Teachers at heart of education recovery

OVER THE past week, there has been angst in the population about actions taken by teachers on September 30 with the stated intent of a repeat on World Teachers’ Day (WTD), October 5. With children having been home from physical school for the past 18 months and counting, alongside the recent state policy position that only vaccinated students of forms 4, 5 and 6 will be allowed to return to school physically, the debates rage on including a bit of teacher bashing.

Amid all of this arrives World Teachers’ Day, an annual global commemoration that seeks to acknowledge and recognise the importance of teachers to the education enterprise.

Each year, UNESCO, in collaboration with Education International and other key stakeholder groups, identifies a particular theme to focus the celebrations of WTD. This theme is usually informed by the prevailing circumstances impacting on the teaching profession. This year, the theme selected is “Teachers at the Heart of Education Recovery.” The intent behind this theme is articulated within the concept developed to guide the discussions to be engaged in globally during the week-long celebrations that will commemorate this recognition.

With the ongoing educational disruptions and school closures caused by covid19, the concept notes highlight that these conditions “have confirmed the crucial role of teachers in maintaining learning continuity, but also in sustaining the very dynamics of households, families and communities.” Yet, as one listens to the discourse around teachers currently occurring in Trinidad and Tobago, one cannot help but wonder if our policymakers and thought influencers recognise this and the need to create the context to enable teachers to fulfil their role as key actors in the recovery process.

An enabling environment for teachers to fulfil their role in the recovery process cannot be created through coercion, intimidation or bullying tactics. Rather, there is a need to ensure that the appropriate policy levers are enacted. There is a plethora of available research studies and reports that concur that “teacher quality is the single most important in-school factor influencing student achievement,” yet despite this “teachers remain under-recognised and underappreciated.” Furthermore, we must acknowledge the fact that teacher quality does not occur in a vacuum, but there is a role, indeed a responsibility, for the State to create the conditions to make this a reality.

The foregoing is even more critical given the exposure of the many fissures of our education system – poor physical school plants, inadequate resources, inequitable educational opportunities, and school dropouts, to name a few – with the onset and prevalence of the covid19 impact. If teachers are to indeed be at the heart of education recovery, the following policy levers have been identified as in need of attention by governments and their agencies: professional development, participation in decision-making and working conditions.

In terms of professional development, this means meeting teachers where they are and supporting them to improve their practices…and equipping them with the skills to use educational technologies to support learning and a shift to hybrid teaching and learning, adapting content and pedagogical practices to a diversity of learners with different needs, wants and aspirations.

There are certain adjustments that will be required which must be embedded into teacher training so that new practitioners will be better prepared for future crises, but even as we address this we must also ensure that current practitioners’ skills are targeted and addressed in an intentional and systematic way.

Governance and participation have been identified as among the biggest challenges facing educational systems – a situation to which we here in TT are no strangers. Policy support must enable the creation of channels for the participation of our teachers and their recognised majority union (in this case TTUTA) to actively participate in educational decision-making at different levels of education governance and management, including through social dialogue, participation in governing bodies of education institutions and in networks and communities of practice.

In terms of working conditions, teachers need to work in healthy, safe and enabling environments that are free from prejudice, including gender-based discrimination, and furnished with safety, decent working hours and remuneration, and career development opportunities. Not only would this promote the status of the profession, but it would also improve recruitment, retention, motivation and, ultimately, student learning.

As we celebrate this year’ World Teachers’ Day, why not afford educational professionals the support they need to enable us to effectively contribute to the educational recovery process so that we can fulfil the promise of being at the heart of it all.