By Susan Hopgood, President, Education International                                                                             

As the United Nations High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession releases its recommendations, I write both as a Panel member and as the President of Education International, representing education workers around the globe. For more than 30 years as a federation of 373 member organisations in 180 countries and territories, representing 32 million teachers and other educators, our commitment has been to ensure that every child has access to a well-supported, qualified teacher and a quality learning environment.

Yet, the promise of quality education for all remains elusive due to the persistent challenge of financing. Despite global commitments, many nations fail to allocate sufficient public resources to their education systems. Without a substantial increase in funding, achieving inclusive and quality education for every student everywhere by 2030 remains a distant goal.

As a consequence of a chronic underinvestment in education, we are now in the grips of an escalating crisis, an unprecedented global shortage of 44 million teachers, education system resources down in 65% of low- and middle-income countries and 33% of upper-middle and high-income countries since the start of the pandemic, and literally half the world’s population living in countries that spend more on debt interest payments than on education or health. The crisis is so pervasive, it prompted UN Secretary-General António Guterres to convene the High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession to focus on meeting our shared global education goals.

The process of formulating the Panel recommendations was informed by reports from every corner of the globe. From France to Chad, Australia to Mexico, the consultations illuminated the stark realities and diverse challenges facing the teaching profession. In France, we heard about classrooms without full-time teachers and the growing reliance on contract staff. From Chad, a country where an estimated 67% of teachers lack qualifications, the call for professional recruitment and training echoed loud and clear. Germany’s educators spoke of 80,000 teachers missing, while in Scotland, the gender pay gap in education painted a picture of persistent inequality, exposing the global trend of female labour being undervalued.

Expanding on these stories, in Norway, educators highlighted the need for improved professional development and support to retain teachers, pointing to the broader issue of teacher wellbeing and career satisfaction. In Togo, despite a large pool of qualified teachers, financial constraints severely limit the ability to recruit and retain these professionals, underlining the global financing challenge in education. Sri Lanka’s experience, like Australia, emphasised the rural-urban divide, with rural areas facing significant teacher shortages, suggesting the need for targeted policies to encourage teaching in underserved locations. Mexico’s story of social dialogue and improvement in teacher working conditions reminded us that change is possible through collective action.

These accounts underscore the critical need to address the teacher shortage crisis as a global phenomenon requiring concerted, collaborative action.

A promise for every child

The path forward is both urgent and clear. First, taking on the pressing challenge for governments and authorities at every level to make substantive investments in the teaching profession. As the Panel’s Recommendation 17 states: “Long-term funding for well-qualified and well-supported teachers is an investment in the quality and sustainability of education systems.”

This includes ensuring competitive salaries for teachers, in line with those in other professions requiring similar levels of education. Research in the field of labour economics consistently shows that competitive compensation is crucial for attracting and retaining quality educators.

Equally critical is the need to address the overwhelming workloads facing teachers, allowing adequate time for planning, collaboration, and a work-life balance. The increase in administrative tasks and the collapse of support services have dramatically added to pressures and responsibilities placed on teachers, leading to burnout and a negative impact on student learning.

Moreover, the trend towards precarious and insecure employment in teaching must be reversed. The march towards insecure work contracts and the decline in salaries, especially given the gendered nature of these trends, have made the profession less attractive. The Panel recommendations make a clear call to end precarious, contract employment.

The High-Level Panel underscores the imperative of valuing and respecting teachers, emphasizing that social dialogue and collective bargaining are key to placing them at the heart of decision-making processes, recognizing their pedagogical expertise and giving them an active role in creating and strengthening education systems that are equitable, inclusive, and capable of meeting the needs of all students.

Investing in these areas is crucial for raising the status of the teaching profession and ensuring that every child has access to a well-respected and adequately supported qualified teacher, now and for generations to come. This requires comprehensive workforce analysis and planning, and the revitalisation of public education systems that have suffered under policies promoting market-driven reforms, austerity and deregulation.

The Panel recommendations also call for a re-evaluation of the roles played by International Financing Institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, urging a shift from policies that have undermined teaching and learning, such as steering countries to constrain the public sector wage bill.

As the global voice of the teaching profession, Education International is committed to tirelessly advocating for the implementation of these recommendations at all levels of governance. At a global level, our member organisations are united in a campaign – Go public! Fund education – to make governments accountable to fulfil their obligations to fully fund public education systems and invest in the teaching profession. No child should be denied their right to education, and no teacher should have to work under conditions that undervalue their essential contribution to society.

Now is the time for decisive action to fulfil public education’s promise of empowerment, equality and social justice. It’s time to go public and fund education.