Developing countries in the Commonwealth are firmly committed to the attainment of the Education for All and Millennium Development Goals by 2015, particularly the goal of providing access to primary education to all children. Attaining these goals depends in large part on the availability of an adequate supply of well trained and highly motivated teachers and the provision of more opportunities for continuing professional development for primary and secondary school teachers.

Although significant levels of success have been recorded in expanding school enrolments and enhancing teacher supply since the endorsement of the Dakar Framework for Action in 2000 by these countries, many challenges need to be addressed.

Inadequate access to education

Despite recent progress, none of the Commonwealth developing countries has yet attained full Universal Primary Education. The Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) – the percentage of children in a country’s population enrolled in school – ranges from 60-90 percent. For example, India’s NER is 89 percent, South Africa 86 percent, Nigeria 64 percent, Ghana 73 percent and the Gambia 67 percent, according to UNESCO’s EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010. These figures indicate that there are millions of school age children who need to be provided access to basic education and for whom teachers have to be trained and recruited.

Insufficient supply of teachers

There are serious shortfalls in teacher supply that need to be addressed if Universal Primary Education is to be attained by 2015. It is projected that the stock of teachers for Sub-Saharan Africa must rise from 2.6 million in 2007 to 3.7 million in 2015, an increase of almost 50 percent, according to Projecting the Global Demand for Teachers (2009) from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Some specific country examples: Bangladesh needs to increase its number of teachers from 365,000 (in 2007) to 509,000, Kenya from 147,000 to 227,000, Malawi from 44,000 to 80,000, Nigeria from 580,000 to 704,000 and Uganda from 132,000 to 228,000.

The shortfall in teacher supply is described as a crisis by many, including teacher education expert Professor/ Bob Moon (see “Time for Radical Change in Teacher Education”, page 10).

Huge need for teacher recruitment

Equally challenging is the issue of teacher recruitment. For instance, to attain Universal Primary Education, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa must recruit almost as many teachers in the next eight years as are currently teaching now. Looking at just one country, Nigeria, UNESCO projects that with the growing demand for education, population growth and attrition of current teachers, the country must recruit almost one million teachers by 2015.

Limited capacity for teacher training

Some countries have made remarkable efforts to close the teacher gap. Yet these rates are still not sufficient to achieve Universal Primary Education by 2015. And expanding teaching forces require expanded teacher training. Existing conventional teacher training institutions lack the capacity to address these shortfalls in teacher supply, prompting the need to explore other alternatives, such as open and distance learning (ODL), for teacher education.

Disparities in Pupil-Teacher Ratios

The Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) looks rather impressive with many countries having a PTR of 40:1 or less than 40, the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010 finds. However, these impressive national averages hide a lot of disparities particularly rural-urban disparities in teacher supply. For example in Malawi’s rural schools, the average PTR was 77:1, compared with 44:1 in urban schools. Indeed, the ratio of pupils to trained teachers is 200:1 in some rural schools. And while the average PTR in developed countries is 14:1, in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is 44:1. These numbers reveal huge shortfalls in teacher supply for rural schools in many countries.

Unqualified teachers

A significant proportion of teachers in many countries are untrained or unqualified. For example only 49 percent of teachers in Ghana are trained/qualified, 51 percent in Nigeria and 75 percent in the Caribbean. This has far-reaching implications for the quality of tuition provided in schools. It is suggestive of the dire need for upgrading courses for these teachers. ODL strategies can and should be used to upgrade in-service teachers on the job without taking them away from their schools or disrupting their duties as teachers.

Inadequate continuing professional development

In almost all of these countries, there are very few (if any) opportunities for continuing professional development for primary and secondary school teachers. Given the dynamic nature of knowledge and skills and the changing learning needs of children in primary and secondary schools, this has had a negative effect on teachers’ performance and effectiveness. In many countries, a clear policy on in-service training is yet to be articulated.

Harnessing ODL for teacher training

There is widespread agreement that shortfalls in teacher supply cannot be addressed through conventional face-to-face training. Almost all Commonwealth countries have recognised this and are investing in ODL for teacher training.

COL is playing an important role by helping developing countries to build the capacity of their teacher training systems so that they adequately address the shortfalls in teacher supply and also enhance teachers’ quality, performance and effectiveness. Working in partnership with teacher training institutions, governments and other international agencies, COL is currently spearheading several major teacher education initiatives:

OERs for English Language Teaching (Pan-Commonwealth)

COL is working with educational institutions throughout the Commonwealth to develop open educational resources (OERs) in multimedia and traditional text formats to support school-based training for teachers working in the upper basic education sector. These resources will be freely available for use and adaptation.

“Green Teacher” programme (India)

Green Teacher is a one-year Diploma in Environmental Education for teachers and educators developed by India’s Centre for Environment Education in partnership with COL. Offered through distance mode, this continuing learning course teaches in-service teachers how to increase learning about environmental issues.

Child-Friendly Schools (10 Commonwealth countries)

Through a two-year partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), COL is promoting quality in education through the “Child-Friendly Schools” model. Working with partner institutions and Ministries of Education in 10 countries, COL is developing “train the trainer” workshops that introduce Child-Friendly Schools to teacher training institutions and teacher resource centres.

Dissemination of TESSA OERs (Uganda and Zambia)

Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) is a consortium of 18 organisations, including COL, that are collaborating to develop extensive multilingual open education resources (OERs) for teacher training. COL and TESSA have formed an additional partnership to promote the dissemination and use of TESSA resources by primary school teachers and teacher educators in Uganda and Zambia, to ensure the effective use of these teacher training resources.

Training for head teachers and principals (West Africa)

COL is working with Memorial University (Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada) to provide training to improve the professional skills and effectiveness of head teachers and principals in the Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Using print, audio and video training materials provided, these educators will, in turn, train other head teachers and principals in their countries.

Quality assurance (India, Jamaica, Nigeria)

COL collaborated with the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) in India and 18 teacher training institutions in the Commonwealth to develop a Quality Assurance Toolkit for Teacher Education. The Toolkit helps teacher training institutions conduct internal assessments and enhance the quality of their programmes. It has been disseminated through workshops in Jamaica, Nigeria and Papua New Guinea, and is freely available for download at www.col.org/QAToolkit_TE.

The success of the Universal Primary Education campaign has created an urgent need for more teachers – many more teachers, in some countries. Fresh new thinking and solutions are required. The focus of teacher training must shift to providing recurrent in-service programmes of professional learning. COL is working to help teacher education institutions offer quality ODL programmes that will enable teachers to upgrade their skills and qualifications. Increasing the number and quality of teachers is an essential element in the quest to achieve Universal Primary Education by 2015.