More than 10 million new teachers needed by 2015 by UN Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization 7:05am 6th Oct, 2010   Oct 2010    The United Nations marked World Teachers’ Day with top officials calling on governments to make up a projected deficit of over 10 million teachers by 2015 and stressing the crucial role teachers play in recovery from natural disasters and conflict.    “Without sufficient numbers of well-trained and professionally motivated teachers, we risk falling short of the promise made 10 years ago at the World Education Forum to the world’s children and youth [of education for all by 2015], because teachers are at the heart of the education system,” the heads of four major UN agencies said.    UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Irina Bokova, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Anthony Lake and International Labour Organizations (ILO) Director-General Juan Somavia issued the joint statement.    “Low status, low salary and poor working conditions infringe on the rights of teachers whilst discouraging talented young people from joining and remaining in the teaching profession. The situation must be redressed at a time when the world needs an estimated 10.3 million new teachers to reach internationally-agreed education targets by 2015,” they added.    They stressed that teachers offer continuity and reassurance, both during and after natural disasters and other crises, by giving hope for the future and providing structure and a sense of normalcy and much-needed psycho-social support to ease the trauma of youngsters who have witnessed extreme violence or lived through destruction of their homes and the loss of family members, a major focus of the Day’s main celebration at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.    In their messages the UN agency chiefs returned repeatedly to the need to honour teachers for their critical role in society. “We appeal to governments, communities, national and international institutions worldwide to renew their commitment towards teachers, particularly in the poorest countries and those affected by conflict or disasters,” they declared.    “Recovery begins with teachers. We can best honour teachers by giving them decent working conditions to fulfil their mission of preparing the younger generation to become responsible citizens, equipped with the knowledge and skills to shape a sustainable future,” they concluded.    Oct 2010    Let''s keep our promise to the world''s children, by Kevin Watkins.    A target to halve school attendance gaps between rich and poor would be a step in the right direction if we are to meet the MDG on education    Every child knows that you shouldn''t break a promise. Yet governments are on the brink of breaking a millennium development goal (MDG) promise made to the world''s children – the promise of a decent quality basic education for all by 2015.    It is vital that world leaders seize the opportunity to act on the education pledge, not just because education is a basic human right denied to millions of kids, but also because education is one of the most powerful catalysts for accelerated progress in other areas. Give a kid a decent education today, and you are making an investment in economic growth, poverty reduction, child survival and democracy for tomorrow.    The good news is that we know the MDG target is achievable. Over the last decade there has been some extraordinary progress. The number of children not in school has fallen by 30 million. Some of the world''s poorest countries, like Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique and Kenya, are edging towards universal primary education. Gender gaps in enrolment are shrinking and in some countries, like Bangladesh, they are disappearing. While every developing country faces problems, some of the poorest have demonstrated that political leadership backed by effective policies and support from aid donors can break down the barriers to school.    So here''s a question. Why, in the midst of an increasingly knowledge-based global economy, do we still have more than 70 million children out of school? And here''s another question. Why is progress towards the goal of universal primary education slowing down to the point of stalling? Our most recent projections indicate that in 2015 there may well be more children out of school than there are today.    Headline numbers on how many children are not in school capture just one part of the problem. That''s because many kids who are in school are getting an education of abysmal quality. They are being taught in over-crowded classrooms by over-stretched, under-qualified and poorly supported teachers, often lacking books and pencils. Unsurprisingly, many come out of school lacking literacy and numeracy skills.    Governments around the world have been slow to grasp the fact that faltering progress in education has wider consequences. Education for all is one of the MDG foundation stones. It''s what equips and empowers vulnerable people with the skills they need to escape poverty, improve their health and participate in economic and political life.    Consider the links between education and the first millennium goal on poverty reduction. We estimate that if every child in a low-income country had left school with basic reading skills, there would be 171 million fewer people in poverty. That''s because education can enable smallholder farmers, slum dwellers and other groups to raise productivity and find more remunerative employment.    It''s the same story on child survival. We know from the evidence in one country after another that children born to educated mothers are far less likely to die before their fifth birthday. Universal secondary education for women in sub-Saharan Africa would reduce the number of child deaths by 1.8 million. That is why, alongside policies in nutrition and health, education should be seen as a key part of the world''s strategy for achieving a two-thirds cut in child deaths – the fourth millennium development goal.    The bottom line is that slow progress on education will act as a brake to progress across all of the millennium goals. The bad news is that we are just one primary school generation from failure to deliver on the pledge to achieve universal primary education by 2015. Delayed action is not an option for a very obvious reason. You have to invest now in building the classrooms and recruiting the teachers needed to deliver education in the years ahead.    So what needs to happen – and how can the MDG summit make a difference?    Of course, every country has to address its own problems and there are no blueprints. Many developing country governments – especially those in south Asia – spend far too little on their education systems, and pay insufficient attention to raising learning standards. Others have made remarkable advances. Tanzania has managed to get another 3 million kids into school over the last seven years and raise learning achievement levels, through increased spending and a strengthened commitment to early grade learning.    The bigger problem is the "I" word. Inequality remains the most potent destroyer of opportunities for education. In Nigeria, the average male from a wealthy, urban home can expect on average about 10 years of education. Meanwhile, poor girls in rural northern Nigeria average less than six months in school. Kenya is making sterling progress towards universal primary education – but its slum dwellers and pastoralists are being left far behind.    Unesco''s Education for All global monitoring report has documented the shocking scale of national disparities in education. It has also developed a data tool – the deprivation and marginalisation in education measure – that enables people in developing countries to see exactly who is getting left behind. That tool is helping to drag social disparities into the political spotlight, even though, as Madeleine Bunting rightly notes, it has not proven universally popular with governments.    Inequalities in education can be narrowed through practical policies. Gearing public spending towards the most deprived regions, building decent classrooms in deprived areas, and – crucially – creating incentives that link the best teachers to the most marginalised kids can all make a difference. So can cash transfer programmes and safety nets that enable poor parents to withstand the effects of drought, a sickness episode or a bout of unemployment without dragging their kids out of school.    But while national governments need to live up to their responsibilities, donors also have a role to play. Even with a scaled-up financial effort in developing countries, achieving the millennium education goals will require another $13bn in aid annually. Yet having promised to back strong national policies with the support needed for delivery, aid to basic education is stagnating.    So here are two simple prescriptions for world leaders. First, let''s put equal opportunity in education where it deserves to be – at the heart of the MDG agenda. Setting a target to halve school attendance gaps between rich and poor and the best and worst performing parts of a country would be a step in the right direction. Second, aid donors need to act on their part of the bargain, either by increasing aid or by putting in place some innovative financing solutions, such as an MDG tax on financial transactions.    Nobody is saying that a renewed global commitment on education will be easy to achieve. The MDG summit agenda is crowded. Governments will doubtless be able to find a thousand reasons for fudging commitments and delaying action. But there''s a very good reason to act now with urgency: you don''t break a promise made to the world''s children.    • Kevin Watkins is director of the UN''s annual report on the state of education around the world, the Education for All global monitoring report, published by Unesco. Visit the related web page
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