ICT Essentials for Teachers

Tanzania

• ICT competency standards for teachers in Tanzania

Togo

• Politique nationale sur les enseignants - Togo

Uganda

• The National Teacher Policy. The Republic of Uganda

Asia-Pacific

Bhutan

• Bhutan ICT competency standards for teachers
• Bhutan professional standards for teachers

Cambodia

• Education strategic plan 2019-2023, Cambodia
• Teacher policy action plan. Cambodia
• Continuous professional development framework for teachers and school directors. Cambodia
• Continuous professional development handbook. A guide to continuous professional development for teachers, school directors and education specialists in Cambodia
• Teacher education provider standards. Cambodia

Lao PDR

• ICT competency Standards for Teachers in Lao PDR

SEAMEO

• Southeast Asia Teachers Competency Framework (SEA-TCF)
• Early childhood care and education teacher competency framework for Southeast Asia

Europe and Northern America

North Macedonia

• North Macedonia. Education strategy for 2018-2025 аnd action plan

Latin America and the Caribbean

CARICOM

• CARICOM standards for the teaching profession: teachers, educational leaders and teacher educators

Global

• Global framework of professional teaching standards
• Media and information literacy curriculum for teachers

Tools for teacher policy development

An important means for the Teacher Task Force to support holistic teacher policy development is by making available tools that will assist national decision-makers and education officials in the policy design and development process. By identifying the key dimensions that a national teacher policy should cover and how these are interrelated, these tools assist national governments in creating systems that better support teachers and the teaching profession.

The Teacher Policy Development Guide

The Teacher Policy Development Guide (TPDG) was developed through a participatory and inclusive approach under the 2014–2016 Strategic Plan. The Guide facilitates the review of evidence-based national teacher policies. It also frames teacher policies within the education sector plan and national development priorities, and examines the interlocking dimensions for a teacher policy, and their correlations. Finally, it outlines the phases in the process to develop a teacher policy and outlines the steps and issues to address when implementing a national teacher policy.

Between 2018–2021, the TPDG was piloted and evaluated in a number of countries. It is currently being disseminated to a large range of stakeholders as a learning tool to promote capacity development at the country level.

Learn more about the Teacher Policy Development Guide.

In 2021, the Teacher Task Force also developed a cross-cutting new module on crisis-sensitive teacher policy and planning to support countries dealing with various types of crises and emergency situations. The module helps countries apply a crisis-sensitive lens in the development of national teacher policies. This includes working to anticipate and address challenges with recruitment, deployment, retention, training, ensuring job security and safe working conditions, prioritizing teacher well-being, and identifying key actions that teachers can take to make schools areas of peace, safety, and learning.