The News Minute | September 5, 2014 | 12:43 pm IST
Less than thirty percent of teachers in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and development (OECD) feel they are adequately valued and in countries where this is not the case, students do better including in multi-country tests.
A survey of teachers of the Paris-based OECD which groups all members of the European Union (EU), USA, Canada as well as Chile, Japan, Korea and Mexico says teachers in most countries work alone and feel isolated. As schools pursue the demands of the knowledge societies, it has become critical to bring in the human element through a series of targeted initiatives.
“Teachers are the key in today’s knowledge economy where a good education is essential for every child’s future success,” Andreas Schneider, OECD Director for Education and Skills said at the launch of the report in Tokyo. The survey has been conducted by the OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS).
The survey of the 34-country grouping says teachers are more prepared to change the environment proposes including inter-acting with their colleagues, but systems have been tardy in following up.
India is not a member of the 34-country grouping which also conducts the PISA test (Programme for International Student Assessment) that tests 15 year olds worldwide for reading, mathematics and science skills. In the last test that India participated (2012), it was ranked 72 out of the 73 countries that participated and China had managed to dethrone Finland which for years has held the first place. India did not participate in 2013.
The tests is not without its critics, some of the questions are culturally and socially weighted, but the point that the PISA tests makes is also borne out by the OECD report on teachers – happy teachers make good students.
Other findings of the report deal with classroom behavior, appraisals and feedback and professional development for teachers.
Read more and don’t forget to compare data through this inter-active link: Teachers love their job but feel undervalued, unsupported and unrecognised, says OECD