Teachers for Tomorrow’s Schools

A new UNESCO/OECD report highlights the balancing act policy-makers face in managing the teaching force, their choices and trade-offs.

While 99 per cent of Jordanian teachers hold a tertiary qualification, fewer than a quarter of Egyptian and Brazilian primary school teachers do. Teacher qualifications and salaries are comparatively low in Argentina. Some 40 per cent of education in Chile, Peru, the Philippines and Thailand is privately funded.

These are some of the findings of Teachers for Tomorrow’s Schools, a new report released by the OECD and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics which compares a range of education and teacher issues in eighteen (1) countries as part of the joint World Education Indicators Programme.

One of the most important balancing acts for policy-makers is that of matching teacher supply with changing demands. Rising enrolment rates in some cases have led to teacher shortage, the report shows. For example, by 2010 Paraguay will need to increase its teaching force by 24 per cent if it is to meet the goal of universal primary education and, to cater for current enrolment levels at the secondary level, by 23 per cent.

The report outlines different trade-offs that countries make relating to teachers’ working conditions: hours of teaching and instruction, class size and student-teacher ratios. In some countries, a lower than average teaching load is compensated by larger class sizes, while in others, smaller than average class sizes add to a light teaching load, increasing the salary costs per student. In Chile, Philippines and Thailand, for example, comparatively high salaries for primary teachers are compensated by long teaching hours or larger than average classes, while in Indonesia, low salaries and long teaching hours are partially offset by smaller classes. Uruguayan teachers enjoy particularly favourable working conditions: small primary classes (fewer than 13), short working hours and high salaries.

The balance between what is asked of teachers and what is offered to them can have a significant impact on the composition of the teaching force and the quality of teaching. Repetition, for instance, places a particularly heavy burden on teachers. In Brazil, Paraguay, the Philippines and Zimbabwe, between 30 and 50 per cent of students of secondary-school-age are enrolled in primary school as repeaters or late entrants. Managing classrooms with students of different ages and levels requires comparatively greater skills.

Teacher qualifications is another balancing act. According to the report, policy-makers need to ensure that the investment made in teachers is proportionate to the demands placed upon them. Many countries require tertiary qualifications for teaching at all levels of education. The lowest proportion of teachers with these qualifications are found in Brazil, China and Tunisia, the report reveals. Tunisia, where only 14 per cent of primary teachers have a post-secondary qualification, contrasts with Jordan where almost all primary teachers have.

The indicators relating to what is asked of teachers and what is offered them as well as the corresponding costs need to be considered together in order to establish whether teachers are being asked to do too much or too little.

Teachers for Tomorrow’s Schools shows that there is room for choice and that comparative analyses can be useful instruments for informing the debate. "Previously, this kind of data were only available for the world’s richest nations. These participating countries can compare themselves with each other and against the OECD benchmark," says Albert Motivans of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Teachers for Tomorrow’s Schools is essential reading for education ministry professionals, researchers or anyone interested in international or comparative education.

Contact: A. Motivans, UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

(1) Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Russian Federation, Sri Lanka,Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay and Zimbabwe.

Executive Summary in English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian

Early childhood choices

Developing nations that are keen to expand their early childhood services, often look to other countries for inspiration. Although early childhood policies are deeply embedded in national contexts and values, rich and poor countries share similar conceptions and have much to learn from each other.

Two joint OECD/UNESCO workshops organized in Stockholm as part of OECD’s International Conference on Early Childhood Education and Care (13-15 June 2001) provided participants with an opportunity to look at some policy options.

One of these is the conceptual demarcation of "care" (0 to 3) and "education" (3 to 6) along the child’s age. While it is generally accepted that learning begins at birth, educational opportunities for young ones are not likely to start before 3 in both developed and developing countries. But, unlike their counterparts in the South, parents in industrialized countries can benefit from government support in the form of maternal or parental leave or tax relief to allow them to play their roles as carers and educators.

A relatively polemical policy issue in developed nations is that of co-ordination of early childhood policies, especially when they come under the purview of different ministries (education, health and social welfare). An emerging trend is to bring all early childhood services under the responsibility of a single ministry; in Sweden, United Kingdom and Spain, it is the education ministry; in Denmark and Finland, the social welfare ministry. While the single system makes for better co-ordination and continuity of policies, it requires that the responsible ministry appreciates the holistic nature of child development and reflects it in policy making. "It must not over-emphasize the education aspect above that of care or vice versa," says Soo-Hyang Choi of UNESCO's Early Childhood and Family Education Section, explaining that, in the case of the education ministry, not only must it prepare the child for primary education, but it must also ensure that the child’s health and psychosocial development needs are met.

North and South, parents’ involvement in the child’s development is essential, albeit for different reasons. In the North, authorities, convinced of parents’ unique knowledge of the child, seek to create close relationships between parents and professional staff. In developing countries where professional, centre-based services are more rare, parents are mobilized to substitute for professionals. Consequently, they see themselves (wrongly) as mere substitutes and once professional services become available, tend to withdraw. "We must help them re-discover their unique role in their child’s development," adds Soo-Hyang Choi.

Mindful of these policy options, UNESCO's Ministerial Auspices and Financing for Early Childhood programme assists developing countries in reviewing their policies and in adopting solutions that correspond best to national contexts and values.

Contact: S.H. Choi, Early Childhood and Family Education Section.