Education International Research
be attracted to where they are needed most. Current deployment systems are often unstructured, ineffective and politicised. In Sri Lanka, the Ceylon Teachers’ Union reports that the government has not appointed principals for 312 out of the 354 national schools. Many schools are functioning with acting principals instead of permanent principals, with political appointments being made instead.
Teacher wellbeing is affected by high workloads and stress Teachers are overworked, limiting the attractiveness of the profession and deterring them from remaining in the profession. In the UK, over two thirds of teachers are seriously considering leaving the teaching profession, and workload is cited as the number one reason for their desire to leave.170 EI’s Status of Teachers survey report revealed that in Japan, 41% of women teachers believe their working environment affected their experiences with pregnancy and childbirth, while 20% of those expecting a child reported “maternity disorders”, indicating high stress at work.
Some countries face a shortage of female teachers, especially in higher levels of education and rural areas Though teaching is a feminised profession overall, some countries suffer extreme shortages of female teachers, especially in secondary, TVET and higher education. This is detrimental to quality education, as the workforce should be diverse and representative of both genders (as well as all identities, ensuring the inclusion of racial, ethnic and sexual minorities and other minority groups). Participants at the EI World Women’s Conference noted that more gender-specific government support is needed for women to enter teaching at the higher levels of education. Furthermore, better data on teacher identities are important to ensure diversity. Eighty-five per cent (85%) of union respondents to the global Status of Teacher survey reported that the estimated number of migrant and/or refugee teachers practising in their countries was not nationally accessible data. Providing safe teaching and learning environments is crucial to attracting women to the profession. In Malawi, women are often deterred from accepting teaching posts in rural areas due to a lack of teacher housing and electricity, unsafe travel conditions and risk of sexual violence.
Female teachers lack access to leadership roles and suffer poor, gendered employment conditions Barriers to leadership opportunities for women are a global phenomenon. Even though the teaching profession is feminised at lower levels of the sector in much of the world, men hold the majority of leadership positions. Women around the world have to negotiate a complex labyrinth to become leaders and decision-makers within education institutions, at the policy level and within unions.
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Women dominate sectors of education with the worst employment conditions. Even though ECE is the level of education most crucial to children’s educational success, ECE workers often suffer exploitative employment conditions and ECE is the level of education with the most feminised workforce. A recent EI survey171 of over 7,000 education support personnel across seven countries in every region of the world showed that the majority of ESP are women. Most were between 40–60 years old and were likely to occupy caring roles in their families, either caring for their children or caring for older family members. They are subject to poor employment conditions including pay inequity, casualisation and precarity. The case study below (Box 13) describes in more detail the challenges faced by ESP in Brazil.
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170 NASUWT The Teachers’ Union. 2018. The Big Question. Retrieved from: https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/uploads/assets/uploaded/6c7508a4-9051-4d1d8cdedb297ed7170a.pdf 171 Education International. 2019. Understanding the Invisible Workforce: Education Support Personnel’s roles, needs and the challenges they face. Retrieved from: https://eiie.sharepoint.com/sites/eiwebsite/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems. aspx?id=%2Fsites%2Feiwebsite%2FShared%20Documents%2FDocument%20download%2FCOM_ESPday2019%2FEN%2FResearch_ESP_Final%20 Report%2Epdf&parent=%2Fsites%2Feiwebsite%2FShared%20Documents%2FDocument%20download%2FCOM_ESPday2019%2FEN&p=true&cid=14f c6a65-0fc5-41cd-8ea5-71171cf269ff
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