Realising inclusive and equitable education for all will not be possible without teachers who are supported, empowered and provided adequate training. This is why, throughout 2019, the Teacher Task Force (TTF) continued to work in advancing teacher and teaching issues, as well as supporting countries to develop robust teacher policies. Here are some of the highlights of what we achieved in 2019.

Calling for greater investment in the teaching profession

The Teacher Task Force contributed to key fora and events during the year to make the case for teachers at the global level.
The Head of the TTF Secretariat called for greater investment in teachers in an op-ed featured in the 2019 Commonwealth Education Report. This call was reiterated through the TTF support to the #CommitToEducation campaign launched during the High-Level Political Forum in July 2019. We also made the case to invest in young teachers during World Teachers Day on 5 October.

Putting the teaching profession at the centre of education

TTF Members also regularly collaborated throughout the year to ensure teachers featured high on the education agenda, notably through the TTF’s thematic working groups.

During the 2019 Mobile Learning Week, the TTF thematic group on ICT and distance education held a debate on the impact of Artificial Intelligence on teacher education and teaching practices. This debate brought together a variety of education stakeholders and helped shape the conversation, with a clear takeaway that AI cannot replace a teachers’ presence in the learning environment.

The Thematic Group on inclusion and equity in teacher policies and practices also contributed to discussions on inclusive and equitable education. The TTF organised a panel highlighting the importance of teachers in inclusive and equitable school settings during the European Development Days held in Brussels in June. Panellists highlighted the critical influence teachers have in creating safe and inclusive learning environments.

In December 2019, members of the TTF Thematic Group on early childhood education and care convened a conference mobilizing over 200 participants, including from 18 African countries, that put teacher issues front and centre in ECE discussions. The conference resulted in the Casablanca Declaration and Call for Action, which recognised that ensuring quality training and professionalization for ECE teachers and educators, as well as decent working conditions, is a priority for achieving SDG target 4.2.

The TTF also convened its 12th annual Policy Dialogue Forum (PDF) in December in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) under the theme “The Futures of Teaching”. The PDF was attended by some 250 international and 80 national participants, which included seven Ministers of Education from different regions, and has received positive feedback. One of the country delegates attending the PDF stated that “the Forum workshop came at the right time, (…) it allowed me to identify the various gaps that exist in the management of our teachers and even in the development of our teaching policy and to propose to the various officials at the Ministry level the necessary adjustments”. The key conclusions and recommendations of the Forum were summarised in the Dubai Declaration on the Futures of Teaching.

Improving regional engagement

The Teacher Task Force also strengthened its work at regional level, through a series of member consultations throughout the year, with positive impacts, such as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) officially becoming a member of the Teacher Task Force.

The regional meetings highlighted the strength of the TTF in providing its members with a space where they could come together and collectively reflect on teacher issues from their respective points of view, taking into account particular national and regional contexts. Members were encouraged to continue cooperation and communication throughout the year, and this work will continue to be strengthened in 2020.

Looking ahead to 2020

Following a fruitful year, the Teacher Task Force will keep up its advocacy work at global and regional levels in 2020, ensuring that teacher and teaching issues remain high on the Education 2030 and SDG agendas throughout the new decade.

The TTF will also launch a new online Knowledge Platform in 2020. The goal of this web-based portal is to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, expertise and experiences on different dimensions of the teaching profession among TTF members and partners, and become a key resources for all those working on teachers and teacher policy development.

With the release of the online Teacher Policy Development Guide training courses, developed in collaboration with the Open University UK, the TTF Secretariat will also continue to work with its members to broker support for countries who are in the process of developing, implementing and monitoring national teacher policies.

The Teacher Task Force will continue to contribute to several initiatives at global and regional levels to advance the cause of the teaching profession in 2020.

By choosing this year’s theme to be “Young teachers: the future of the profession”, the World Teachers’ Day’s co-convening agencies wish to address one of the issues that has been plaguing the profession for some time now: how can the teaching profession attract and retain young, bright talents in the profession?

The global education goal, SDG 4, calls on countries to ensure that children are not only going to school but also learning, yet the proportion of teachers that are trained has been falling since 2000, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Even more worrisome, new projections by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report found that, at current trends, learning rates are expected to stagnate in middle-income countries, and drop by one-third in Francophone African countries by 2030. This would leave 20% of young people and 30% of adults still unable to read by 2030.

To turn these worrying trends around, we must invest in teachers, their education and professional development.

The reality of teaching

To get the real picture of teachers’ current training and working conditions, the Teacher Task Force collaborated with UIS and the GEM Report to produce a fact sheet giving the latest data on the global indicator for the Teacher Target.

Every learner has the right to be taught by a trained and qualified teacher. Unfortunately, this is not a reality for all of them. In Sub-Saharan Africa, only 64% of teachers were trained according to national standards at primary level in 2018-17. This share falls to 50% at secondary level. Comparatively in 2005, these figures had gone up to 71% and 79% respectively.

The share of trained primary school teachers has also fallen in Southern Asia, where it has gone from 78% in 2013 to 72% in 2018.

To teach efficiently, teachers need decent working conditions, like having electricity or sanitation facilities in schools. However, in Sub-Saharan Africa, only 34% of primary schools had access to electricity and 44% had access to basic drinking water in 2018-17. To make matters worse, 1 in 4 primary school did not have single-sex basic sanitation facilities in low-income countries.

To the issue of training and working condition plaguing the profession is the additional fact that the teaching profession also suffers from a poor image and status. Compared to jobs requiring similar qualifications, teaching often offers lower salaries for the responsibility and the amount of work required.

This leads to teachers leaving the profession in high numbers without enough new recruits to replace them, especially young new teachers.

Missing: young teachers

The future of society depends on the future of education. We need young teachers willing to take on the challenges of tomorrow.

Indeed, attracting young candidates to the teaching profession is a major challenge worldwide, and this is not just a supply issue. The hardships and obstacles affecting the profession disproportionately affect young teachers.

In their latest Education at a Glance report, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports that young teachers, defined as under 30 years old, make up a small proportion of the teaching population in their member states. Indeed, teachers under 30 account for 13% in primary education, 11% in lower secondary and 8% in upper secondary on average across OECD countries in 2017.

Keeping young teachers in the profession is also a critical concern. Student teachers often indicate the experience of facing their first classroom as the most daunting part of their job. This leads to high attrition rates in this age group. Solid teacher education and induction practices, as well as peer mentoring have been highlighted as models that could offer young teacher the support they need in their first years in the profession.

A problem without solutions?

The main concerns around the attractiveness of the teaching profession could be addressed in teacher policies developed as presented in our Teacher Policy Development Guide.

Indeed, in the guide are listed nine dimensions that we believe essential to address the current issues facing the profession. Among these dimensions, we list training and education, working conditions and remuneration as mandatory component of any policy pertaining to teachers.

It is our belief that tackling the problem of attracting and retaining young people in the teaching profession will require sound and holistic teacher policies developed with the input of a broad range of stakeholders, including young people themselves.

Held annually on 5 October, World Teachers’ Day commemorates the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. This Recommendation sets benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions.