Teachers for All â GCE policy briefing (566KB) - VSO

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Summary of recommendations to improve teacher motivation, morale and statusOnce again, the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers providesready-made recommendations for governments and donors on teacher salaries:1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers‘Teachers’ salaries should:(a) reflect the importance to society of the teaching function and hence the importance ofteachers as well as the responsibilities of all kinds which fall upon them from the time of theirentry into service;(b) compare favourably with salaries paid in other occupations requiring similar or equivalentqualifications;(c) provide teachers with the means to ensure a reasonable standard of living for themselvesand their families as well as to invest in further education or in the pursuit of culturalactivities, thus enhancing their professional qualification;(d) take account of the fact that certain posts require higher qualifications and experience andcarry greater responsibilities’ (ILO/UNESCO, 1966:11–12).In addition, the following recommendations on teacher motivation, morale and status can bedrawn from the preceding discussion.• Salary levels should be decided nationally in properly organised collective bargainingprocedures with teachers’ unions, using comparisons with similar professions in the samecountry and with teaching positions in neighbouring countries as a starting point.• In countries with large non-state sectors with different salary structures, rich countries mustwork with governments to bring all teachers onto the same government payroll, bringingschools that have been privatised or ‘sub-contracted’ out to non-state providers back into thegovernment system.• Governments should work together with teachers’ unions and civil society education coalitionsat national, regional and international levels as allies to lobby donors for increased, long-term,predictable aid to finance increases in teacher salaries, as well as increases in teacherrecruitment and training costs.• Where decentralisation of salary payment, policy communication and consultation, andmonitoring and evaluation has taken place, high priority should be given to the improvement ofthose systems and capacity development, as well as improved incentives, training, professionaldevelopment and management for district or provincial staff newly responsible for payingsalaries.• Housing, travel, health and other incentives and benefits discussed above should be used as acomplement to salary rises – especially in rural or otherwise disadvantaged areas, where‘hardship’ allowances can also be utilised.• The introduction of both pre- and in-service training and professional developmentprogrammes for head teachers and other education managers should be a high priority. Headteachers and other managers also need to be equipped with enough support staff to perform therequired administrative tasks and free up managers’ time for teacher management.• National policy makers should ensure that schools include more promotional levels to allowteachers to progress up the pay scale and be rewarded for good performance. Continued58
professional development programmes should work alongside the promotion system to ensuredevelopment opportunities are provided for future educational leaders and managers.• Safeguards and disciplinary procedures should be put in place – in the form of laws, guidelines,codes of ethics, and monitoring and evaluation systems – to prevent discrimination against andpromote equal opportunities for female, disabled, ethnic or caste minority, or HIV positiveteachers in promotion procedures and the allocation of privileged duties.• Two-way communication and consultation mechanisms (such as newsletters, participatoryaction research, opinion polls, surveys, questionnaires and radio and television phone-indiscussions – as well as more formal consultative meetings and workshops) should beinstituted to allow all stakeholders to feed in their ideas on national level policy proposals andon implementation successes and problems. Opportunities for consultation on national reformplans should be well advertised and held in all areas of a country, in locations that areaccessible for rural as well as urban-based teachers.• At the very least, ministries of education should engage in regular and constructive dialogueabout education evaluation and reforms with teachers’ union representatives and civil societyeducation coalitions. Teachers’ unions should be supported by governments, donors andinternational NGOs to develop holistic positions on quality education issues and governmentpolicy and practice.• Media, public awareness or teacher recruitment campaigns should be used to enhance theimage of teachers by highlighting messages about successful and motivated teachers, andstudents who are succeeding because of their teachers’ efforts.• Adequate arrangements should be made for maternity and paternity leave and both male andfemale teachers should have the right to request temporary part-time hours upon their returnto work, without loss of pay, pension rights or opportunities for promotion. To encouragewomen to enter or remain in the teaching profession, other benefits such as housing close toschools, posting female teachers in schools near their own communities and lower entryrequirements for teacher training colleges should also be instituted.59
Page 2 and 3:
CONTENTSAcknowledgements 3Acronyms
Page 4 and 5:
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONSAIDS Acqu
Page 6 and 7:
(EFA) goals 7 demand even greater e
Page 8 and 9: service training should be coordina
Page 10 and 11: Recommendations on the costs of qua
Page 12 and 13: 2. THE WORLD DESPERATELY NEEDS MORE
Page 14 and 15: Cameroon‘Four teachers for six cl
Page 16 and 17: themselves two majors cause of the
Page 18 and 19: 1. attend the funerals of friends o
Page 20 and 21: Jamaica‘Jamaica is another stop o
Page 22 and 23: There are also often marked regiona
Page 24 and 25: communities (Seel, 2003). There is
Page 26 and 27: 3. A GOOD TEACHER IS A TRAINED TEAC
Page 28: lessons or control classes. As a re
Page 31 and 32: ISCED 4: Post-secondary, non-tertia
Page 33 and 34: Minimum standards for primary teach
Page 35 and 36: use of learning materials; they mus
Page 37 and 38: and Sperling 2004:65). Such beliefs
Page 39 and 40: were similarly narrated about how H
Page 41 and 42: secondary qualification and one or
Page 43 and 44: environments, and promoting greater
Page 45 and 46: Housing, travel, health and other i
Page 47 and 48: Teachers need effective management,
Page 49 and 50: elsewhere) are conspicuous by their
Page 51 and 52: from organisations that have a duty
Page 53 and 54: ‘…reduces corruption and improv
Page 55 and 56: decentralisation processes - leadin
Page 57: women have adequate arrangements fo
Page 61 and 62: even where public spending matches
Page 63 and 64: Investment in education should be s
Page 65 and 66: Vicious circles: the role of condit
Page 67 and 68: The answer to the World Bank’s qu
Page 69 and 70: REFERENCES1. ActionAid Internationa
Page 71 and 72: 38. GCE/ActionAid (2005b), Deadly I
Page 73 and 74: 76. UNESCO (2006b), The Role of Tra
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Teachers for All â GCE policy briefing (566KB) - VSO