Teachers have an essential part to play in building a better future in sub-Saharan Africa. To play that part well, they need to be supported and empowered through good policy and robust social dialogue.

From 20 to 23 June 2023, the UNESCO Section for Teacher Development and the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 (Teacher Task Force, TTF), in collaboration with the UNESCO International Institute for Capacity-Building in Africa (IICBA) and the Regional Office for Southern Africa (ROSA), conducted two training workshops in Lusaka to help address the challenges faced by teachers in Zambia. The first workshop built capacity among members of the ministerial technical committee selected to lead the development of a comprehensive teacher policy. The second focused on institutionalizing social dialogue and empowering teachers and their unions to more actively participate in policy development. 

These workshops followed a national stakeholder consultative meeting on the status of teachers, organized in December 2022, at which the Minister of Education launched the National Framework for Social Dialogue for Teachers, and during which participants began deliberations on the development process for a new teacher policy. After this successful beginning, the June workshops brought together key stakeholders, including representatives from the Ministry of Education (MoE), the Teaching Service Commission, the Teaching Council of Zambia, teacher unions, civil society organizations and development partners, to collectively work towards strengthening the teaching profession to improve the quality of education. The workshops were led by UNESCO's Section for Teacher Development and the TTF and funded through UNESCO’s Capacity Development for Education (CapED) Programme that has been active since 2003 with a focus on least developed countries, currently financed by Finland, France, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

Paving the way for a comprehensive teacher policy 

Teachers play a crucial role in shaping the future of Zambia, but the country is grappling with challenges such as teacher shortages, declining interest in joining the profession and low teacher morale. To better position the MoE to attract, develop and retain quality teachers, the government solicited UNESCO’s support in February 2022 to develop a comprehensive teacher policy and accompanying implementation guidelines and tools. The first workshop in June 2023 was carried out to help drive that mission forward. On the urgent need for high-quality teachers, Joel Kamoko, Permanent Secretary for Educational Services at the Ministry of Education of Zambia, said, ‘The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers [as] teachers provide the power of education to today’s learners, thereby giving them the possibility for a better future ahead.’ 

The training made use of the Teacher Policy Development Guide to provide guidance on designing a comprehensive teacher policy tailored to Zambia’s specific needs. Carlos Vargas, Head of the Secretariat of the Teacher Task Force and Chief of Section for Teacher Development at UNESCO, spoke about the potential of the workshop to drive change, saying, ‘The development of a comprehensive teacher policy is vital for addressing the issues hindering teacher quality and availability in Zambia. By supporting the Technical Committee members, we are taking a significant step towards ensuring quality education for all.’ 

The workshop took a participatory approach, with presentations made by UNESCO, TTF, IICBA, MoE, Education International and local education stakeholders. Speakers covered the importance of contextualizing policy and unpacked the different dimensions impacting the teaching profession, including recruitment and retention, teacher education, deployment, teacher career structures, working conditions, remuneration, standards, accountability and school governance. The main steps for developing and validating a teacher policy were also discussed. Through group discussions and plenary sessions, technical committee members had in-depth conversations and shared insights on key teacher challenges, potential policy actions and solutions and current opportunities on which to build in developing the country’s first national comprehensive teacher policy.  

Participants also benefited from experiences shared by speakers from other countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have developed comprehensive teacher policies using the Teacher Policy Development Guide with UNESCO and TTF support. These speakers included Jonathan Kamwana, Commissioner of Teacher Education, Training and Development at Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports, and Yaw Ankomah, Senior Lecturer in Educational Planning and Leadership at the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration at the University of Cape Coast, who was a member of the technical committee for Ghana’s comprehensive teacher policy. 

By the end of the workshop, committee members had enhanced their technical capacities, gained a better understanding of teacher challenges and acquired knowledge on framing a comprehensive teacher policy. The training also facilitated the identification of a roadmap with milestones for policy development, including the definition of a diagnostic study on teacher issues. A report summarizing the workshop’s outcomes will serve as a valuable resource for reference and basis for further collaboration. 

Sparking dialogue for education transformation 

Social dialogue that brings together government institutions, employers, teachers and their organizations in genuine exchange is essential to creating a teacher policy that addresses the concerns of all stakeholders. Therefore, building on the launch of Zambia’s new National Framework for Teacher Social Dialogue last year, the second workshop aimed to strengthen social dialogue by building the technical and organizational capacity of teacher unions and education sector personnel.  

According to Permanent Secretary Joel Kamoko, ‘Social dialogue is a vital mechanism for achieving quality education for all. Teachers are responsible for implementing educational reforms, and their engagement in social dialogue contributes to the achievement of key aspects of educational objectives and policies, including teachers’ professional development programmes.’ 

At the workshop, national and international consultants and UNESCO representatives made presentations, providing a platform to discuss the importance of social dialogue in improving the teaching profession’s status and the quality of teaching, in alignment with the Education 2030 agenda. Participants gained insights into effective responses and lessons from other national social dialogue frameworks. Gender issues, especially ways to promote equality and equity within the teaching profession, provided another key topic. 

The training workshop on social dialogue marks a significant milestone in promoting meaningful engagement between education stakeholders and giving teachers a voice in shaping education policies. Through this effort, Zambia is taking a crucial step towards fostering a conducive teaching and learning environment, improving the teaching profession and enhancing teacher quality and working conditions.  

On the workshop’s potential impact, Carlos Vargas said, ‘By empowering teachers and education sector personnel through enhanced social dialogue, we can collectively work towards improving the teaching profession and creating an environment that supports quality education for all.’ 

Driving positive change in Zambia’s education landscape 

Both workshops represented important steps towards addressing the challenges faced by teachers and improving the education landscape in the country. By promoting collaboration, inclusivity and the exchange of ideas, these workshops have paved the way for a more equitable, high-quality education system in Zambia.  

Moving forward, UNESCO will provide assistance in Zambia to conduct a comprehensive diagnostic study as part of the teacher policy development process. Following the launch of the National Framework for Teacher Social Dialogue in 2022, a pilot programme on social dialogue has been successfully conducted in two specific provinces, benefiting 200 teachers. UNESCO will continue its support to define the implementation of the framework before its nationwide rollout. 

For more information about UNESCO’s work on teachers, click here. To explore related resources and materials on teacher policy and social dialogue, follow the links below: 

• UNESCO & Teacher Task Force Teacher Policy Development Guide 

• UNESCO’s Education 2030 Agenda 

• Teaching Council of Zambia (TCZ) 

• Ministry of Education, Zambia 

This blog was written by Prof. Yusuf Sayed to mark the launch of the joint UNESCO/Teacher Task Force report, Supporting teachers through policy development: Lessons from sub-Saharan Africa, at the African Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities (AFTRA) 10^th Teaching and Learning Conference and 12^th Roundtable in Namibia, 9-12 May 2023.

The Transforming Education Summit (TES) underlined that to build more resilient and transformative education, countries must address a number of teacher issues, including shortages of qualified personnel, limited opportunities for education and training, low professional status, inadequate working conditions, and limitations to their empowerment and capacity to innovate. But even while these issues are front of mind for a lot of policy-makers, the teacher shortage keeps on growing. About 16.5 million teachers need to be recruited in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve universal primary and secondary enrolment. Moreover, a substantial minority of teachers have had limited access to training or opportunities to enhance their competencies, and just 69 per cent of primary teachers and 61 per cent of secondary teachers hold the minimum required qualifications in the region. Teachers’ working conditions, salaries and contractual positions are inadequate, and their involvement in policy formulation is limited. In 20 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, primary teachers earn, on average, less than PPP $7,500 per annum.

Teacher policy is key to achieving the SDGs

Target 4.c of the Sustainable Development Goals commits the world to: ‘By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States.’ This underscores the growing global understanding that quality teachers who can teach effectively are needed to ensure inclusive, equitable and quality lifelong learning for all. Multiple regional policies come to the same conclusion, including the African Union Continental Education Strategy for Africa (AU-CESA) 2016-2025, the Africa Agenda 2063 and the Southeast Asia Teachers Competency Framework.

Developing holistic, comprehensive national teacher policies is essential to achieving these goals and supporting teachers to play their part in building a more sustainable world. To this end, the Teacher Task Force and UNESCO co-developed the Teacher Policy Development Guide to help national policy-makers and practitioners develop holistic, comprehensive and integrated teacher policies that address all dimensions of teachers’ work and practices. The Guide argues for a long-term systemic approach, together with ongoing review and reflection to continually improve and align teacher policy to the wider policy landscape, including education sector plans, cross-sectoral perspectives and national goals.

The Guide has already been used across sub-Saharan Africa to develop effective teacher policy. Supporting teachers through policy development: Lessons from sub-Saharan Africa reviews this progress to highlight lessons, good practices and recommendations that other countries can apply. Participating countries included Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Togo and Uganda.

Developing structured and inclusive policy development processes

The process used to develop policy is critical to its eventual success. The review highlights the importance of using collaboration frameworks to develop policy, based on a wide range of perspectives and voices, including those of civil and teacher service commissions, teacher training institutions, regional education managers and inspectors. Reflecting teachers’ voices was found to be critical; frameworks that emphasized social dialogue and drew in teachers and their representatives helped ensure teachers’ buy-in.

Across countries, a two-tier committee structure was found to be effective for managing policy development processes. A steering committee of a core team of higher-level decision-makers provided strategic guidance and oversight, while a technical committee, reporting to the steering committee, was responsible for the day-to-day developmental work. This system helped to ensure that processes were seen to be inclusive and transparent, with meaningful stakeholder involvement throughout.

Using the Teacher Policy Development Guide to inform content

The Guide was used to inform the content of countries’ teacher policies, and was found to be easy to implement, practical and relevant. As the Guide recommends, countries linked teacher policy vision to overall education policies and plans and national social and macroeconomic development frameworks. All countries included in their policies the Guide’s nine key dimensions: teacher recruitment and retention; teacher education; deployment; career structures; teacher employment and working conditions; teacher reward and remuneration; teacher standards; teacher accountability; and school governance. Each country adapted the dimensions to their own contexts, arranging them differently around national thematic strategic axes determined through a reflective and collaborative process. Some countries found they had additional policy-making needs, which resulted in the development of new dimensions, such as social dialogue and teacher autonomy, as well as cross-cutting themes of inclusivity and gender.

Lessons for development partners

The review showed that development partners, including international organizations, bilateral aid agencies and civil society organizations, can play a vital role in supporting countries to develop their policies, by providing financial and technical support and assisting with coordination. International agencies can also help build international forums and online platforms for policy learning and sharing, allowing countries to learn from each other and adapt policy responses to their national contexts. Ongoing initiatives, such as capacity-building programmes for teachers, school leaders and other education staff, can also provide valuable lessons for policy-making.

Holistic teacher policy as a key lever to transform education

Teachers can change the world, but they need help to do it. Education policy reform must place teachers at its heart and as indicated in the final recommendations on teachers during the TES, holistic teacher policies must be created, with teachers playing a central role in policy development and educational decision-making through social dialogue. Such teacher policies can provide teachers with better working conditions and the support they need to deliver equitable learning experiences for all learners, including the marginalized and disadvantaged. Yet for this to happen, improvements in the financing of teachers through integrated national reform strategies and effective functional governance must also be addressed if education is to truly transform and the Sustainable Goals are to be realized.

Consult the UNESCO/Teacher Task Force report: Supporting teachers through policy development: Lessons from sub-Saharan Africa.

Photo credit: Kehinde Olufemi Akinbo