THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON EDUCATION FOR TEACHING (ICET)

50th WORLD ASSEMBLY

Pretoria, South Africa July 12 – 16, 2005

THEME: “Teacher Migration in the Commonwealth – A Microcosm of the World Reality”

Presented by Roli Degazon-Johnson, PhD.

Education Adviser, Social Transformation Programmes Division,

Commonwealth Secretariat

Introduction:

The work of the Commonwealth Secretariat is driven by the mandates of Heads of Government in their biennial meetings and – for the Education programme – through requests of the triennial conferences of Education Ministers. The issue of Teacher Recruitment and Migration and the loss of teaching personnel from the Education systems of Commonwealth member countries, and its small states in particular, is a matter which has been raised at Education Ministers conferences since the 13CCEM in Botswana, 1997. The theme chosen for this ICET World Assembly session is therefore a critical area of work for my organization, the Commonwealth Secretariat.

The structure of my presentation will be to:

  • Provide a brief background for those of you who may be unfamiliar with what the Commonwealth is.
  • Look at some of the issues attendant in the present situation of Teacher Migration worldwide.
  • Address the background to the development of the Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol, sharing with you some of the initiatives requested of us by Ministers.
  • Conclude by addressing some of the challenges in the way forward.

The Commonwealth:

The Commonwealth is an association of 53 member countries comprising 1.8 billion people or 30% of the world’s population. The member countries span the global spectrum of faiths, races, cultures and traditions. The Commonwealth presentsthrough its diversity of member countries, a microcosm – or possibly a representative sample - of what pertains in the wider global context through its mix of large industrialized members blending with some of the least developed and smallest states. There are those that feel that it is in the ability of this diverse group of members, through frank and open dialogue to reconcile their differences, that the Commonwealth works at its best, and is its most effective[1], theme that I shall return to later.

Migration Today:

Migration, for all purposes and for reasons spanning human trafficking and refugees seeking asylum to highly skilled professionals seeking career advancement, is not a recent phenomenon globally. However in recent decades flows of people internationally have increased and the reasons for their movement have become more complex and diverse. 175 million people – 2.9% of the world’s population - are reported to be living in countries other than those in which they were born.[2]

Within the global teaching workforce, classified as the highly skilled, any worker speaking a global language is an asset to recruiters in a market where that language is the medium of communication and instruction. In this respect the teacher from the English-speakingCommonwealth can be a particular asset to any of its 53 members who may be seeking to recruit teachers from overseas. Further, Commonwealth teachers have often been educated in a system influenced, if not based on the English Education system, one which has provided the foundation for education systems in many countries since the colonial era. Understandably there is a linguistic and systemic “fluency” which makes the English-speakingCommonwealth teacher desirable to recruiters of English-speaking nations.

Teacher Migration World-wide:

In the study commissioned by the Commonwealth Secretariat conducted by Kimberly Ochs of Oxford University which is the “lead-in article”, I note, for this session, we are advised that whilst considerable levels of “south-south” and regionally-based recruitment of teachers exist – between South Africa and countries such as Uganda, for example; between Guyana in the Caribbean and Botswana in Africa; between India and the Seychelles – large scale movement tends to be either “south-north” or between countries such as Canada and the UK. It is projected that 2.4 million new teachers will be required in the United States by 2008/9, Australia has projected a national shortfall of 5,000 for this year, 2005, and in the United Kingdom by 2006, the demand for teachers may be as high as 40,000, nationally,[3] an overall total of nearly 2.5 million teachers.

If anything, given what are known as the “push and pull” factors, the situation of teachers migrating from their own countries through recruitment, will continue to grow in the future. However, the loss of teachers – human capital in any country - through recruitment and migration are felt most in systems of small countries where the stock of human capital is limited and in poor countries where the cost of teacher training is a major contribution from the national purse. Hence one reads in the press the emotive language that accompanies this phenomenon - such as “poaching”; ‘hoovering-up” and even “rape” of human capital.

In a consultation on the Recruitment and Migration of the Highly Skilled hosted recently by the Secretariat, Van der Schaaf of the world-wide association of teachers organizations, Education International, said that in industrialized countries the demographic trends of ageing populations arecoinciding with limited inflows of young teachers. Teaching no longer is a career of first choice, and what new teachers do join the teaching force do not appear to remain for long. Over the next decade, up to 40% of teachers in industrialized countries will retire. Van der Schaaf feels that the industrialized countries have the means to address this impending shortfall, but have planned poorly and are now buying their human resources from overseas.[4]

The Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol:

For the Commonwealth Secretariat, action and ensuing work on the issues of Teacher Migration through recruitment, took centre stage in 2002 when the Jamaican Minister of Education made a formal call on the Secretariat to request assistance with addressing the loss of teachers to his education system through recruitment principally organized by overseas recruitment agencies and businesses. The Commonwealth-commissioned study “Teaching at Risk” [5] would later reveal that Jamaica,a country of 2.5 million people, had “lost” to the UK alone in the period 2001-2003, more teachers than a country such as Canada with a population of 30 million (See table: Appendix 1).

The visit of the Jamaican Minister led to a meeting of Caribbean Ministers of Education in Barbados from which emerged the Savannah Accord. This document called upon Commonwealth Education Ministers in general and the Ministers of Education of the Commonwealth’s 32 Small states in particular to:

  • Determine the extent of teacher loss and its impact on education systems through conduct of a Pan-Commonwealth study of the problem and
  • develop a Protocol for the recruitment of teachers.

A particular feature of the Savannah Accord was a request for regulatory guidelines and controls for recruiters which would address the standards and quality of the recruitment process.

The Secretariat responded to the requests of the Savannah Accord commissioning the Ochs/University of Oxford study and contracting a human resource management consultant to prepare a draft protocol. Whilst the draft protocol was not actually carried forward to the 15thCommonwealth Education Ministers meeting in Edinburgh,Scotland in 2003, a discussion on the critical issues of international teacher recruitment was addressed. Ministers called for the establishment of a Working Group on Teacher Recruitment under the chairmanship of Commonwealth Deputy Secretary General Winston Cox.

This Working Group comprised senior officials from 12 countries including Nigeria, South Africa, Jamaica, Barbados, the Seychelles and Papua New Guinea in the Pacific. Three observers from civil society organizations in the United Kingdom were also appointed. Through two meetings of the Working Group, one in Lesothoin February 2004 and the other in the United Kingdom in August 2004, a new draft Protocol was developed which was adopted with changes by Ministers of Education on September 1, 2005.

As stated in item 2.3.1 of the Protocol, the document (of which you have all received copies) aims to:

“balance the rights of teachers to migrate internationally, on a temporary or permanent basis, against the need to protect the integrity of national education systems and to prevent the exploitation of scarce human resources of poor countries.”

This is consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which provides for the right to education as well as the right to free movement of persons.

The Protocol outlines the rights and responsibilities of source and recruiting countries and the recruited teacher. The document also speaks to the monitoring, evaluation and future actions required of member countries and of the Secretariat. Commonwealth agreements of this nature do not have legal, but do have moral force.

There is an urgent need to disseminate this information to teachers who may be interested in migrating to other countries. A PDF copy of the Protocol is also available on the education web-page of the Commonwealth Secretariatweb-site at Teachers must know that they should:

  • Be provided with full information regarding their contracts of appointment overseas, before giving up their jobs to migrate. (5.1)
  • Give adequate notice to their ministries or departments of Education if they are resigning or requesting long leave, so as not to disrupt the school year. (5.2)
  • Enjoy employment conditions not less than those of nationals of similar status and occupying similar positions (3.10)
  • Be informed about the complaints mechanism by the countries to which they are recruited (Para 3.6)
  • Be informed of the names and contact details of all teachers unions in the recruiting country (3.12)

The Way Forward in Teacher Migration – Issues, Concerns, Challenges:

Earlier in this text, I spoke to the fact that the Commonwealth in many respects through its diversity represents a microcosm of our world with a mix of large industrialized members blending with some of the smallest and least developed states. With this blend of member countries comes the accompanying challenge - some might say dilemma- of addressing their very different needs and imperatives which are sometimes diverse and in competition

For example, if we look at the Education Millennium Development Goal and EFA target of “Achieving Universal Primary Education by 2015”, some of our industrialized members have been able to provide primary education to all their children since the 1800s (e.g. New Zealand). Others it is projected will certainly not achieve UPE by 2015 nor for many years after that. Understandably, industrialized countries wish to sustain the quality of their education systems. Through being able to offer better salaries they justify their action of recruiting teachers from overseas by stating that the source countries from which they attract teaching personnel benefit from the remittances sent back to those countries, which in turn foster development in these countries. They can correctly claim that they do not force the teachers to come, but that they offer the teachers of developing countries an employment opportunity and a chance for career development and enrichment which is not available in the source country and the recruited teacher accepts their offer. For example, the United Kingdom some time ago established a list of countries from which it would notrecruit health workers. The governments of Pakistan and the Sudan both asked to be taken off the list, indicating that remittances from overseas recruited workers is a significant consideration for some source countries.

There are also senior officials and heads of state in some developing countries who welcome the migration of teachers, once it is those who have just graduated with their teaching qualifications, as they perceive the experience of teaching abroad for a time to be value-added for their education systems. They also anticipate the return of the new graduate within a matter of years, and indeed the Commonwealth Business Council based near to the Secretariat in London has launched a programme called AfricaRecruit for the purpose of encouraging – not just teachers – but all professionals of African origin to return to work in Africa. Some government officials welcome the in-flow of remittances which the migrated teachers send back to their source countries.

On the other hand, it is also accepted that the loss of teachers – in particular the well qualified and experienced and in large numbers – from the classrooms of many of our developing countries through recruitment by developed countries,coupled with the impact ofHIV/AIDS- which has seriously depleted the teaching force in many Southern African countries in particular- can seriously affect the attainment of UPE in these countries. On the one hand industrialized countries state their commitment to supporting all poorer countries wishing to attain the MDGs. At the same time they are perceived as limiting the ability of these countries to attain the Education MDGs through drawing off teachers from poorer countries who may desperately need them.

The case for the remittances of recruited teachers to source countries assisting with the alleviation of poverty in these countries is also one which is open to debate at present and the jury is still out. There is evidence that whilst these remittances may go towards assisting children to go to school through payment of schools fees, for example, that they may often be used for the purchase of cars and other consumer items and that they do not compensate for the human capital depletion caused when, for example, a teacher trained with government support in a source country and with ten years of teaching experience, is lost to a country through recruitment and migration.

Compensation issues:

The depletion of the human capital which the loss through migration and HIV/AIDS that trained teachers constitute to small states and least developed countries has led to the call for compensation or other forms of assistance and aid by the developing countries. Described in some studies as a “contentious issue”[6], it is an issue which remains complex and politically fraught. Recruiting countries feel strongly that they should not be called upon to pay compensation to a country for what is the human right of the individual to free movement, whilst the source countries consider that their investment in human capital – the training of teachers using national revenue - should not be taken away by another country without some recompense.

The Protocol adopted by Commonwealth Education ministers last September has sought to address this issue, however. Through prescribing “mutually acceptable measures to mitigate any harmful impact of such recruitment” through the encouragement of bi-lateral discussions between recruiting and source country, which may lead to forms of assistance such as “technical support for institutional strengthening, specific programmes for recruited teachers and capacity building to increase the output of trained teachers in source countries”. The CTRP proposes a way forward that could be construed as “win-win”. This means that if some wealthier countries wish to recruit teachers from poorer countries they can provide the means of strengthening the capacity of the poorer country to produce more teachers by aiding and assisting their teacher training institutions and mechanisms, for example. [7] At our Ministers request, the Secretariat is also coordinating a Working Group on the Professional Development of Teachers which is expected to developinitiatives to respond to this issue also.

Recruitment agencies and the ethical treatment of recruited teachers

In the January 2005 consultation which the Secretariat hosted in London with the International Labour Organization (ILO), Education International (EI), the Commonwealth Teachers Grouping and our fellow colleagues in Health, the ILO representative encouraged us to analyse our situation using Six R’s, among which were Recruitment, Retention and Recruitment Agencies.

Recruitment agencies and businesses are an important and growing industry in a world where globalization and other forces has increased the movement of skilled and unskilled labour. As with all industries there are the ethical and the unethical practices and the Commonwealth private sector is no exception in this respect. It is well known that whilst some recruiters are honourable, keep to their contractual obligations, providewhat they promised anddo not exploitthe recruited teacher, there are others whose practices have been exploitative to say the least. Teachers offered one salary in their country of origin, for example, arrive in the recruiting country to find that it has been reduced uni-laterally. Some are put to teach in classrooms the day after they arrive without any orientation or induction, and others who thought that their qualifications were acceptable are advised that they do not have the same status as qualified teachers in the recruiting country.

Recognition of Commonwealth Teaching Qualifications

On this issue of the recognition of qualifications of Commonwealth teachers, our Education ministers have also called for a Working Group to explore this issue, to ensure that whilst standards are maintained in the granting of teacher qualifications , qualified teachers from one region of the Commonwealth are not put at a disadvantage or relegated to a lower status simply because the worth of their qualifications and experience are not appreciated or recognised in another region of the Commonwealth.