The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has said that blaming just the teacher or the school for systemic educational problems can have serious negative side effects.
“Education is a shared responsibility between us all – governments, schools, teachers, parents and private actors,” said Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN educational agency in a press release.
The report, which is part of the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) series, is titled “Accountability in education: meeting our commitments”, looks at the different ways people and institutions can be held accountable for reaching the internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goal for Education (SDG4).
“Accountability for these responsibilities defines the way teachers teach, students learn, and governments act. It must be designed with care and with the principles of equity, inclusion and quality in mind,” she added.
“Accountability must start with governments. If a government is too quick to apportion blame to others, it is deflecting attention away from its own responsibility for creating a strong, supportive education system.”
“Using student test scores to sanction teachers and schools makes it more likely they will adjust their behaviour to protect themselves, which may mean leaving the weakest learners behind,” explained Manos Antoninis, Director of the GEM Report.
The report stated that in an Education International survey of 70 teacher’s unions in more than 50 countries, over 60% reported never or rarely having been consulted on the development and selection of teaching materials.
Improving Teacher Support and Participation in Local Education Groups, a project in Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Liberia, Mali, Nepal, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uganda, concluded that teachers in most countries lacked the necessary information and training to participate.
Finance ministries, the report said, should assume responsibility for enforcing internal financial control and compliance measures regarding education ministries and local authorities.
In Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and in Sierra Leone, the finance ministries established audit units within the education ministries. A review of 40 national education plans found that training for principals in matters of teacher governance was highlighted in Belize, Cambodia, Guinea-Bissau, Jamaica, Kenya, Malawi, Papua New Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Some countries, the report noted, have been motivated by external pressure or a genuine desire to reform. Sierra Leone realized savings following biometric teacher registration, which led to the elimination of ghost teachers.
The report says that whereas transparency would help identify problems, only one in six governments publish annual education monitoring reports. Governments are being urged to design accountability mechanisms for schools and teachers that is supportive and avoids punitive mechanisms, especially those based on narrow performance measures; allow for democratic participation, respect media freedom to scrutinize education and set up independent institutions to handle complaints; develop credible and efficient regulations with associated sanctions for all education providers, public and private, that ensure non-discrimination and the quality of education and make the right to education justiciable, which is not the case in 45% of countries.
ZJ/25/10/17
By Zainab Joaque
Thursday October 26, 2017.
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