Education For All Global Monitoring Report : Teaching and learning: Achieving quality for all

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The 11^th Education for All Global Monitoring Report, Teaching and Learning: Achieving Quality for All, warns that without attracting and adequately training enough teachers the learning crisis will last for several generations and hit the disadvantaged hardest. 

With 57 million children out of school and 250 million failing to learn the basics, the report calls for a renewed focus on recruitment, training and policies that ensure that the best teachers reach learners who need them the most.

“Teachers have the future of this generation in their hands,” said UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova. “We need 5.2 million teachers to be recruited by 2015, and we need to work harder to support them in providing children with their right to a universal, free and quality education.”

Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 58% of the world’s need for additional primary teachers, amounting to approximately 225,000 new teachers to be recruited per year between 2011 and 2015 to meet the goal of universal primary education. However, over the past decade the average annual increase in the region has been only 102,000. 

The UIS, which is the primary source of data for the report, estimates that the need in sub-Saharan Africa will grow to 2.1 million by 2030 if current trends continue.

The report makes a number of recommendations for a robust post-2015 global education framework, including commitments to equity and learning, so that all children are not only in school but acquiring the skills they will need to find secure, well-paid work.

As the report notes, quality must be a strategic objective in post-2015 education plans. Setting goals that are clear and measurable and that allow tracking and monitoring will be essential for governments and donors, and enable the current gaps to be bridged.

To that end, as part of the Learning Metrics Task Force, the UIS is working to develop a range of indicators designed to deepen insight on the quality of schooling during the primary years and sharpen the focus on areas of need.

The EFA Global Monitoring Report is an annual publication prepared by an independent team based at UNESCO. It monitors progress towards the six EFA goals adopted in Dakar, Senegal in 2000. The UIS is a key member of the EFA monitoring team, providing statistical annexes and analysis which lay the foundations for the report.