Since the launch of UN’s World Teachers Day 25 years ago to galvanise global effort to help teachers, millions of teachers are still without the support and training they need to succeed. Consequently, more than half of all young people in the world have not attained the basic reading and maths skills needed to build prosperous futures for themselves and their communities.
In several Sub-Saharan Africa countries the average teacher does not perform much better on reading tests than the highest-performing grade 6 or 12 years old pupils.
In six of such countries 40 percent of primary school teachers are not as knowledgeable as their pupils should be.
According to the World Bank, teachers in low and middle income countries often lack the skills or motivation to teach effectively. This lack of quality teaching is linked to poor outcomes, school drop-outs and long term out-of-school children.
It is against the backdrop of these challenges that Bridge has launched the #TeachersTransformLives campaign to raise awareness of how teachers can be well supported and developed to help children even in the most challenging places.
The campaign highlights teachers from various communities whose experience of teaching has been transformed due to a programme of training and support. They demonstrate first hand that teachers on the front line of this silent teaching crisis can change lives and improve outcomes if supported effectively.
Oladapo Olarinmoye, managing director at Bridge Nigeria, said, “Teachers play a significant role in shaping young people’s lives and the future of their countries so it’s the most important job in the world. Every teacher needs adequate support and professional development and many teachers are not getting that. The stakes for not doing this right could not be higher. That is why we are launching a new campaign to highlight the important work of teachers and how appropriate training and support can enable them to improve learning outcomes even in the most difficult environments.”
Rotimi Eyitayo, CEO, Team Master Global, stated that when teachers have the right training and motivation, their potential becomes performance, adding the substance of the teacher is what makes the teacher great.
On his part Simon Ibitoye, a teacher from Magbon, Badagry in Lagos while sharing stories of success and growth said that despite being a teacher with over 15 years’ experience, it was after his extensive training on-the-job that he has been able to inspire his pupils to their full potential.
According to Ibitoye, “The teacher training that I have received has made me acknowledge the limits of my previous teaching methods. Previously, I would simply relay a set of information to my pupils and expect them to instantly understand what I had said without really engaging them. But now I have people around me to coach me, I have many resources that are just right for me and for the children, and I have regular feedback on my pedagogy. All this has made me a star teacher.”
Ibitoye “There’s no greater feeling in the world than knowing that you have had a positive impact on the academic and social progression of your pupils.”
Teachers who are working on the front line of the global learning crisis explain how they are becoming stronger teachers and how training and support is making them agents of positive change in their communities. Their stories shine a light of teachers in challenging communities who are making a huge impact on children because of a reinvigorated approach to training and support. Watch their stories, in their own words, here.
Rhoda Odigboh, Academics director at Bridge Nigeria, said, “Teachers can be more effective if they are equipped with the resources, techniques and support designed to improve learning outcomes. We know how to deliver better teacher training and support leading to more effective classrooms. Unless governments and others take urgent action the UN Goal of quality education for all by 2030 looks very unlikely to be reached.”
“There remains a global shortage of over 68 million teachers, making the learning crisis both a quantity and quality issue for communities, governments and every sector helping to address the challenge” Odigboh.
