Teachers will urge commitment to education in face of global recession

Teachers from Commonwealth countries will urge their governments to retain a commitment to education in the face of global recession at the Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in Malaysia next month.

The conference in Kuala Lumpur will run from 15 to 19 June 2009, bringing together ministers from across the 53 Commonwealth countries.

Representatives of the Commonwealth Teachers’ Group (CTG), a sub-group of the teachers’ global union federation Education International, will agree recommendations on a range of educational issues at the conference, and encourage ministers to adopt them as part of a Commonwealth-wide commitment.

Key recommendations are likely to relate to a United Nations goal to achieve universal primary school education by 2015. The Commonwealth is committed to the target, but some countries face particular challenges in meeting it, including providing the entitlement to girls as well as boys. If Commonwealth countries succeed, it will be a significant step to meeting the aspiration worldwide. The CTG will also discuss inclusion and equality for all children and young people in education, regardless of ethnicity, gender, disability, or other social and economic background factors.

The CTG is organising a Teachers’ Forum as part of the Commonwealth ministers’ conference for only the second time in the 50-year history of the event, after ministers agreed that it should become a permanent fixture at their previous conference, held at Cape Town, South Africa, in 2006.

Christine Blower, General Secretary of the UK’s National Union of Teachers (NUT) and Acting Convenor of the CTG, said: “The Teachers’ Forum will enable us to ensure that ministers’ decisions are informed by the expertise and experience of teachers who contribute so much to the cultural and economic well-being of their countries.

“Our recommendations will give us the opportunity to consider education policy beyond our individual countries and to work with ministers to develop education services throughout the Commonwealth which recognise that our priorities for education are interlinked and co-dependent. We’ll also find time to celebrate the many achievements and successes of teachers in the Commonwealth since we held our first forum three years ago.

“Although economies worldwide are under pressure, it is vital that we maintain and build on our collective investment in education, and recognise that education is central to the well-being and prosperity of our Commonwealth.”

Ms Blower became the CTG’s Acting Convenor following the sudden death last year of Steve Sinnott, the group’s first Convenor and her predecessor as General Secretary of the NUT.

The CTG intends to make recommendations that balance the interests of all Commonwealth countries, including the needs of urban and rural communities, small states, less economically developed countries, and countries facing specific challenges such as post-conflict reconstruction.

They are likely to restate their view that education should be provided by fully qualified teachers without over-reliance on less qualified – and less costly – staff. This is a significant demand for some Commonwealth countries, especially those less developed countries which have expanded their education provision rapidly in recent years to meet UN goals.

The CTG argues that qualified teachers are necessary to ensure that education is of sufficient quality to contribute to the sustainable development of societies and economies, although it recognises the pressure this can place on the infrastructures of some countries, especially in the short to medium term. The CTG has said in the past that where less qualified staff are employed as an emergency measure, schemes should be put in place to enable them to become fully trained teachers in the future. Such ‘emergency’ circumstances might occur particularly in countries where factors such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, natural disasters or previous conflicts have impacted on the teaching workforce and education services.

In the longer term, the CTG has proposed teacher exchanges between Commonwealth countries in order to develop and enhance teachers’ expertise throughout member states. It has also proposed that Commonwealth governments should agree a minimum percentage of national Gross Domestic Product to be committed to education and the development of the teaching profession.

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• Education
• Country Profile: Malaysia