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West African education officials agree to promote protocol for teacher recruitment

13 June 2008

The Commonwealth protocol aims to protect the integrity of national education systems and prevent the exploitation of the scarce human resources of poorer countries

Senior officials and teachers’ union leaders from Commonwealth West African countries agreed to promote the Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol when they met in Accra, Ghana, from 2 to 5 June 2008.

The meeting, which was hosted by Ghana’s Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, is the fifth in a series of regional gatherings of officials from teaching service commissions and teacher organisations that have been held in the Caribbean, Pacific, East Africa and Asia since early 2007. Participants were drawn from Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Roli Degazon-Johnson, an Education Adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat, explained that the regional gatherings are in line with the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) letter of agreement with the Secretariat to advance the status and protection of teachers and the teaching profession in the interest of good quality education within member states.

“The West Africa regional meeting brought together key stakeholders in education to advocate and promote implementation of the Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol. It also addressed Recommendations on the Status of Teachers from the ILO and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization which concern teacher mobility, retention, recruitment and migration,” said Dr Degazon-Johnson.

“There has been increased concern in recent years from a number of Commonwealth member countries at the loss of professionals as a result of targeted recruitment programmes, a problem that has caused particular difficulties for small states.”

Participants at the meeting agreed to lobby their countries to support a structured and well-managed programme of teacher exchanges and of trade in skills to boost professional development of teachers as well as strengthen and enrich education systems.

They also called for the development of a code of professional ethics for teachers as a means of strengthening their status, as well as the implementation of a leadership development programme for school managers and administrators.

Following a request by ministers of education at the 16th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in 2006, a review of the implementation of the Teacher Protocol will be undertaken in time for the next Commonwealth meeting among education ministers which will be hosted by the Government of Malaysia in June 2009.