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.