On World Teachers’ Day Chidinma Ibemere reflects on the importance of teachers for ensuring quality education and achieving the transforming education agenda. The theme for this year is ‘The teachers we need for the education we want: The global imperative to reverse the teacher shortage’.

I started advocating actively for access to quality education six years ago in Nigeria.

Looking back, I now realise that my approach was not holistic. I was more interested in issues such as provision of conducive learning environments, ensuring that access to quality education was indeed free for primary and junior secondary school students (this is based on the Universal Basic Education Act 2004 of Nigeria), and for government schools to be funded appropriately, with due monitoring for implementation.

I was deeply passionate about speaking up for these valid issues.

However, it was not until I became a teacher in 2018 that I came to realise that a more crucial aspect of the campaign for quality education was neglected – namely, teachers.

It was so easy to expect learning outcomes but without taking into consideration that teachers are at the core of bringing to life the full essence of quality education. If the resources are readily available but without the corresponding competent teachers, education ceases to flourish.

My professional experience as an award-winning teacher, and my exposure as an Education Leadership and Policy Masters student at the University of Bristol in the UK, makes me confident to share the following recommendations as we mark this year’s World Teachers’ Day:

Recommendations

  • Governments and relevant stakeholders must come to terms with the reality that teachers are crucial in determining the socio-economic trajectory of any society. If there are no teachers, there is no education. If there are less-qualified teachers, there should be an expectation of low-quality education. This suggests that it is high time significant investments are made towards teacher training at both pre-service and in-service levels. Emphasis must be laid on effective teaching, teacher effectiveness, teaching creatively and teaching for creativity. Training quality teachers demands being intentional and this ought to be non-negotiable.
  • I believe that there should be ‘nothing for us without us’. Whilst it is essential to invest in teacher training, existing policies that guide the profession should be reviewed, integrating relevant perspectives and experiences of teachers at various levels of their career.
  • Teacher welfare should be taken seriously. It is unfortunate that, across the globe, teachers continue to embark on industrial actions to make demands, from pay rise to well-being policies. I can attest to the fact that when one is duly compensated for one’s labour, productivity increases. It is an injustice to expect so much from teachers without giving them proper recompense.
  • Reward systems should be in place to encourage teachers and teaching as a profession. This could come in the form of offering scholarships to pursue professional courses, subsidising training fees, offering fully funded schemes for undergraduate and post-graduate courses in Education or hosting retreats for teachers. These would go a long way in motivating teachers to show up in their best selves as well as increasing interest in taking teaching as a profession.
  • Education curriculum and policies should be reviewed by policy entrepreneurs to ensure they are realistic and relatable to context. Policy borrowing may cause more bottlenecks than progress. Each country should focus on localising global education demands in the most realistic manner.
  • I genuinely think that my modules at the University of Bristol School of Education could be expanded through the crafting of professional development courses or trainings for teachers and educators alike. Relevant topics include Quality and Improvement of Education, Creativity and the Curriculum, Education Policy in a Global Context, Leading and Managing Change, Managing People in Education, Education Inquiry and Education Policy in Global Contexts. These modules have certainly shaped my advocacy journey. I look forward to consistently contributing my years of experience, expertise and skills in driving the change we need in Education.

I believe strongly that adopting these recommendations would add to progress across the world in giving our teachers the support that they deserve.

I am grateful for the privilege to have taught – and been taught by the best.

Teachers are phenomenal, our unsung heroes! Thank you for putting in the work even amid great inconvenience.

I hope that action can be taken as quickly as possible to meet teachers’ needs everywhere.

 

Chidinma Ibemerea is an award-winning Biology Teacher and a 2022/23 Think Big Scholar at the University of Bristol in the UK. She studied for an M.Sc. in Education Leadership and Policy in the School of Education. She works at the intersection of communications, gender equality and quality education advocacy and aspires to serve as a policy entrepreneur at both local and global levels. She is also Lead Volunteer at the Chidinma Ibemere Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation in Nigeria focused on bridging the gaps of inequalities and inequities that exist in education.