Teaching matters

Thank you, Purna, for a timely reminder of the importance of the 'skilling’ and ‘up-skilling' of teachers all around the world – and especially those of the developing countries. 

(See Purna Shrestha's Blog post - Take a stand for teachers: children are in schools but not learning – who’s to blame? @ http://blog.campaignforeducation.org/take-a-stand-for-teachers-children-are-in-schools-but-not-learning-whos-to-blame/#comment-3).

Time and again we have seen development projects measure outcomes by other more easily quantifiable success criteria - i.e. numbers of schools built, numbers of girl students and increases in enrolment ratios. Too little attention has really been paid to the quality of the teachers, their training and the quality of the teaching and learning environment. Too few studies have attempted to measure this outcome, and then lobby NGOs, INGOs and other development agencies to provide funding to focus on this area long term big time and to equip the governments of developing countries to focus on quality training for its teachers - matched by quality salaries. Or perhaps the studies and evidence have been there, but a deep commitment to tackle the problem has not.

“No one forgets a good teacher,” was the catch phrase for a famous advertising campaign in the UK some years ago, a campaign targeting young graduates to consider a career in teaching.  We all have our stories of good and not-so-good teachers, and often the quality of our (school) learning experience is  down to the quality of the teachers we had. Sounds obvious, but until the leaders and power brokers of this world match rhetoric with praxis and truly acknowledge the pivotal role that quality teachers can play in improving life chances for the children of the developing world (- and their key role in transforming societies and the part they play in sustainable economic & livelihoods development -) then we miss precious opportunities yet again to intervene to improve the educational experiences of the next generation.