The requirements for the Teaching Profession, A review of the situation in 25 countries

Résumé En

Intensive global debate is underway to determine the best measures for reaching the Sustainable Development goals (SDGs), particularly goal 4 related to education. While recognizing the Education for All objectives as an unfinished business, the new SDG agenda is articulating the characteristics of an education that responds to global imperatives and appropriately addresses countries’ socio-economic and cultural specificities, including for their diverse populations. Responsive teacher policies drawn from evidence-based planning is an essential element to consider. The 2013/2014 EFA Global Monitoring Report provided compelling evidence of the centrality of education to development; then with an equally convincing review it demonstrated how teachers should be considered as a pillar in the provision of quality education. Building on the ground work done by the GMR, the UNESCO International Task Force on Teachers in collaboration with the World Bank conducted a stocktaking review of the requirements of the teaching profession in 25 countries .The review was guided by the following questions: what is the minimum level of academic qualification required to become a teacher? What are the main tasks performed by teachers? What is the system put forward for the salaries packages, deployment and transfers of teachers? What are the criteria for teacher performance evaluation? What solutions countries have put forward or envisaged? What does this review suggest to improve the situation?In each participating country, a national expert was tasked to use the World Bank’s Systems Approach for Better Education Results for Teachers (SABER-Teachers) tools and guidelines in order to: 1) produce a synthesis of relevant publications and reports on teacher issues in the country; 2) complete a questionnaire and a set of statistical data gathering tables on teachers; 3) conduct semi-structured interviews with various stakeholders, including teachers themselves; and 4) analyze the data thus gathered and produce a national report. In addition, a small team of international experts was responsible for preparing a comparative international synthesis report which serves a dual purpose:-To provide a global picture of what countries consider in their policies and practices as key requirements of teaching as a profession in order to deliver an equitable and quality education with relevant data and statistics.-To offer a set of references to countries and education partners aiming to reinforce teacher effectiveness and teaching as a profession to achieve an inclusive, equitable and quality education as articulated in the post-2016 Education frameworkThe main objective of the proposed panel is to share the findings of this review as a pretext for (re)engaging the CIES community in a critical examination of prevailing policy provisions on the teaching profession around the world and the gaps between countries. This panel should be of interest to any CIES member involved or interested in cross national comparative studies on education, in order to inform implementation of post-2016 education agenda.