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THE COST OF POOR EDUCATION POLICY IN
COMMONWEALTH COUNTRIES- GUY MULVANEY.
The supply of educators is ‘threatening to reach crises levels within the next 15 years. The shortage is a worldwide problem.
This is due to a combination of factors. Poor pay packages in some countries leave teachers feeling undervalued. In some cases educators are overburdened with excessive amounts of paperwork and universally job difficulties abound.
The only options that many teachers have to lead a quality life is to leave the profession by finding a well paid job in the private sector [if they are luck enough] or emigrate to another country with better packages and a stronger currency.
Teaching is failing to attract young people into the profession to fill the gaps. It is seen as a traditional career. The time where people have one job for life is over. Furthermore there are other factors which have led to a decline in status of the profession. Education faculties at universities are failing to reach their quotas and as a result funding has decreased. Many universities have been forced to close down their education faculties due to insufficient numbers. In other countries like South Africa the initial training programmes for teachers are unreasonable pegged at a lower funding levels than other faculties.
Generally speaking the reasons for the shortages differ between the northern and southern hemisphere countries. The shortages in the north are attributed to the dreaded R’s- recruitment retention and retirement. From a demographic point of view Europe is an ageing continent. In the UK 45% of the teachers will be retiring in the next 15 years. In Scotland 40% of the staff are expected to retire in the next 10 years. Population growth rates have seriously declined. The teaching profession is competing against other professions to recruit fewer skilled workers.
One of the major problems in the southern hemisphere is the “brain drain”. A country which has always been affected by this phenomenon is New Zealand and it has become a condition of life for this small country. Approximately 90% of the dynamic comes from the pull of high wage Australia and Britain. The March 7, 2006 census indicated that 1 million New Zealanders- almost another Auckland were living overseas. This constitutes 30% of the workforce and 25% of all graduates.
Decreases in African classrooms can also be attributed to forces like globalisation. Modern day professionals have become highly mobile. National boundaries have become meaningless. Teachers are no different. They go where they are rewarded and remunerated.
Teacher shortages are not unique to African countries. It is a global problem. Countries in the northern hemispheres have realized that immediate strategising for the impending crises is fundamental.
Scottish authorities have set an example of good practice and have reacted well to the impending teacher crises by exploiting a loophole. They have steered clear from vulnerable poorer countries and are focusing on new European Union accession states like Poland where there is an excess of hard working and underpaid, respected educators to fill the gaps in the classroom in Scottish classrooms. They have put the necessary training programmes in place in order to facilitate a smooth change over and avert possible crises .The General Teaching Council [GTC] for Scotland indicated that the number of teachers coming in from overseas has increased by 39% between April 2004 and March 2005.As a result of the vision to deal with the problem now the GTC are expected to reach their targets of 57000 by 2007.
Teacher shortages in African classrooms are often the result of short-sighted government policy. For instance a report which was submitted by a ministerial committee under the former education minister Kader Asmal in 2003 indicated that there was a shortfall of 33 % trainee teachers. The damning report went on to state that ‘the crisis is a key consequence of a lack of national education policy’. The report was only made public in February 2006. Apparently it was only handed to minister of education, Nalendi Pandor in July 2005.
What is totally perplexing is that several smaller Commonwealth states have failed to respond to ground breaking legislation which was passed in September 2004 by the Commonwealth Secretariat concerning the recruitment of our teachers by richer countries like Britain. Neither have opposition parties nor trade unions ‘cottoned’ onto the stipulations. Even the fairly astute and competent Australian Education Union [AEU] has not responded at all to the new legislation. No mention is made of the legislation in any of their recommendations to alleviate the impending teacher shortages in any research projects in Australia.
The implications of the new legislation mean there has been a power shift with regards to the control of the recruitment process in Commonwealth countries. The policy stipulates that it is no longer acceptable for richer countries to ‘plunder’ the educational sectors of poorer countries. The legislation stipulates:
‘Any country has the right to be informed of organized recruitment’.
In fact the implications are more far reaching-power has been ‘wrestled’ from the international recruiters. Source countries are now in a position to control the entire recruitment process. They can dictate which teachers can and cannot be recruited The Protocol calls for a ‘Policy framework of teachers whose recruitment the source country will not support, in order to protect their scarce resources’
Intervention should be the order of the day. This means:
Policy concerning maximum learner to educator ratios should have been adopted and implemented. Many experts in education indicate that learner to education ratios need to be controlled in order to create an atmosphere conducive to learning. Limits need to be set for the number of learners in each class. In South Africa for instance the Department of Education [DoE] has stipulated that these levels should be 40:1 in primary school and 35:1 in secondary schools.[ Unfortunately these targets have been breached in many provinces these ratios are shamefully as high as 46:1.] Respective governments need to release the relevant numbers of subject teachers that are available for recruitment. In other words a policy of managed migration needs to be adopted.
Secondly reliable database of expatriates need to be generated. Important lessons need to be taken from organisations like the Kiwi Expat Association [KEA]. They have recently launched a major world wide survey called ‘Everyone Counts’ to track down the Kiwi expatriates who are living abroad. Every country needs a database of their expatriates,
It is essential to maintain contact with our teachers. This is the first step in the repatriation process.
Thirdly the new legislation needs to be implemented immediately. Not only does this ground breaking legislation protect vulnerable education sectors in developing countries it also protects the expatriate teacher in his/her new working environment.
The blame for the continuing ‘exploitation’ of our valuable educators ‘lies firmly on our doorstep.’ We have failed to respond to the ground-breaking legislation. We are almost 18 months down the line and there are no visible signs that a single iota of the legislation has been implemented anywhere!
The writing is on the wall.
If any African teachers who have arrived in the UK after 1st September 2004 want to contribute to ongoing market research, please click on the link below.
http://www.surveyassist.com/s/r5UX4YEdvz2PgM.s4pmy
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