17/10/2024
The National Education Union has urged the UK Government to prioritise action to tackle the global teacher recruitment and retention crisis in its development priorities, in a new report published on Friday.
The report, Prioritise Teachers to Transform Education, published on the eve of World Teachers’ Day, calls on the Labour Government to invest in education at home and internationally and put the world’s teachers at the heart of its education mission.
Globally 44 million additional teachers are needed to achieve sustainable development goal 4 and deliver universal primary and secondary education for all children and young people by 2030.
The report puts forward a series of recommendations for how the Labour Government can support children globally to access a qualified, well-trained and well-supported teacher. It argues for
the development of a new global teacher strategy to support the recruitment, retention and training of qualified teachers in the Global South.
Ministers are also urged to enhance collaboration with teachers’ unions, source countries and international agencies to address the teacher shortage crisis.
It also calls for a Global Fund for Teachers’ Salaries to ensure that children’s education can continue during times of emergency.
The report also outlines how government policies in recent years – illustrated most notably by the failure to recruit and retain adequate numbers of UK trained teachers – have exacerbated shortages of qualified teachers across the Commonwealth. This follows recent reports into the second-rate rights and terms and conditions experienced by overseas trained teachers in England, with teachers being paid thousands of pounds a year less than English-trained recruits with similar levels of experience.
Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“Just as thousands of additional teachers are required in the UK, millions more teachers are needed globally.
“The Labour Government has rightly put education at the heart of its mission to spread and expand opportunity. They know that a solution to the recruitment and retention crisis will make a big difference in the ability of schools to support every child. This is true in the UK and magnified across the globe.
“A child in Lagos has the same right to access a qualified teacher as a child in Liverpool. We urge the UK to accept its share of responsibility for the global teacher shortage and work with us to deliver the quality education that every child deserves.”
David Edwards, General Secretary of Education International, said:
“As the global voice of the teaching profession, Education International is united with the NEU in building a world in which every educator is safe, valued, and respected and where the right to education is realised for all.
“Investing in teachers is investing in our common future. Education International is proud to endorse the NEU’s new report on the global teacher shortage. We add our voice to the growing calls for the Labour Government to prioritise teachers to transform education and to fulfil its pledge to create a world free from poverty on a liveable planet.”
Carlos Vargas, Chief of Section for Teacher Development at UNESCO and Head of the Secretariat for the International Taskforce on Teachers for Education 2030, said:
“At UNESCO and the International Teacher Taskforce we have identified that the world needs 44 million additional teachers by 2030 to meet the Sustainable Development Goal for education. We warmly welcome the NEU’s new report which outlines the fundamental role that the UK Government can play in addressing the teacher recruitment and retention crisis at home and internationally.
“I was delighted to attend the NEU’s roundtable at Labour Party Conference last month to discuss how tackling the global teacher shortage can unlock the UK’s international development agenda. Without adequate focus on, and financing for, teachers and teacher policy, global commitments on SDG 4 and other development priorities will not be met.”
Original Article: neu.org
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