The South African Civil Society Information Service

Need to Raise Status of Teaching as a Profession Globally

21 Nov 2013

The world faces two problems in education, says Vikas Pota, chief executive of The Varkey GEMS Foundation. One is that there are many children, about 57 million, who are not at school. The bigger crisis, however, is the fact that there are hundreds of millions of children who are at school, but who aren’t learning anything.

The Varkey GEMS Foundation conducted a global study to find out how to improve the quality of teachers in the classroom. Overall they found that solving the problem of teacher capacity requires raising the status of teaching as a profession.

In many countries teaching is a fallback career choice, so it doesn’t attract the brightest and the best for the job.

According to Pota, in Europe teachers were accorded the same status as social workers and librarians. Whereas in China teachers enjoy the same social status as doctors.

The Varkey GEMS Foundation has produced a global teacher status index. Read the 2013 Global Teacher Status Index (PDF).

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You can find this page online at http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/1849.