Teachers key to meeting major Commonwealth challenges – McKinnon

"The world faces two problems with its teachers. First, there simply aren't enough teachers. Second, the teachers that are there are not sufficiently trained to do their jobs properly," he said in a keynote address at the World Teachers' Day Conference on 5 October 2006.

Mr McKinnon saw a crisis both for pupils and for teachers. "Two-thirds of the 115 million children around the world who don't go to primary school are from the Commonwealth. Likewise, two-thirds of the 65 million girls out of school. And just look at teachers in one country, South Africa. Two years ago, 4,000 died of HIV/AIDS and 21,000 left the country for pastures new."

Highlighting the Commonwealth's role in supporting teachers, the Secretary-General discussed progress made since the signing of the September 2004 Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol to manage the voluntary migration of teachers.

"We should be proud that governments, non-governmental organisations like Education International, and bodies like the International Labour Organisation have recommended the adoption of the protocol. It has made the British Government revisit its own procedures for hiring Commonwealth and other teachers coming to work in the UK, and it has been the basis of bilateral agreements for teacher exchanges between countries such as Kenya and Rwanda," he said.

Mr McKinnon paid tribute to the Secretariat's partners at the Commonwealth Teachers' Grouping and the National Union of Teachers, who co-organised the World Teachers' Day Conference 2006. The day-long event saluted teachers across the Commonwealth. Its theme was 'Optimising Commonwealth teacher potential'.

The full text of Mr McKinnon's speech is available here.

Key Links:

• Education Section
• World Teachers’ Day Conference Speech by Rt Hon Don McKinnon