MANILA, Philippines — Governments should focus on providing more support for teachers in developing economies, like the Philippines, to ensure that educational challenges in the country and Asia- Pacific will be addressed.
In its latest blog, Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) said increasing support for educators is crucial in facing the education crisis in many countries in the region especially amid the pandemic.
There is also a risk that the learning crisis induced by the pandemic may worsen due to protracted learning losses.
ADB education sector group chief Brajesh Panth and social sector specialist Jukka Tulivuori said the quality of teachers has the greatest impact on improving student learning outcomes.
This as most developing countries in Asia-Pacific face major challenges in recruiting the best candidates for a long-term teaching career.
To address this, Panth and Tulivuori argued that new models of teacher education are needed in developing countries to enhance their competencies.
“Transformational teacher education reform requires collaborative efforts, resources, and expertise of governments and universities. This is particularly important at a time when the focus is shifting from face to face mass education to personalized blended learning with the goal of developing self-directed lifelong learners,” they said.
The pandemic prompted a complete shift in the education sector in many developing economies like the Philippines where face-to-face classes were halted and students were forced to do online schooling.
This is particularly difficult for many students in the country especially with the lack or limited access to gadgets such as computers, laptops and tablets, as well as the availability of Internet connection.
An earlier study of the World Bank showed that Filipino learners still found the distance learning system as ineffective more than a year into the pandemic.
Panth and Tulivuori emphasized that the role of teachers is changing and that developing countries should ensure rigorous university-based teacher development programs by drawing on best practices from rich economies.
“It is important for governments to prepare a pool of students who have a solid secondary education followed by good performance in college and an interest in teaching,” the authors said.
“Policy makers also need to focus their attention on hiring and training teachers from under-represented groups, such as ethnic minorities,” they said.
Further, the ADB experts noted that teacher education should be developed as a whole, and not based on short-term project needs and educators should be able to gain higher academic degrees through well-developed university programs.
They also called for policies and incentives supporting career paths and teacher professional development programs, as well as adequate compensation, bonus pay, good housing, and support in the form of professional development and career opportunities.
“Developing effective teachers during their careers is the key to driving learning outcomes. Teachers should be supported in a systematic way from all the levels of the education system,” the authors said.