Education International Research
8. Teachers Target 4.c 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 Target 8.5: By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value Target 8.8: Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments of all workers, including migrant workers, particularly women migrants, and those in precarious employment “Teachers are the key to achieving all of the SDG 4 Education 2030 Agenda”159 It is now widely recognised that the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers160, and that teachers161 are essential actors in improving education. Ironically, since 2015 concrete efforts toward Target 4.c have been conspicuously absent. Globally, approximately 69 million more teachers are needed in primary and secondary education by 2030 in order to achieve education for all.162 To close this gap, governments must introduce teacher policies that make teaching an attractive, first-choice profession. The Incheon Declaration commits to “ensure that teachers and educators are empowered, adequately recruited, well-trained, professionally qualified, motivated and supported within well-resourced, efficient and effectively governed systems”.163 Yet education unions around the world have witnessed deterioration in the attractiveness of the profession. Despite unions’ key role in advocating for decent work for teachers (crucial not only for quality education but also to achieve SDG 8), union rights continue to come under attack.
Poor employment and working conditions exacerbate the global teacher shortage
GRO.EI-IE
According to 69% of the unions that responded to EI’s survey on the status of teachers, the teaching profession is not attracting young people. Twenty-two per cent (22%) of unions across all levels of education reported a significant decline in teachers’ working conditions over the past five years. The reasons for this deterioration in teaching conditions are complex, but they are linked to decreasing funding for education, privatisation and managerial reform policies, decreasing respect for the profession, and a neoliberal ideology that calls for increased control and stricter teacher accountability. Teachers across all regions have experienced casualisation of the teaching force and increasing precarious contracts. According to the Status of Teachers report, 35% of teachers are employed under fixed-term contracts. In Mexico, 55% of teachers in middle and upper schools work on a perhour basis and are forced to take on extra jobs. The case study below (Box 12) describes how the Moroccan government has recently employed thousands of new teachers, but only on short-term, precarious contracts.
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159 Education 2030. 2015. Incheon Declaration and Framework of Action for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4. p. 54. Retrieved from: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000245656 160 McKinsey. 2007. How the world’s best performing education systems come out on top. Retrieved from: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/ industries/social%20sector/our%20insights/how%20the%20worlds%20best%20performing%20school%20systems%20come%20out%20on%20 top/how_the_world_s_best-performing_school_systems_come_out_on_top.ashx 161 The term “teachers’’ is used in this chapter, reflecting the language of the target. However, many of the challenges mentioned also refer to researchers and education support personnel. 162 UNESCO. 2016. The world needs almost 69 million new teachers to reach the 2030 Education goals. Retrieved from: http://uis.unesco.org/en/files/fs39-worldneeds-almost-69-million-new-teachers-reach-2030-education-goals-2016-en-pdf 163 Education 2030. 2015. Incheon Declaration and Framework of Action for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4. p. 8. Retrieved from: https:// unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000245656
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