As the Global Partnership for Education meets for its Replenishment Conference in Dakar, Senegal, Education International leaders have stressed the importance of teachers in achieving quality education for all and in meeting the many challenges affecting education systems worldwide.
Juliet Wajega, Deputy General Secretary of Uganda’s National Teachers Union and member of the GPE Board, highlighted the role teachers play globally to improve education systems. “It is the teachers, the school principals and their trade unions that are dealing on a daily basis with the reality of African, Asian, Latin-American or Caribbean schools, where we have crowded classrooms and conditions that are not at all conducive to learning,” she said. “The work we do through our unions, to provide support to teachers, to provide them with in-service training, to help with administrative issues, keeps us close to the reality of the school, and enables us to point to real solutions and answers.”
David Edwards, incoming EI General Secretary and member of the GPE Board, added: “We, teachers and our organizations, have been taking decisive action to make SDG4 a reality – EI affiliates all over the world have been taking concerted efforts to help improve the quality of education. These two days here in Dakar are the opportunity for governments in both donor countries and GPE countries to show that they are as committed to this goal as their teachers are.”