Working Group on the Teaching Profession

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In many countries of sub-Saharan Africa, teachers' conditions terms of management, benefits and professional support are poor. Irregular pay, crowded classrooms, and lack of pedagogical support are some of the daily constraints faced by most teachers in Africa. These shortcomings are undermining teachers' motivation and performance and inhibiting the provision of quality basic education.
Furthermore, rapidly growing populations and restricted budgets are leaving scant resources for the improvement of teachers' condition. Optimizing existing resources has thus become a foremost concern. The Working Group on the Teaching Profession strives for the effective management of personnel resources and the establishment of environments conducive to better teaching and learning.

What is the Working Group on the Teaching Profession?

The Working Group on the Teaching Profession (WGTP) was created in 1989. It is composed of a steering group of permanent secretaries, regional coordinators of the Working Group, and development agencies and other stakeholders interested in issues related to the management and professional support of practicing teachers. These meet periodically to review the activities of the WGTP and take decisions on future activities.

What are the objectives of the Working Group?

WGTP seeks to improve the quality of basic education in sub-Saharan Africa by working with African ministries of education, NGOs, and the private sector to create an enabling teacher management and support system and an improved teaching and learning environment for all teachers and pupils. This can be achieved through the professional development of the teaching force, reinforcing teacher support delivery mechanisms, and encouraging the development of new policies, strategies and practices aimed at improving the quality of the conditions under which teachers serve.

What does the Working Group do?

Since 1993, the working group has been engaged in a program called Teacher Management and Support (TMS). The program aimed at producing and implementing country action plans to address key issues related to teacher management and professional support. Various meetings were held with senior ministry of education officials to sensitize them to prevailing issues and problems affecting the teaching profession. Country working groups in ministries were mobilized to develop country action plans to respond to specific issues. WGTP developed both reference and training materials to support the professional development of teachers and teacher management systems.

In 2003, after eight years of operating separately, the two sections (anglophone and francophone) merged into a single working group. Subsequently, WGTP set up a new Steering Committee and five regional working group coordinators designated to facilitate field support to African ministries of education. At national level, country working groups are being created or revitalized.

Focus and priorities

EFA plans, education related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in education, decentralization policies and HIV/AIDS have all presented the working group with new challenges in Africa.

The unified WGTP will, in the new context, focus its intervention on HIV/AIDS issues as an important component of teacher development. The aim is to provide teachers with the knowledge and skills to protect themselves and also ensure that they receive the training to equip pupils with the knowledge, attitudes and skills to avoid infection.

This new context has also led to broadening the WGTP's conceptual framework from Teacher Management and Support (TMS) towards a broader Teacher Education Management and Support (TEMS) Program to cater for development and support to initial teacher training as well.

Strategy

The WGTP will use a five-pronged strategy to meet its objectives:

Advocacy
This will continue to be critical in mobilizing key actors and resources for the Working Group. Advocacy is a tool that must be retained but adapted to address different issues and to influence varied target groups and stakeholders.

Research
WGTP will continue to prioritize this activity to give African educators an opportunity to lead research.
A link between research and the quality of teacher education will be established to produce knowledge and insights to inform future policy interventions. There is need, for example, for research into pedagogical practice issues. How can we sustain better classroom performance? How can research results influence teacher training curricula and practices?

Networking and Professional Exchange
WGTP will work together with African ministries of education and local organizations to encourage the creation of support networks for different categories of teachers in Africa. Classroom teachers, teachers trainers, inspectors and advisors, and teaching service commissioners will be targeted for professional exchange.

Capacity building
The main task of the TEMS program in this domain is to build capacity in different areas in response to management and professional training needs identified by ministries of education. The capacity building program will be designed in a more coherent and structured manner and will be informed by countries’ training policy needs. The TEMS process will also emphasize diversified local training and technical support, support regional cooperation in capacity building and support resource materials development.

Access to information and knowledge
This is a new area and one that cannot be separated from current efforts to improve teacher performance and the quality of education. Access to information and knowledge stands to benefit the teaching profession in different professional areas – professional development through self-study; exchanges with colleagues on professional matters; access to databases, bibliographies and references on a wide range of topics or subject areas etc.

Publications and documents

Click here for the Working Group publications.

How to contact WGTP

For more information please contact:

Virgilio Juvane
Coordinator, WGTP
Commonwealth Secretariat - Education Section
Social Transformation Programs Division
Marlborough House
Pall Mall - London, United Kingdom SWIY 5HX
Tel: +(44) 20 7747 6282 Fax: +(44) 20 7747 6287
E-mail: v.juvane@commonwealth.int