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• Teachers Forum Opening Session (16CCEM)

Teachers Forum Opening Session (16CCEM)

Date: 10 Dec 2006
Speaker: Deputy Secretary-General Ransford Smith
Location: Cape Town, South Africa

Chairperson: Honourable Ministers: Excellencies: Ladies and Gentlemen:

First, let me welcome you all to this Teachers Forum at 16CCEM here in Cape Town. As you may know, this is the first ever Teachers Forum at a Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers Meeting. You may also know, the impetus for this Teachers Forum came from Commonwealth Education Ministers themselves at the 15th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in Edinburgh in 2003. This is therefore a historic event and we are very encouraged to see teachers represented from so many Commonwealth countries.

Our thanks go to our South African hosts, the South African Council of Educators and to the Commonwealth Teachers Grouping for making such excellent arrangements for this meeting. We are pleased to see the Commonwealth Teachers Group growing in strength and we are delighted that it will be launched formally at this Conference. The Commonwealth Teachers Group will be a strong frontline partner in our efforts to address education issues in the Commonwealth and attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All.

Chairperson, the status of the teaching profession has demonstrably been a preoccupation for the Commonwealth for almost 50 years. The Commonwealth Education Ministers' Conferences in 1959, 1962, 1964 and 1968 all had one major concern - the development and supply of teachers in the newly independent countries of the Commonwealth. Indeed, Ministers at those meetings devoted significant time to discussing teacher training, teacher supply, and inter-governmental technical assistance in education within the Commonwealth. Member countries rallied to assist each other by supplying teachers and related technical assistance to the developing countries of the Commonwealth. The teaching profession has never disappeared from the agenda of Commonwealth ministerial meetings. The 11th CCEM held in Barbados in 1990 focused on improving the quality of basic education and Teachers again featured prominently in the overall discussion and search for solutions. It was that meeting that led the Secretariat to join international efforts to revitalise education in Africa, later resulting in the Secretariat taking on the leadership of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa's (ADEA) Working Group on the Teaching Profession in Africa. The 16th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers beginning tomorrow in this historic city will also focus on issues of teacher supply and professional development. And finally, the Commonwealth Secretariat's forward work plan for 2007-2010 puts the teaching profession as the centre piece of our programme.

As a son of a Commonwealth teacher myself, I am pleased to note that the teaching profession has remained at the top of our Commonwealth education agenda. We know it is possible to have a school without buildings and books, but not without a teacher.

The latest UNESCO figures show 77 million children out of school globally. An estimated 27 million are in 41 Commonwealth countries. To our great distress, six Commonwealth countries alone each have more than 1 million children of primary school age out of school. The majority of children out of school in the Commonwealth are girls.

There are many contributing factors including poverty and cultural reasons but a major reason is the severe shortage of trained teachers in certain Commonwealth regions and countries. It is estimated that sub-Saharan Africa needs an additional 1.6 million teachers if the region is to reach Universal Primary Education (UPE) by the Millennium Development Goal target date of 2015. And let us be clear, UPE is not an ambitious target. Which of us in this audience would wish our children to finish their education at primary school? We all want our own children to continue to secondary and tertiary levels and along the way to acquire marketable skills and broader knowledge that will enhance their life chances and development as people. And that is also the aspiration of parents in low income counties and households. They want no less for their children than we want for ours. Sadly, on present trends some Commonwealth countries are not on track to reach UPE by 2050, let alone 2015. We cannot allow that to happen.

In addition to the shortage of teachers, many of our low income Commonwealth member states have large numbers of untrained teachers, high pupil-teacher ratios, inadequate professional support for teachers, migration or loss of qualified teachers, teacher losses due to HIV/AIDS, low remuneration, high teacher vacancies in rural areas, absenteeism and low morale amongst the teaching profession. These are severe challenges indeed.

The activities of the ADEA Working Group of the Teaching Profession led by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the development of the 2004 Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol have both helped us address some of the issues affecting teachers. But we have a long way to go before we can resolve the challenges faced by some Commonwealth member states in education.

Teacher organisations are an essential part of the solution, which is why we are so pleased that you are here. We encourage you to work together with Ministries of Education, other government institutions, civil society and parents to address teacher profession issues and the quality of education.

Before, I conclude, I would like to stress that we are keen to strengthen the rights of teachers. However with rights comes obligations and accountability. Our Commonwealth Teacher Protocol states that very clearly. As such, teachers carry a heavy responsibility for the children in their care. Along with the rights of the teacher are the rights of the child, and both are equally important to us. We expect teacher's organisations to set high standards of behaviour for this noble profession and to take action against those members who violate these codes of conduct and standards.

I conclude by wishing all of you a stimulating and enjoyable meeting in Cape Town. Our purpose for being here this week is a serious one. As the theme of our ministerial meeting says we are committed to ensuring 'Access to Quality Education: For the Good of All'. Every Commonwealth child has the right to a quality education and we intend to make that commitment a reality. And this reality is only possible if teachers are at the forefront of this endeavour.

Thank you.