Around 63 million primary and secondary teachers around the world are affected by school closures in 165 countries due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

They are on the frontlines of the response to ensure that learning continues for nearly 1.5 billion students, a number that is predicted to rise

Everywhere, together with school leaders, they have been rapidly mobilising and innovating to facilitate quality distance learning for students in confinement, with or without the use of digital technologies. They are playing a key role also in communicating measures that prevent the spread of the virus, ensuring that children are safe and supported.

This unprecedented situation is putting teachers, students and families under stress.

In some cases, teachers who may already be exposed to the virus themselves are trying to manage the anxiety of being told to work in situations where the COVID-19 risk is spreading. Others are dealing with the stress of of delivering quality learning with tools for which they have received little or no training or support. In many countries, contract teachers, substitute teachers and education support personnel risk seeing their contracts broken and their livelihoods disappear.

The Teacher Task Force, an international alliance working for teachers and teaching, has issued a Call for Action on Teachers to ensure that teachers are protected, supported and recognised during the crisis. Leadership and financial and material resources for teachers are necessary to make sure that quality teaching and learning can continue at a distance during the crisis, and that recovery is rapid.

The Task Force is calling on governments, education providers and funders – public and private – and all relevant partners to:

• Preserve employment and wages: This crisis cannot be a pretext to lower standards and norms, or push aside labour rights. The salaries and benefits of the entire teaching and education support staff must be preserved.
• Prioritise teachers’ and learners’ health, safety and well-being: Teachers need socio-emotional support to face the extra pressure being put on them to deliver learning in a time of crisis as well as provide support to their students in these anxious circumstances.
• Include teachers in developing COVID-19 education responses : Teachers will have a crucial role in the recovery phase when schools reopen. They must be included at all steps of education policy-making and planning.
• Provide adequate professional support and training: Little attention has been given to providing teachers with adequate training on how to ensure that learning continues. We must move swiftly to ensure that teachers receive the necessary professional support.
• Put equity at the heart of education responses: Greater support and flexibility will be needed for teachers who work in remote areas or with low-income or minority communities, to ensure that disadvantaged children are not left behind.
• Include teachers in aid responses: The Teacher Task Force urges financing institutions to help governments support education systems, particularly the teaching workforce’s professional development. Such support is particularly urgent in some of the world’s poorest countries, which are already struggling to meet education needs because of critical shortages of trained teachers.

For more information, download the call in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.

As the world has raced to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, 191 countries have closed schools, from pre-primary to tertiary level, affecting at least 1.5 billion - or more than 9 out of 10 - students worldwide.

To minimize the disruption, many governments and institutions have turned to distance education to maintain teaching and learning. Online learning allows teachers to maintain a classroom-like environment for students, to send assignments and receive completed work to be assessed. It also permits teachers to maintain daily communication with students, checking not only their educational progress but also their well-being.

Yet, according to recent figures compiled by the Teacher Task Force, based on data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the International Telecommunication Union, almost half of the world’s students face significant barriers to online learning. Globally, some 826 million – 50 per cent – do not have access to a household computer, while 43 per cent – about 706 million – do not have access to internet at home. In low-income countries, rates of access are even lower. In sub-Saharan Africa, 89 per cent of learners do not have access to household computers and 82 per cent lack Internet access.

Mobile phones have demonstrated great potential for connecting learners with information and one another, but about 56 million learners worldwide live in remote locations not served by mobile networks, with almost half of them living in sub-Saharan Africa.

Some countries have turned to more traditional media to ensure access to those affected by this digital divide. In Peru, the Ministry of Education uses an online education platform, “Aprendo en casa”, to develop programmes accessible via television and radio for students with no internet and computer/mobile phone access. Countries were able to share their experience in distance education learning strategies during UNESCO’s fifth COVID-19 Education Response Webinar.

Moreover, an estimated 63 million primary and secondary teachers worldwide have been affected by the unprecedented disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even for teachers in countries with reliable information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and household connectivity, the rapid transition to online learning has been challenging. For teachers in regions where ICT and other distance methodologies are not available, such as Cameroon, where only 20-25% of teachers have access to a computer, the transition has been difficult or impossible.

Teacher education is a particular challenge in low-income countries. Across sub-Saharan Africa, just 64 per cent of primary and 50 per cent of secondary teachers, have met the national minimum training requirements to teach. In many countries, training seldom covers ICT skills adequately.

In addition, there are not enough teachers in low-income countries, resulting in large classes in which teachers struggle to give personalized instruction to each child. Compared to the international benchmark of 1 teacher per 28 pupils in primary education, there is only 1 trained teacher per 56 pupils in low-income countries, and 1 per 60 in sub-Saharan Africa.

To ensure teachers receive appropriate support during this crisis, the Teacher Task Force joined UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition, and recently released a Call for Action to support teachers affected by the pandemic.

Infographic: COVID-19: a global crisis for teaching and learning

COVID-19 Education Response webinars:

• Supporting teachers to maintain continuity of learning during school closures, synthesis report
• Distance learning strategies: what do we know about effectiveness?

The Teacher Task Force, UNESCO and the International Labour Organization have developed guidelines to support national authorities in their back-to-school efforts, in particular looking at how best to support teachers and education support staff in return to school planning and processes.

From the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, teachers have been vital to ensure learning continues through distance learning, where feasible, and that learners’ well-being is considered. With the return to school, teachers, school leaders and education support staff will continue to play key roles in creating safe learning spaces, adjusting curricula and assessment, and supporting marginalized learners.

Following on from the Call to Action on Teachers launched by the Teacher Task Force, the joint UNESCO/Teacher Task Force/ILO guidelines present a series of recommendations to policy-makers, while recognising the necessity for countries to identify their own priorities based on national and local contexts. These guidelines highlight how to guarantee that teachers and education support staff receive adequate support in back-to-school efforts. This includes:  

• Including teachers and their organisations in return to school planning

Countries should ensure that all perspectives are heard when planning for school safety and developing teaching practices to mitigate post-pandemic learning loss. Teachers, education support staff and their representatives need to be consulted in decision-making and planning, including the timing and processes for the safe reopening of schools.

• Guaranteeing the safety of learners and all education staff in school environments

Measures to ensure safety and health in schools for learners and staff should be adapted to local contexts, with national authorities providing information to teachers on risks in the school environment.

Teachers and their representative organisations should be involved in discussions about how to apply international standards in their classrooms and school-wide, on developing evaluation criteria and on regulations for reorganizing classroom learning. They should also take part in the development of measures to facilitate physical distancing.

• Recognising the importance of psychological and social-emotional well-being of teachers and education support staff

Reopening schools sees teachers having to deal with both health risks and an increased workload to teach in new and challenging ways—often with inadequate training. National authorities need to ensure teachers and education support staff receive ongoing psychosocial support to meet their social-emotional well-being. This will be especially critical for teachers who are tasked with providing the same support to students and families.

• Helping teachers adapt to the new teaching conditions

Including teachers and their representative organisations in discussions about the return to school is also key to ensure teachers and education support staff are given adequate training and resources to resume classroom instruction, while adhering to regulations on physical distancing.

They need to be involved during national consultations to identify key education goals, reorganise curricula, and align assessment based on the revised school calendar. They should be consulted on questions pertaining to classroom reorganisation.

• Ensuring that teachers’ working conditions don’t suffer

The return to school efforts could reveal gaps in human resources and create difficult working schedules and routines. Teachers and their representative organisations should be included in dialogue on the development of rapid recruitment strategies respecting the minimum professional qualifications and protecting teachers’ rights and working conditions.

• Maintaining or increasing financial resources

To ensure learning continuity, education authorities will need to invest in teachers and education support staff, not only to maintain salaries, but also to provide essential training and psycho-social support. It is important that governments resist practices which could harm the teaching profession and education quality, such as increasing teaching hours or recruiting untrained teachers. Governments should also encourage private providers to maintain regular salary payments to teachers and other support staff.

• Giving teachers a say in the monitoring of the return to school situation

Close monitoring and evaluating of the return to school will be critical to adapt strategy and inform decision-making. Teachers and school leaders should be consulted to inform the development of frameworks to measure and benchmark the progress of back-to-school efforts

You can download the Guidelines in English and French (Spanish will be on-line soon).