Justin Tomlinson MP Chairs the Meeting with (L to R) Christine Blower (General Secretary, NUT)
Matarr Baldeh (Gambian National Coordnator, EFANet) and Marg Mayne (Chief Executive, VSO)
Justin Tomlinson MP today chaired the meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group On Global Education For All which met to discuss a report produced by the VSO and EFANet. The report, entitled ‘Valuing Teachers’, examines gender and equality in education in Sub-Saharan Africa. The meeting was an opportunity to celebrate the achievements teachers have made in education in Sub-Saharan Africa, but also to investigate some of the challenges that remain and how the UK might be able to help.
Last Wednesday was World Teachers Day, a day when we saw new statistics released by UNESCO revealing that a massive teacher gap still remains. 112 countries are facing shortfalls in the number of teachers needed to achieve universal primary education for all children and over 2 million new teachers are still needed to achieve this goal. The majority of these, 1.1 million, are needed in Sub-Saharan Africa where the biggest shortage remains.
The campaign to see an education provided for every child across the world by 2015 was launched at the UN in 2008 and is a joint effort by the Global Campaign for Education, charities, companies, and governments. Its success so far is impressive. 52 million children have been enrolled in primary school thanks to a collaborative effort of governments and groups across the world that the UK has been leading.
There is, however, still much to do. The Group heard from Marg Mayne, the Chief Executive of VSO and Matarr Baldeh whose worked with EFANet in Gambia about the campaign’s successes but also about the challenges that remain. 67 million children are still not getting a primary education and many children still face pressures to drop out of school. There is also a need to ensure that the focus on the quantity of primary education is not delivered at the expense of quality.
The report examined the experience of teachers in Mozambique and Gambia and highlighted a worrying lack of training in skills like lesson planning and using learning materials. Quality can be delivered through training and support for teachers, delivered by aid from key nations like the UK through volunteers and organisations. By ensuring that the knowledge and skills are shared with teachers in lagging nations and take root, the basis can be put in place to build the future of quality primary education provision for all across the world.
Justin Tomlinson MP said “UK support for education globally is a crucial part of building a safer, more prosperous world. I welcome the report highlighting the need to secure the quality of education in our target to provide a primary education for every child by 2015 and the opportunity today to discuss it.”