Chapter 2. Progress towards the EFA goals - Unesco

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CHAPTER 2
Education for All Global Monitoring Report
Initial training and professional development
are also crucial to morale and effective teaching.
Teachers are the product of the education systems
they teach in. Where these systems are of low
quality it is even more important for teachers to
receive effective training and support throughout
their careers. Teachers need to understand the
content of the curriculum and be able to
communicate it to students of varying ability. In
many countries, initial training is not good enough
to develop these skills. To make matters worse,
many teachers do not even receive initial training.
In Mozambique, one recent evaluation found that
41% of primary school teachers were untrained
(Mulkeen and Chen, 2008). In-service training,
which is vital to build on initial skills, is also
poorly developed in many low-income countries
(Leu, 2004; Lewin and Stuart, 2003).
Conclusion
The ultimate aim of schools is to equip children
with the skills and knowledge they need to realize
their potential, develop secure livelihoods and
participate in society. Evidence presented in this
section suggests that many schools are failing to
meet even minimum standards for the quality of
education. Millions of children, especially those
from socially marginalized groups, are completing
their primary education without having acquired
basic literacy and numeracy skills. At the secondary
level, too, many education systems in developing
countries are characterized by low levels of
learning and high levels of inequality. Equipping
schools to provide good quality education will
require governments to focus more strongly on
recruiting and training teachers, supplying
textbooks and developing classroom practices
that promote active learning. Support for literacy
and reading in early grades has an especially
important role to play, as these skills create
the foundation for future learning.
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