The newly adopted strategic plan of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is good news for teachers. Meeting in Berlin on 6-8 June, the GPE Board of Directors - on which EI represents the teaching profession - approved the vision and mission that will guide the actions of the partnership as well as the strategic goals and objectives GPE will pursue during the period 2012-2015.
Sustainable improvement
Recognising that teachers are at the heart of any sustainable improvement in education, the partnership decided to “improve teacher effectiveness by training, recruiting and retaining teachers and supporting them to provide a good quality education”. A detailed strategy for the implementation of the objective will be developed in collaboration with EI.
“Our advocacy was fundamental to ensuring the only global platform that coordinates and underwrites the Education For All (EFA) financial architecture made a clear commitment to increasing its focus on teachers,” said EI General Secretary, Fred van Leeuwen. “This proves that teachers can not only get to the table but, more importantly, can help to shape the future of the Global Partnership for Education.”
Deliver results for developing countries
He emphasized that in a context of acute declines in funding for education, EI needs to engage more effectively with the GPE and make it deliver results for teachers in developing countries.
“No one sees the disastrous cuts to education funding more clearly than the educators striving to provide all of their students with a quality public education.
“It's good that the education development community understands that we are more than curricular service delivery providers ... we are the defenders of rights and equity. In addition, we are autonomous professionals with high standards of practice who know our content and improve our practice as we strive to reach every student and create a more just society."