By Piper O’Keefe

The COVID-19 pandemic may be winding down in the West, but the ensuing crisis in global education is just beginning. Combatting it while ensuring access to quality education globally requires governments and funders to invest more resources in teachers—not simply ask more of them. 

Two years after the pandemic began, 616 million children’s schools remain closed, 24 million children may permanently drop out, 70 percent of 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries cannot read a basic text (up from 53 percent pre-pandemic), and 10 million more girls are at risk of underage marriage.[1] Schools need an estimated 69 million more teachers to alleviate these worsening conditions.[2] Further, pre-existing inequalities are deepening, as low- and middle-income countries bear these costs most heavily.[3]

Basic education is key for development and human rights. Literacy is freedom to use a cell phone, read contracts, and open a bank account. Numeracy is empowerment to make informed spending decisions and budget wisely.[4] Education improvements are correlated with improved health, equality, and socioeconomic mobility, alongside decreased poverty and civil unrest.[5] Between 2000 and 2015, the United Nations succeeded in increasing global primary school enrollment from 83 to 91 percent of children worldwide, but getting students into classrooms does not ensure effective learning.[6] The United Nations is currently seeking to ensure global “inclusive and equitable quality education,” and improving teaching quality is clearly essential to this goal.[7] But many countries do not have enough teachers, and many of the teachers they do have are not well trained.[8] Even before the pandemic, 84 percent of Sub-Saharan African teachers surveyed in 2017 could not pass a basic test on the curriculum they teach.[9] Similarly, Latin American teachers surveyed in 2014 spent less than 65 percent of class time giving instruction, which is well below the 85 percent benchmark.[10]

COVID-19 has worsened this teaching gap. In some countries, teachers have not been paid in months.[11] In most, teachers are quitting because of increased challenges (like adapting to virtual or hybrid learning) and responsibilities (like providing emotional support to students).[12] And yet, governments’, international organizations’, and think tanks’ proposals for overcoming COVID-19 education gaps often place the burden on teachers. They call for teachers to adjust instruction methods, teach an accelerated curriculum and extra classes, and engage more with parents—all without increased compensation or staffing.[13] This is wishful thinking. Instead, improving education after COVID-19 requires centering teachers through three key initiatives.

First, donors must support existing teachers by increasing donations and allowing recipient countries to fill budget gaps with unconditional aid. In 2019, education aid from all bilateral and multilateral donors totaled $16.2 billion globally, with only about 50 percent devoted to government education budgets.[14] As a comparison, the United States alone donated $11 billion to global health projects in 2019.[15] Increased donations can flow through the Global Partnership for Education. It welcomes multilateral donors, gives grants only to governments, and has the capacity to rapidly deploy additional funding.[16] In the short term, this funding would allow recipient governments to pay teacher salaries and reduce the burden on teachers (for example, by hiring counselors). In the long term, centering Ministry of Education autonomy in funding allocation decisions will strengthen institutions and reduce donor dependence. 

Second, governments must train informal teachers. Many schools in sub-Saharan Africa (encompassing 70 percent of the 69 million teacher gap) and the Middle East pay a pittance to “community teachers”—generally recent graduates with no training—to fill gaps.[17] Community teachers must be formalized (like Community Health Workers have been in the health sector), with governments providing ongoing training, opportunities for promotion, and stable (living wage) salaries.[18] The mLearning platform of over 300 videos of engaging lesson plans—previously utilized by USAID projects in Pakistan—is one possible tool to provide training to teachers through a smartphone app.[19] Another option is the World Bank’s COVID-recovery “Global Platform for Successful Teachers.” It has recorded trainings on topics including better teaching practices and student assessments, all of which should also be available to community teachers. 

Finally, the current crisis in education stems from years of underpaying and undervaluing teachers. COVID-19 is causing an exodus of teachers, with half of U.S. teachers surveyed planning “to leave education sooner than planned because of the pandemic” and 48 percent of Latin American and Caribbean countries reporting needing additional teachers to reopen schools.[20] Accordingly, policymakers must encourage people to see teaching as a profitable, rewarding career by increasing college scholarships and salaries—and reducing teachers’ burden. Governments should offer formal teacher training through universities at free or reduced costs in exchange for a multi-year teaching commitment. By instituting a similar scheme in 2018, Sierra Leone immediately saw growth in its teaching course enrollment.[21] Additionally, teachers’ salaries must be raised enough to cover the living costs for the average-sized family, at a minimum, and be commensurate with other professions requiring the same level of education. Finally, reformers can reduce frustrations by simply asking teachers what they need and following through with support. Ground-level, customized solutions would narrow the massive gap between funder expectations and teachers’ actual needs.

COVID-19 is driving students and teachers away from schools in emerging and developed economies, which risks entrenching and exacerbating inequalities for generations to come. To mitigate this crisis and prepare the world’s children for success, policymakers must invest in our teachers. 

About the Author

Piper O'Keefe is a second year MA student at Yale’s Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, studying U.S. foreign policy and community-led development. Before coming to Yale, she spent three years working as a teacher in rural Sierra Leone through the Peace Corps.

Endnotes

1. UNICEF, “COVID:19 Scale of Education Loss ‘Nearly Insurmountable’, Earns UNICEF,“ UNICEF, January 23, 2022. https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/covid19-scale-education-loss-nearly-insurmountable-warns-unicef; Shabtai Gold, “World Bank Warns Staggering Education Losses are Worse than Expected,“ DevEx, December 7, 2021, https://www.devex.com/news/world-bank-warns-staggering-education-losses-are-worse-than-expected-102270; Caitlin Baron, “Opinion: How to Treat the Learning Crisis like a Health Crisis,” DevEx, May 12, 2021, https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-how-to-treat-the-learning-crisis-like-a-health-crisis-99830.

2. Caitlin Baron, “Opinion: How to Treat the Learning Crisis like a Health Crisis,” DevEx, May 12, 2021, https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-how-to-treat-the-learning-crisis-like-a-health-crisis-99830; Shabtai Gold, “World Bank Warns Staggering Education Losses are Worse than Expected,” DevEx, December 7, 2021, https://www.devex.com/news/world-bank-warns-staggering-education-losses-are-worse-than-expected-102270.

3. “‘Years Don’t Wait for Them:’ Increased Inequalities in Children’s Right to Education Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic,” Human Rights Watch, May 17, 2020, https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/05/17/years-dont-wait-them/increased-inequalities-childrens-right-education-due-covid#

4. Gina Weires, “Series: What Does That Mean? Numeracy,” Women for Women, January 5, 2018, https://www.womenforwomen.org/blogs/series-what-does-mean-numeracy.

5. UNESCO, “Literacy,” UNESCO, 2021, https://en.unesco.org/themes/literacy; United Nations, “SDG 4-Quality Education: Why it Matters,” United Nations, 2020, https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/4_Why-It-Matters-2020.pdf.

6. United Nations, “The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015,” United Nations, July 1, 2015, https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2015_MDG_Report/pdf/MDG%202015%20rev%20(July%201).pdf. 

7. IFC, “Goal 4: Ensure Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education and Promote Lifelong Learning Opportunities for All,” World Bank Group, 2020, https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/topics_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/development+impact/sdgs/measure-by-goal/sdg-4; Tessa Bold, Deon Filmer, Gayle Martin, Ezequiel Molina, Brian Stacy, Christophe Rockmore, Jakob Svensson, and Waly Wane, “Enrollment without Learning: Teacher Effort, Knowledge, and Skill in Primary Schools in Africa,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31, no. 4, 2017, pp.185—204. doi: 10.1257/jep.31.4.185. 

8. “Our Mission,” Teacher Task Force, 2022, https://teachertaskforce.org/who-we-are/our-mission.

9. Jaime Saavedra, “Realizing the Promise of Effective Teachers for Every Child – A Global Platform for Successful Teachers,” World Bank Blogs, February 2, 2021, https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/realizing-promise-effective-teachers-every-child-global-platform-successful-teachers.

10. Barbara Bruns and Javier Luque, Great Teachers How to Raise Student Learning in Latin America and the Caribbean (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2014). 

11. Sidney Kawadza, “Mugabe’s Education Revolution Collapses,” The Zimbabwe Independent, February 18, 2022, https://www.theindependent.co.zw/2022/02/18/mugabes-education-revolution-collapses/.

12. Cynthia Kimball Phillips, “The Reasons for the Imminent Demise of our Education System,” Salt Lake Tribune, February 18, 2022, https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2022/02/18/cynthia-kimball-phillips/.

13. Ellinore Ahlgren, João Pedro Azevedo, Jessica, Bergmann, Matt Brossard, Gwang- Chol Chang, Borhene Chakroun, Marie-Helene Cloutier, Suguru Mizunoya, Nicolas Reuge, and Halsey Rogers, “The Global Education Crisis–Even More Severe than Previously Estimated,” World Bank Blogs, January 4, 2022, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/global-education-crisis-children-students-covid19/; Emiliana Vegas and Rebecca Winthrop, “Global Education: How to Transform School Systems,” Brookings, November 17, 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/research/global-education-how-to-transform-school-systems/.

14. Susannah Hares and Jack Rossiter, “The State of Global Education Finance in Seven Charts: An Update,” Center for Global Development, September 9, 2021, https://www.cgdev.org/blog/state-global-education-finance-seven-charts-update#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20total%20aid%20in,countries%20have%20very%20little%20say.

15. “The U.S. Government and Global Health,” Kaiser Family Foundation, July 30, 2019, https://www.kff.org/global-health-policy/fact-sheet/the-u-s-government-and-global-health/.

16. Susannah Hares and Jack Rossiter, “The State of Global Education Finance in Seven Charts: An Update,” Center for Global Development, September 9, 2021, https://www.cgdev.org/blog/state-global-education-finance-seven-charts-update#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20total%20aid%20in,countries%20have%20very%20little%20say.

17. Caitlin Baron, “Opinion: How to Treat the Learning Crisis like a Health Crisis,” DevEx, May 12, 2021, https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-how-to-treat-the-learning-crisis-like-a-health-crisis-99830; Shafika Isaacs, “Mobile Learning for Teachers in Africa and the Middle East: Exploring the Potential of Mobile Technologies to Support Teachers and Improve Practice,” UNESCO, 2012, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000216358.

18. Caitlin Baron, “Opinion: How to Treat the Learning Crisis like a Health Crisis,” DevEx, May 12, 2021, https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-how-to-treat-the-learning-crisis-like-a-health-crisis-99830.

19. “Teaching the Teachers Through Mobile Learning,” USAID Frontlines, March/April 2015, https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/news-information/frontlines/foreign-aid-impact/teaching-teachers-through-mobile; Stefania Giannini, Robert Jenkins, and Jaime Saavedra, “Mission: Recovering Education 2021,“ World Bank Blogs, March 29, 2021, https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/mission-recovering-education-2021; Jaime Saavedra, “Realizing the Promise of Effective Teachers for Every Child–a Global Platform for Successful Teachers,“ World Bank Blogs, February 2, 2021, https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/realizing-promise-effective-teachers-every-child-global-platform-successful-teachers.

20. Nicole Gaudiano, “One Ex-Teacher in Memphis Said She Had 194 Students During Virtual Classes Because a Colleague Quit, and It Shows Why So Many Teachers are Burned Out and Fed Up,“ Business Insider, February 22, 2022. https://www.businessinsider.com/teachers-burnout-staffing-shortage-pandemic-quitting-schools-education-2022-2; UNESCO, International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030, “World Teachers' Day 2021 Fact Sheet,“ UNESCO, 2021, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379187.

21. Ewan Watt, “Free Schooling, Budget Doubled and Better Teaching in Sierra Leone's Education Revolution,“ Their World, May 22, 2018, https://theirworld.org/news/sierra-leone-free-education-budget-doubled-better-teaching-president-bio.