Education International Research
Quality, relevant, free teacher training must be made a higher priority In order to provide quality education, teachers must receive quality initial education and training, including in-service training. Yet professional development and support is often scarce, expensive low in quality and irrelevant to the needs of teachers and education support personnel. Teachers are often expected to pay for their own CPD — the EI Status of Teachers survey found that even in Europe, only 20% of unions indicated that the state covers the full cost of teachers’ professional development. In-service training for teachers has become increasingly privatised and fragmented in some countries. This is cause for concern about the quality of the training, which is why it is important for governments to maintain strict quality standards. In India, educators report that over 90% of teacher training colleges are private. In the UK, channels into the profession are highly diversified, and teachertraining institutions have considerable freedom over the content provided in training. Trainees report that they received very limited training that prepared them to teach learners from diverse backgrounds or learners with special educational needs (SEN). Few providers are likely to offer training that addresses the SDGs.
Trained versus qualified teachers There has been some confusion within the international community regarding the definitions of “trained” and “qualified” teachers in the SDG agenda. Though Target 4.c refers to “qualified” teachers, the global indicator refers to teachers who have received the minimum amount of organised teacher training necessary to teach at the relevant level in a given country, and the current thematic indicators monitor both trained and qualified teachers separately. Four years have passed since the adoption of the SDGs, but there is still no common understanding of what defines a trained and qualified teacher. The UIS defines a qualified teacher as one who has the necessary academic qualifications to teach (i.e. the level of education a teacher has completed). However, this definition conflicts with the Incheon Declaration, which commits to ensuring teachers are “professionally qualified”. In line with the Incheon Declaration, EI understands a qualified teacher to be someone who holds the prerequisite academic qualifications to enter training and who has been trained and subsequently certified, accredited and licensed to teach. For example, teachers in England must hold a Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) certification. In Mali, teachers need to pass a national examination. In many countries, one simply needs to register with the relevant teachers’ registration council or equivalent body, but not all countries have an additional mechanism for qualifying teachers after training; teachers are therefore automatically qualified to teach after completing their training. To raise the status of the teaching profession and ensure that all students have access to quality teachers, governments must monitor and ensure that all teachers are both highly trained and professionally qualified.
GRO.EI-IE
In far too many countries, professional autonomy and trade union rights are under attack Professional autonomy is essential at every level of education, yet many unions in both high- and lowincome countries consider political influences in education to be stifling their professional and academic freedom. In Germany, the Netherlands and Brazil, alt-right parties have been urging students to report what teachers say and teach in the classroom. In May 2019, a teacher in Italy was suspended for 15 days after being accused of “not supervising her student’s work” in connection with her students’ critical analysis of government policy.177
0302 NOITA CUDE
According to the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, the right to association must be universally enjoyed. One hundred and sixty-six (166) countries have ratified ILO Convention 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining. Twenty-one (21) countries have not (of these, Oman, Palau and Tonga are submitting VNRs this year). However, even some countries that have ratified the convention do not have valid collective agreements in practice. For example, at 177 See: https://www.ei-ie.org/en/detail/16265/in-italy-unions-mobilise-to-defend-academic-freedom
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