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.

To guide its work during 2019, the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 has adopted a comprehensive work plan.

Based on the Strategic Plan 2018-2021, the 2019 work plan establishes specific activities to be undertaken by the Teacher Task Force in order to achieve its goals: improving teacher quantity and quality.

2019 is the second year of the Strategic Plan. The main objective will be to continue strengthening the Teacher Task Force as a platform for exchange of knowledge and best practices, and as a dynamic network where members and partners are mobilized for dialogue and advocacy for teacher issues, in national, regional and global settings.

The Teacher Task Force will pay a balanced attention to the three main lines of actions laid out in the Strategic Plan, while focusing on priority activities likely to sustain evidence-based teacher policies and strategies.

MLA 1 – Advocacy

The Teacher Task Force will continue raising awareness on teacher issues by contributing to global and regional events. The aim is to ensure that discussion around the critical role of teachers remains high on the education agenda, and to advocate for adequate policies and increased financing of teaching.

This work will take various forms such as technical input to global fora of discussions, dissemination of material highlighting the importance of teachers for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 4 on education or organisation side events and debates during larger education focused conference or events.

MLA 2 – Knowledge creation and sharing

The Teacher Task Force will pursue its goal of bridging the knowledge gaps when it comes to teacher and teaching issues. This will include the undertaking of a mapping of the knowledge gaps on different dimensions of Teacher policy and practice, as well as research work on the state of teacher motivation, one the component of the teacher target in SDG4.

To facilitate the implementation and monitoring of SDG4, the Teacher Task Force will be involved in the development of a taxonomy of teacher training, along with UNESCO, UIS and GPE. This project will focus on documenting the nature of the training and the qualifications requirements countries apply in their national systems in order to improve the global comparability of data.

As it does every year, the Teacher Task Force will offer the platform of its Policy Dialogue Forum to policy-makers, researchers, academics to come share their best practices and learn from each other’s research and experiences.

MLA 3 – Country support

The Teacher Task Force will continue providing support for the start and continuing development of national teacher policies to its member states, but will focus on a limited number of interventions. Priority will be given to countries with which the Teacher Task Force has already been collaborating, using the full competency of the membership.

Governance

The 2019 activities will support the operationalisation of the regional and thematic groups established by the Strategic Plan 2018-2021. The aim will be to reinforce communication among the focal points, and to raise their awareness regarding regional SDG4 and education structures they should engage with, with institutionalised reporting and follow-up mechanisms

The foreseen activities will also serve to establish the thematic groups as technical expert groups in their domain by having them contribute technical inputs to wider events and/or undertake research projects.

You can download the 2019 work plan of the Teacher Force in English or French here for more information.

The focal points of the African countries member of the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 21-22 March to discuss and agree on the way they could work together to implement the 2018-2021 Strategic Plan and collaborate with the different structures composing the Teacher Task Force.

Three important points where raised during the meeting pertaining to functioning of the regional group and its contribution to the overall work of the Teacher Task Force:

• How to better communicate,
• How to mobilise resources in the region, and
• How to contribute to the work of the TTF’s thematic groups.

Reinforcing the communication

During the consultation, emphasis was made on the need for better communication between the region’s focal points.

To improve communication with teacher education stakeholders at country and regional levels, FPs noted that it would be necessary to do a map in f ail organizations working on teacher issues in their respective countries and regions, in order to facilitate direct contact with them and ensure the coordination of their activities with the Teacher Task Force’s work.

The use of digital communication tools was discussed, in particular the use of email and virtual collaborative platforms, to enable the sharing of information between national focal points of each sub regional group.

The focal points present also discussed the need for more regular meetings in order to reflect on work done and progress made in the region. They agreed on the need to organised quarterly meetings with national and regional stakeholders, either on face-to-face basis or virtually.

Mobilising resources

When it comes to funding, it was recommended to avoid duplication of work and commitment and the creation of additional layers, but to seek donors already present at country level and identify actors interested in teacher issues.

As far as technical expertise, focal points are encouraged to use the help of UNESCO and its regional office in identifying the expertise required for a particular activity. A mapping of the expertise available in the sub regional groups was also discussed and encouraged.

Political support: focal points are the primary link between local authorities and the Teacher Task Force. To ensure full support of national ministries of education, regular reporting by focal points on TTF events and activities is advised. Focal points can also mobilize support at national level by ensuring linkages between TTF activities and national plans.

Contributing to research

The main goals of the Teacher Task Force are to raise awareness and produce knowledge on teacher issues. Four groups with each a particular thematic focus were created to this end. The African Regional group reiterated its interest in collaborating with identified ongoing research projects, by sharing local level research and best practices that could feed into the thematic groups planned activities.

The creation of instruments designed to collect and provide information on the thematic areas was discussed as well as the ways the reporting could be done.

Following this first meeting, consultations will be organised in the Arab States on 17-19 June 2019 and in the Latin America and Caribbean region on 17-19 July 2019.

The International Task Force on Teachers for 2030 has just published its 2018 annual report. 2018 was the first year of the implementation of the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030’s new 2018-2021 Strategic Plan.

Adopted during 2017 annual meeting, the 2018-2021 Strategic Plan reaffirms the Teacher Task Force dedication to ensuring that every learner is taught by a qualified and trained teacher, and that teaching is considered a valued profession.

The main goal of the Teacher Task Force over the next four years is to bridge the teacher gap by working to improve teacher quantity and quality. The Strategic Plan also sets out the objectives and main lines of actions (MLA) for the partnership to achieve this goal.

Three main lines of actions were identified: Advocacy, Knowledge creation and sharing, and Support to countries. This report gives a detailed overview of the activities and results linked to this framework.

MLA 1: Advocacy

The Teacher Task Force has been very active in ensuring teacher issues are put at the forefront of education talks.

In June 2018, the Teacher Task Force organised a Lab Debate during the European Development Days on “Female teachers and gender equality in gender education” that looked at the ways we can support women to enter and remain in the teaching profession. A very pressing issues given that 132 million girls are out of school and they are 1.5 times more likely than boys to be excluded from primary school.

In October 2018, the Teacher Task Force contributed to raising awareness on the fact that having a qualified teacher in front of every student is a staple of the right to education. Together with UNESCO, the TTF penned a blog entry on the Global Partnership for Education’s website. This blog ended being featured in GPE’s top 10 blogs of 2018.

We also created a series of partnerships with international entities, resulting in the MasterCard Foundation officially joining the membership, NORRAG coordinating a subtheme during the last Policy Dialogue Forum (PDF) and the Teacher Task Force joining the Advisory Group of the Education Commission’s Education Workforce Initiative.

MLA 2: Knowledge creation and sharing

In 2018, the Teacher Task Force has continued its collaboration with the World Bank and published six country reports using the Systems Approach for Better Education Results tool (SABER-Teachers). The reports published cover Singapore, Norway, Croatia, Slovenia, Namibia and Mexico.

Held annually, the Policy Dialogue Forum (PDF) is the Teacher Task Force’s biggest knowledge-sharing platform. The 2018 edition was held under the theme “Strengthening Teacher Education: A prerequisite for quality teaching, training and learning” and looked at teachers’ competencies and skills beyond basic education.

The 2018 PDF was marked by the first ministerial panel organized at a PDF. Two Ministers of Education (Estonia and Lao PDR) joined the host Minister and a representative of the Minister of Education of Togo, to present the reforms they are implementing in their countries to strengthen teacher education and training.

MLA 3: country support

In 2018, two countries, supported by the Teacher Task Force concluded their work on teacher policy development with the adoption of a national teacher policy.

Togo completed the elaboration of the teacher policy in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Teacher Task Force and the UNESCO Regional Bureau of Abuja. The Government has adopted a new legislation on the statute of teachers inspired by provisions in the Teacher Policy Development Guide. To the nine dimensions laid out in Guide, Togo has added a 10th one on “Social dialogue” as an enabling factor for the successful implementation of the policy. Printed copies of the policy were distributed to some participants at the PDF in Jamaica, and other countries of the region invited the Togolese national team for experience sharing.

After two years of support, Madagascar finalized its teacher policy officially endorsed by the Ministry of Education in March 2018 during a validation ceremony organized by the Teacher Task Force in collaboration with the UNESCO Regional Bureau of Nairobi. Local Education Group members and Teacher Task Force members contributed to the review of the draft policy, which is now part of the broader framework of the sectoral plan for education 2018-2022 financed by the GPE.

You can read our 2018 annual report in English or French here.

Following the recommendations of the its Annual Meeting, held in November 2018 in Montego Bay, Jamaica, the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 is convening the first meeting of the African regional focal points.

Hosted by the UNESCO Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA) in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), on 21-22 March 2019, the meeting seeks to reinforce the Teacher Task Force members and focal points’ engagement in the implementation of the Task Force 2018-2021 Strategic Plan through the consolidation of the Regional Group.

This meeting will be the occasion to reinforce synergies within the regional group and promote a stronger collaboration and cooperation with the African Union, especially regarding the alignment of the Teacher Task Force 2018-2021 Strategic Plan and the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA), which Strategic Objective 1 is on Teacher Development.

It will also provide the focal points with a chance to learn more about the vision and objectives of the continental umbrella framework and the existing political, institutional and technical mechanisms to tap into for a coherent implementation of the Teacher Task Force 2018-2021 Strategic Plan in Africa.