Since the Dakar Forum in 2000, tangible progress has been made towards the achievement of the EFA goals particularly with regard to Universal Primary Education (UPE). However, the rapid expansion of primary education intake of school-age children has not been matched by commensurate teacher recruitment. On the other hand, many children are completing primary education and are also knocking on the doors of secondary education. In this context, there has been a growing realization of the urgent need to address the teacher gap for EFA.
At the Oslo Education for All High Level Group (HLG) meeting in December 2008 general recommendations were proposed to all EFA partners. This included urging national governments to map out their short and medium-term needs for recruitment, deployment, training and retention of quality teachers. The recommendations called upon development partners to support national efforts to address the teacher deficit and to provide predictable support to cover the associated costs. To this end, the Oslo declaration endorsed the creation of an International Task Force on Teachers for EFA.
The Task Force – for its first phase of activities (2009-2012) - developed an Action Plan identifying three teacher-related gaps which particularly need to be addressed:
- First, the policy gaps: The need for the development and/or reinforcement of relevant national policies, strategies and plans for the provision of teachers;
- Second, the capacity gaps: Capacity to collect, manage and use data and information for policymaking, policy implementation and monitoring and evaluation. This also relates to human resource constraints at national levels with respect to planning and management of teacher provision for EFA.
- Third, the financing gap in relation to the unmet need for increased investment on teachers at national levels, as well as for international support for country-level recurrent expenditure to meet teacher needs for EFA.
During the first phase of its existence, the Teachers Task Force has proven to be an effective mechanism for advocacy, policy dialogue at global and regional levels and for knowledge development and sharing on critical teacher issues. In March 2012, an external evaluation of the structure and work of the Task Force recognized its relevance and recommended its extension up to 2015 and beyond. Based on this evaluation, a new strategic plan for the second phase (2013-2016) has been developed.
The new strategic plan is articulated around three main line of actions (MLAs):
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Advocacy and coordination with global and regional initiatives;
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Knowledge creation and dissemination; and
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Facilitation of countries' access to technical support.
The substance of the work in the MLAs covers the following thematic areas:
- Teacher's education and professional development;
- Teacher's status and working conditions;
- Teacher management;
- Financing teachers and teaching;
- Monitoring and evaluation of teacher policies and practices; and
- Inclusion and equity in teacher policies and practices
