Haldis Holst is the Deputy General Secretary of Education International. Born in Oslo, Norway, in 1960, she graduated as a teacher in 1983, after majoring in English and Physical Education. She has worked as a teacher in primary and secondary schools, and has been a union representative at local, regional and national level. She meets up with Adult Education and Development to reflect on how Education International works with teacher training, and what challenges teachers are currently facing in the world.

Why do we need teachers? 

Good teachers are a necessary prerequisite for any quality education to take place, irrespective of the level of teaching. This is true regardless of the age of the learner. Good teachers are the key. The challenge is immense, as we see a lack of qualified teachers in so many places in the world, both North and South. It is a very complex question: How can we best recruit enough teachers, and how do we help them become really good at what they do?

So what can be done to address this situation?

Our main focus at Education International is to combat the trend of taking shortcuts, for example by lowering the requirements. We see a temptation in various places to lower them in order to increase the number of teachers, and thereby improve a country’s statistics. This is a very dangerous road to take. Statistics can never be more important than quality! But what is the best way to address this? There is no simple answer, as the situation varies from country to country. Let me give you some examples: The median age of teachers is rather high in many places. Here the challenge is to attract new teachers. How do you recruit young people into the teaching profession; how do you make the profession attractive to them? In some countries, the challenge relates to regional imbalances, where parts of the country may have a rather highly educated teacher group, whereas other, often more rural areas, are worse off. Here the issue is about equal distribution. How do you make sure there are enough good teachers in the whole country? The challenges vary, and so do the solutions. I think the first thing that each country needs is a national strategy on how to train and support teachers.

When you look at the situation, do most countries have such strategies in place?

That’s a tough question to give a general answer to. It is so different from place to place. If I look at it from a positive perspective, education has received a lot of attention as an individual right, including the right to lifelong learning. Education is also increasingly in focus as a tool to reach other goals, not least the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations. In many countries, education is considered the best way to combat poverty, fight for a more sustainable world, create more jobs, and so on. As a result, politicians are increasingly aware of the need to invest in education. And that is in my opinion a positive trend. At the same time, there is still a gap between rhetoric and action; there is still so much to do. It is not enough to fund teacher training, or to make the field more attractive. You have a lot of infrastructure to build up. Things like decent salaries, secure employment, functional working conditions. That is what Education International is fighting for. To sum it up: We feel there is broad support in theory, but not yet always in practice.

Given that the best way forward is to create national strategies for education, how far are you as an international organisation willing and able to get involved on the national level, for example by monitoring the results and quality of a strategy?

Our solution here is to very actively support our member ­organisations, who are all working on the national level. We want to help them engage in the policy debate in their respective countries. The best effects are reached when they succeed in both pushing for change and suggesting some solutions. Another tool is the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), that is set up to help countries reach Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals. This is aimed at the countries with the most urgent needs and which are trailing behind. The first thing this partnership does is to give financial support to develop an education sector plan. The second thing is initiating a civil dialogue with various stakeholders. We think these steps could be useful in developing all levels of education. It is also a good way to inform politicians about our needs. Finally, this also helps to keep a watch on what is going on, making sure that the policy is not just a piece of paper. 

Attempts to import a system of education or a policy from another country are usually doomed to fail, as there are so many unique factors involved. So how do we create a set of minimum standards, for example in teacher education globally?

It’s difficult, but there are some things we can do. Together with UNESCO we have worked on international standards for teachers, the so-called EI/UNESCO Global Framework of Professional Teaching Standards. That says something about where you must reach to be acknowledged as a professional in this field. These standards are being piloted by UNESCO in some parts of the global South as we speak. Fortunately, many countries have already developed a sort of professional ethics in teaching. That is a good start, but then these too must be checked for quality. This is where the international standards come in. To fit different needs and contexts, an ­in­ternational standard cannot go into depth, like stipulating the number of years you must study to become a qualified teacher or a universal curriculum. But what they can do is describe the competences you need if you want to be considered a professional. So more than anything they tend to be a framework and a reference point when developing national policies.

This sounds very interesting, and useful. Where does adult education enter the picture here?

Ah, good question. I admit we at Education International should be better at mentioning adult learning, talking about it, and including it in our work. Already today we also represent higher education and vocational training, but non-formal and informal adult education falls a bit below our radar at present. Nevertheless, all levels and types of education have a role to play, and we can certainly become better at including a wider scope in our rhetoric, and in our work. I can see challenges at both ends of education, at the very first stages, and then at the later stages. We are working to quality assure early childhood education, as well as learning taking place outside of the formal system. We would like to get more involved with actors in this sector. Some of our members are active in it today, but many of their teachers are not reached by teacher education. These are the ones we cannot currently reach, those active in adult education, but without a background as trained teachers. They are seldom members of teachers’ unions. We have increased our efforts considerably in recent years to reach this group we call education support personnel, as they are of course important. This group includes all those who are involved in education, but are not trained to be qualified teachers.

I am thinking that this is a group that strongly supports the jigsaw puzzle that is lifelong learning, and because of their unclear status they might really need the help and support of an organisation such as Education International.

Yes! I completely agree. It’s the same as for those taking care of early childhood education. They are also doing a very important job, but their status is unclear in many cases. Both of these groups need support; they need help to get organised. For adult educators outside the formal system it’s about building bridges towards working life. It is also about making sure they are given the opportunity to study, to get the qualifications they need to do an even better job. Many have extensive practical experience, but may lack the formal recognition of a degree. This is also true for a lot of teachers in vocational training.