Education reforms incomplete if the welfare of teachers is left out
What you need to know:
- Since teachers are a fundamental condition to guarantee quality education, they and educators should be empowered, adequately recruited and remunerated, and more importantly, motivated.
- To carry out successful education reforms, the government needs to invest heavily in the capacity of teachers and educators and teaching as a profession should be made attractive to the top high school candidates.
Teachers are at the centre of any education system. There is also consensus that their performance is inextricably linked to learning outcomes.
It is against this backdrop that the World Education Forum, 2015, in Incheon, South Korea, recognised that the success of Education 2030 agenda requires sound policies and planning as well as sufficient and properly trained teachers.
It is also clear that the aspirations of the proposed sustainable development goals cannot be realised without a significant increase in financing to education.
During the forum, 160 countries, Kenya included, declared their determination to increase public spending on education and adhere to the international and regional benchmarks of allocating at least four to six per cent of their gross domestic product or 15 to 20 per cent of their total public expenditure to education.
It was during the Incheon conference that world leaders committed themselves to quality education and to improve learning and the mechanism to measure progress. The leaders vowed to ensure that teachers and educators are empowered, adequately recruited, well-trained, professionally qualified, motivated, and supported.
It was resolved during the forum that governments should, by 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for training in developing countries.
Since teachers are a fundamental condition to guarantee quality education, they and educators should be empowered, adequately recruited and remunerated, and more importantly, motivated.
Therefore, it is strange that the government intends to embark on a Sh40 billion education reform programme even before addressing major challenges in the sector.
It is worth noting that the economy cannot successfully implement the World Education Reform recommendations and at the same time finance the proposed changes.
Training teachers afresh to prepare them to implement the new education system is expensive and the Teachers Service Commission has no capacity to do this.
To carry out successful education reforms, the government needs to invest heavily in the capacity of teachers and educators and teaching as a profession should be made attractive to the top high school candidates.
Overhauling the current education system requires heavy investment in infrastructure, teaching tools, and learning equipment and resources. Teachers should be properly compensated and provided with decent working conditions.
While curriculum specialists, administrators, and institutions spend hours developing curriculum, it is the teachers who know best what it should look like.
After all, they work directly with the learners. To create a strong curriculum, teachers should play an integral role at every step of the process.
Teachers know the needs of their students and pupils better than the people currently involved in the curriculum reform process. While government standards often dictate the skills covered by the curriculum, a teacher can provide insights into the type of materials, activities, and specific skills that need to be included.
Since teachers must use the curriculum, they should have a big input in it. A teacher can gauge whether an activity will fit into a specified time frame and whether it will engage students. It is by providing input that teachers will own the final product and feel confident to implement it.
It is also important to note that investing in teachers has a direct impact pedagogically, especially if they are inspired and engaged. This would translate into learners’ achievement and the success of education. The terms and conditions of teachers need to be reviewed if the new curriculum is to be delivered smoothly.
The right to education makes it necessary to recruit and retain qualified and motivated teachers who should work in a safe environment, have access to appropriate tools and resources, and enjoy adequate working conditions and remuneration.
Spending a lot of money on changing the curriculum is not justified when other facets of education, including the quality of teachers and their terms and conditions of service, are not taken care of.
Mr Sossion is the secretary-general of the Kenya National Union of Teachers. [email protected]
