TEACHERS AND EDUCATIONAL QUALITY: Monitoring Global Needs for 2015 - UNESCO

TEACHERS AND EDUCATIONAL QUALITY: Monitoring Global Needs for 2015

TEACHERS AND EDUCATIONAL QUALITY: MONITORING GLOBAL NEEDS FOR 2015

UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, 2006

UNESCO

The constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was adopted by 20 countries at the London Conference in November 1945 and entered into effect on 4 November 1946. The Organization currently has 191 Member States and six Associate Members.

The main objective of UNESCO is to contribute to peace and security in the world by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science, culture and communication in order to foster universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights and fundamental freedoms that are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.

To fulfill its mandate, UNESCO performs five principal functions: 1) prospective studies on education, science, culture and communication for tomorrow's world; 2) the advancement, transfer and sharing of knowledge through research, training and teaching activities; 3) standard-setting actions for the preparation and adoption of internal instruments and statutory recommendations; 4) expertise through technical co-operation to Member States for their development policies and projects; and 5) the exchange of specialised information.

UNESCO is headquartered in Paris, France.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) is the statistical office of UNESCO and is the UN depository for global statistics in the fields of education, science and technology, culture and communication.

UIS was established in 1999. It was created to improve UNESCO's statistical programme and to develop and deliver the timely, accurate and policy-relevant statistics needed in today's increasingly complex and rapidly changing social, political and economic environments.

UIS is based in Montreal, Canada.

Published in 2006 by:

UNESCO Institute for Statistics P.O. Box 6128, Succursale Centre-Ville Montreal, Quebec H3C 3J7 Canada Tel: (1 514) 343-6880 Fax: (1 514) 343-6882 Email: publications@uis.

ISBN 92-9189-033-2

The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization.

The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

? UNESCO-UIS 2006

Cover and graphic design: JCNicholls Design ? Interior design conception: Sabine Lebeau Photos: ?UNESCO ? Gillette, A. / Tibet, V. / Bakary, E.D. / Jonqui?res, A. Printed by: Imprimerie L'Empreinte Ref: UIS/AP/06-01

To access the electronic version of data tables, see uis.publications/teachers2006.

Foreword

Massive teacher shortages are quietly looming over countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab States and South Asia and could risk efforts to provide every child with a good quality primary education by 2015. But it is not only the imperative of translating a target into sufficient numbers of teachers, but the support for teachers and teaching quality which will finally lead to the attainment of universal primary education.

This report provides a comparative assessment on the state of teachers and education quality based on a wide range of data sources, including school censuses, assessments of student and teacher knowledge, and statutory teacher data. It uses these data to highlight trends in teacher quantity and quality and explores the policy implications of bridging the gap between the two, especially in developing countries. It compares the strengths and shortcomings in the recruitment and deployment of teachers in countries around the world.

The greatest challenge lies in countries in sub-Saharan Africa. According to estimates presented in the report, the region will need to raise its current stock of teachers by 68% ? from 2.4 to 4.0 million ? in less than a decade. For example, by 2015, Chad will need almost four times as many primary teachers and Ethiopia will need to double its stock of primary teachers. Additional primary teachers will also be needed in countries in the Arab States and in South Asia.

Moreover, countries needing the most new teachers also currently have the least-qualified teachers. In countries that consider about nine years of schooling as the absolute minimum qualification to teach, 43% of teachers in the Congo and 55% of teachers in Lao PDR fall short of this standard. The report stresses that policies must address both teacher quantity and quality. Countries like Niger or Cambodia cannot achieve universal primary education simply by hiring more teachers but by training them well and by supporting them in the classroom. Quality teaching brings children into school and keeps them there.

At the same time, some countries will need fewer teachers because of declining school-age populations. China can expect to reduce its stock of teachers by 1.8 million in 2015, while more moderate reductions are projected for Brazil and India. This may provide an opportunity to improve education quality by investing more resources per teacher and pupil.

The report examines the recruitment and training of new teachers to better understand the trade-offs between increasing teacher supply and lowering educational standards. It also examines a set of policy variables associated with teacher deployment and working conditions ? namely instructional hours, class size and salary structure ? that can be adjusted to accommodate more pupils.

This report reflects the ongoing efforts of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) to draw on and further develop the `state of the art' in teacher-related indicators in order to provide a comparative perspective that informs policymaking. It uses a similar indicator framework as developed by the Indicators of National Education Systems (INES) project, which has made great strides in OECD countries. The UIS, together with the OECD, has already expanded this approach to the 19 countries that participate in the UIS/OECD World Education Indicators (WEI) programme. The special UIS data collection undertaken for this report carries this approach even further afield, resulting in a critical mass of countries across development contexts from which to analyse different policy approaches.

The use of this framework presents many new perspectives, but represents only a modest step towards a better understanding of teachers, teaching and education quality at the school level. Cross-national

surveys of student achievement, such as those cited in this report (e.g. SACMEQ, PIRLS, TIMSS) provide another important source of information on teachers. With a select group of WEI countries, the UIS is currently involved in the collection of data on teachers and teaching at the school level. The WEI Survey of Primary Schools has interviewed thousands of school headmasters and 4th grade teachers in ten countries to help shed light into the black box of classroom teaching and learning processes.

Finally, this endeavour is of some significance to the broader efforts of UNESCO towards improving education quality as the world seeks to achieve the 2015 EFA goals. The Analysis and Information team of the UIS has worked hard to see to it that one of the Institute's main statutory responsibilities ? to help Member States through better evidencebased policymaking ? is a reality.

Michael Millward

Director a.i. UNESCO Institute for Statistics

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