Apt training, hiring and promotion policies make good tutors

There are close to 85 million teachers worldwide: 9.4 million in pre-primary; 30.3 million in primary; 18.1 in lower secondary; 14.0 in upper secondary; and 12.5 in tertiary education.

Research shows that the quality of teachers is a major determinant of children’s learning and well-being. Going from a poor-performing teacher to a great teacher can increase student learning by multiple years of schooling. Great teachers also have a substantial impact on the well-being of students throughout their lives, affecting not only their academic achievement, but also other long-term social and labour outcomes. 

Yet, a large share of children do not have access to high quality teachers. A survey in six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa showed three worrying facts.

First, high teacher absence leads to students receiving only two hours and fifty minutes of teaching per day, just over half the scheduled time.

Teachers being absent is the clearest symptom of a lack of understanding of the importance of the teacher-student interaction for learning.

Second, 84 per cent of grade 4 teachers have not reached the minimum level of mastery of the curriculum they teach. 

Third, less than 1 in 10 teachers exhibit good teaching practices, such as regularly checking for student’s understanding and providing feedback. 

Studies in Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Lao PDR, Peru, and Tanzania show similar quality issues in different settings. 

Poor teaching is not the fault of the teachers, but the result of system-level policies that do not appropriately recruit, prepare, support, manage, and motivate teachers. A handful of countries, such as Finland, Japan, and Singapore, boast a cadre of successful teachers.

In most other countries, teacher policies are either ineffective or lack internal consistency. Entry into teacher preparation programmes might lack selectivity, and teacher entry-level qualifications might be set much lower than other professions. Good teacher performance might not be recognised or rewarded. Teachers hiring or promotion might be stained by politics or clientelism. Unprepared and poorly trained teachers might be expected to teach a complex curriculum, which even they have a weak grasp on.  Covid-19 has deepened the crisis.

The pandemic has challenged education systems to ensure learning continuity, substantially increasing the demands placed on teachers.