Empowering teachers

Some years ago, while following a training course in London, I was waiting at a metro station when an advertisement pasted on the opposite wall caught my attention. It had just four words. Four words I will never forget. "Those who can, teach".

Indeed, the advertisement, which called on those willing to become teachers to apply to the education authorities, contained a powerful message - not everyone can teach. It takes something special to become a teacher - a person who guides the destinies of thousands of children over several decades of service. Our parents are our first teachers, but from age 5-6 onwards the teachers take over until we leave the education system as worthy citizens.

Lessons

Teachers not only teach you lessons from textbooks, but they also teach the lessons of life. In a way, it is the latter that finally makes you a fine man or woman, someone who is useful to society and others around you. It is the teachers who mould good future citizens. And having had a mother who was a teacher herself, I know that all too well. To her, all students were her sons and daughters, not just her own children. That is how teachers think. It is a noble, selfless thought. Teaching is undoubtedly one of the most noble professions on Earth. Teachers are people worthy of celebrating for what they bring into our lives: Knowledge, discipline, values and skills.

It is these special people that we will be honouring tomorrow on 'World Teachers Day'. Although we should be bearing in mind their contribution to make us what we are today every day, having a special day helps the society to focus on what more should be done to recognize and reward teachers.

"Empowering teachers, building sustainable societies" is the World Teachers' Day slogan for 2015. World Teachers' Day on October 5 highlights the fact that teachers must be empowered as a critical step towards quality education and sustainable societies.

Falling on October 5 every year, it has been celebrated worldwide under the auspices of UNESCO and Education International, the global teacher' trade union, since 1994.

The declared aims of the WTD are celebrating the teaching profession and improving international standards for the profession, mobilising support for teachers and ensuring that the needs of future generations will continue to be met by teachers.

Contribution

Teachers will be able to make an even bigger contribution if they are given more recognition, resources, training and facilities - in other words, empowered. It is recognized that teachers are not only a means to implementing education goals; they are the key to sustainability and national capacity in achieving learning and creating societies based on knowledge, values and ethics. However, they continue to face challenges brought about by staff shortages, poor training and low status.

The World Education Forum held recently in South Korea recognized this challenge: "We will ensure that teachers and educators are empowered, adequately recruited, well-trained, professionally qualified, motivated and supported within well-resourced, efficient and effectively governed systems (Incheon Declaration, WEF 2015).

The Incheon Declaration clearly recognized the importance of empowerment. At the forum 1,600 participants from 160 countries committed to 'ensure that teachers and educators are empowered, adequately recruited, well-trained, professionally qualified, motivated and supported within well-resourced, efficient and effectively governed systems'. The Oslo Summit, 'Education for Development', held in July 2015, also highlighted the need for further investment in teacher education.

Goals

The bottom line is that the world needs more teachers to realise the education goals of the newly announced UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs adopted at the UN Summit this year include a specific objective under Goal 4 to by 2030 "substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States".

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) estimates that to achieve the goal of universal primary education by 2020 all countries will need to recruit a total of 12.6 million primary teachers. The world will need to recruit 25.8 million school teachers to provide every child with a primary education by 2030. This total includes the creation of 3.2 million new posts and the replacement of 22.6 million teachers expected to leave the profession due to retirement and other reasons. However, 96 countries are still struggling to achieve universal primary education. According to UIS projections, only 37 countries (39%) will have enough primary teachers in classrooms by 2020 and the share will rise to 56% by 2025.

In countries that do have Universal Primary Education, schooling is compulsory for both sexes at least up to 14 years of age. Sri Lanka is one of the few developing countries with exemplary education statistics that often match those of the developed world, thanks to its free education policy, which covers the entire student life from primary grades to university.

There has been no discrimination whatsoever towards girls in this country, in sharp contrast several other countries in our region and other regions. But the lack of teachers for certain grades and subjects is an acute problem here too.

Facilities

Even if a school has all physical facilities such as desks and chairs, good classrooms, lab facilities and playgrounds, no school is truly complete without good teachers. One cannot think of education without thinking of teachers.

The perception of teaching as a profession is not all that rosy here and in many other countries. There should be a renewed drive to recruit trainee teachers which stresses the fact that teaching is a rewarding experience in more ways than one. Quite apart from any monetary consideration, good teachers always take pride in moulding good citizens who are useful to society. That is one of the perks of being a teacher and only a very few other professions can make the same claim.

More training should be given to those who are already in the profession, with attention to career enhancement and technology skills. Teachers must also evolve with the times, because even printed textbooks and traditional blackboards could go out of style in a decade or so. Teachers should be empowered in a variety of ways to make better societies in the future.