Report: Every Child Needs a Teacher: Closing the Trained Teacher Gap

October 5th is World Teachers' Day, so it seems fitting to provide an excerpt from the report from the Global Campaign for Education entitled Every Child Needs a Teacher: Closing the Trained Teacher Gap.

The report on teacher training and poor conditions faced by teachers: 

'Some countries count those who have completed primary school and a one-month training course as trained, while others require a three-year education degree. Even with these flexible and often low standards, a third of countries report that no more than half of their pre-primary school teachers are trained; at primary level, reported rates are slightly higher, but thirty one countries report that fewer than three quarters of teachers are trained (to any accepted national standard) and a number report falling levels of training. In Mali, where half of primary school teachers are trained, only a quarter have had training lasting six months or longer. Nearly half of countries reporting training levels at lower secondary level state that fewer than three quarters of teachers are trained. Niger had just 1,059 trained lower secondary school teachers in 2010 – compared to 1.4 million children of lower secondary school age. 

[...] 

The overwhelming lesson is that high quality education requires sufficient recruitment of teachers who are trained, supported, paid and managed as professionals. The recruitment of low-skill, untrained teachers in recent decades has proved disastrous for education quality - and much current training provision needs improvement. Teachers are paid paltry amounts, for example just $125 a month in Niger; many have to travel long distances to collect pay that is often days, weeks or even months late. A motivated, highly skilled teacher workforce produces the best education; yet too often teachers are treated as low-grade service delivery employees, expected to deliver classes and administer tests according to a script, and rewarded or punished on the basis of test scores. The deprofessionalisation of teachers denies students the possibility of great teaching.'

I couldn't agree more with this statement: 'A motivated, highly skilled teacher workforce produces the best education; yet too often teachers are treated as low-grade service delivery employees' .

What is your experience as a teacher? Have you felt supported, or undervalued by your school? Is too much pressure placed upon teachers? What can help teachers perform their best, and therefore help bring out the best in students?

Worth reading the report in full - you can find it here. 

Neglect of education in slow-onset emergencies

'In Somalia in 2011, school enrolment rates plummeted due to the food crisis and large-scale displacement. The Education Cluster estimates that more than 1.8 million children aged 5–17 are out of school in South and Central Somalia alone – the worst-affected region, due to persistent and ongoing conflict and drought. The current education coverage and response supports only 20% of the school-age population in this zone. The availability of education for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and local host communities has not been sufficient to meet the need.  

Challenges to effectively delivering education in Somalia include:
• the lack of an appropriate curriculum
• inadequate learning spaces
• a lack of trained teachers from affected communities
• insufficient teacher remuneration and incentives for teaching
• the underlying challenge of the absence of a governance structure.  

Scarce teaching and learning materials are not enough to cover even the current low enrolment rates, made worse by the continued lack of funding for education in emergencies. 

In the Dollo Ado camp in Ethiopia and the Dadaab camp in Kenya, resident populations increased significantly during the 2011 crises – from already high levels. More than a quarter of a million Somali refugees arrived at the two camps in 2011 alone. The camps now host more than 600,000 Somali refugees, approximately 60% of whom are children. 

Providing education in the camps is particularly challenging given the chronic lack of services for the host populations in marginalised, drought-affected areas, where many refugees have settled. Many refugee children have had little or no previous access to formal education in Somalia, making it even more difficult to integrate them into the limited formal schooling in host communities. In Dollo Ado, only an estimated 15–20% of children are currently accessing education services.'

As well as East Africa, the report also discusses West Africa. Read the full report here.

How do we achieve poor quality education?

No, the title isn't a typo. I thought I'd take a look at the flip side: rather than trying to propose ways we can achieve good quality education (something which has no doubt been covered better elsewhere), how about how we end up with poor quality education?

Language of Instruction: Learning in a language that isn't your mother-tongue has a hugely negative impact upon learning outcomes. I've highlighted the importance of focusing upon it in earlier posts. Various studies have been done that prove how bilingual or multilingual models can have a positive impact upon students' learning, and how such models can lessen the potential for conflict. Despite all of this, the language of instruction issue has yet to be mainstreamed in educational development. Of course, in countries where there are hundreds of languages (including dialects) it is perhaps not a straightforward area to reform. 

Standardisation: Seems an obvious one, but just because an educational model has worked in one country, it does not necessarily mean it will work elsewhere. A curriculum needs to be relevant to the context in which it is taught. Let us not forget the importance of context to a relevant and quality education.

Teachers: Poor pay. Lack of professional development. Large class sizes. Difficult conditions. Low status in comparison to other professions. Does this combination really sound conducive to a quality education?

Poor management: Even if teachers do remain positive and wish to be agents of change, this can often be thwarted by poor management and leadership. 

There you have it. It's not an exhaustive list, so now it's your turn: can you think of other areas which lead to poor quality, irrelevant education? Do you think there is one particular area which requires our immediate attention? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.