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1966 CEART Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers
Cover and Introduction
- Definitions
- Scope
- Guiding principles
- Educational objectives
and policies
- Preparation for the profession
- Further education for teachers
- Employment and career
- The rights and responsibilities of teachers
- Conditions for effective teaching and learning
- Teachers' salaries
- Social security
- The teacher shortage
- Final provision
- Educational objectives and policies
- Appropriate measures should be taken in each country to the extent necessary
to formulate comprehensive educational policies consistent with the Guiding Principles,
drawing on all available resources, human and otherwise. In so doing, the competent
authorities should take account of the consequences for teachers of the following
principles and objectives:
- it is the fundamental right of every child to be provided with the fullest
possible educational opportunities; due attention should be paid to children requiring
special educational treatment;
- all facilities should be made available equally to enable every person to
enjoy his right to education without discrimination on grounds of sex, race, colour,
religion, political opinion, national or social origin, or economic condition;
- since education is a service of fundamental importance in the general public
interest, it should be recognized as a responsibility of the State, which should
provide an adequate network of schools, free education in these schools and material
assistance to needy pupils; this should not be construed so as to interfere with
the liberty of the parents and, when applicable, legal guardians to choose for
their children schools other than those established by the State, or so as to
interfere with the liberty of individuals and bodies to establish and direct educational
institutions which conform to such minimum educational standards as may be laid
down or approved by the State;
- since education is an essential factor in economic growth, educational planning
should form an integral part of total economic and social planning undertaken
to improve living conditions;
- since education is a continuous process the various branches of the teaching
service should be so co-ordinated as both to improve the quality of education
for all pupils and to enhance the status of teachers;
- there should be free access to a flexible system of schools, properly interrelated,
so that nothing restricts the opportunities for each child to progress to any
level in any type of education;
- as an educational objective, no State should be satisfied with mere quantity,
but should seek also to improve quality;
- in education both long-term and short-term planning and programming are necessary;
the efficient integration in the community of today's pupils will depend more
on future needs than on present requirements;
- all educational planning should include at each stage early provision for
the training, and the further training, of sufficient numbers of fully competent
and qualified teachers of the country concerned who are familiar with the life
of their people and able to teach in the mother tongue;
- co-ordinated systematic and continuing research and action in the field of
teacher preparation and in-service training are essential, including, at the international
level, co-operative projects and the exchange of research findings;
- there should be close co-operation between the competent authorities, organizations
of teachers, of employers and workers, and of parents as well as cultural organizations
and institutions of learning and research, for the purpose of defining educational
policy and its precise objectives;
- as the achievement of the aims and objectives of education largely depends
on the financial means made available to it, high priority should be given, in
all countries, to setting aside, within the national budgets, an adequate proportion
of the national income for the development of education
- Preparation for the profession
Selection
- Policy governing entry into preparation for teaching should rest on the need
to provide society with an adequate supply of teachers who possess the necessary
moral, intellectual and physical qualities and who have the required professional
knowledge and skills.
- To meet this need, educational authorities should provide adequate inducements
to prepare for teaching and sufficient places in appropriate institutions.
- Completion of an approved course in an appropriate teacher-preparation institution
should be required of all persons entering the profession.
- Admission to teacher preparation should be based on the completion of appropriate
secondary education, and the evidence of the possession of personal qualities
likely to help the persons concerned to become worthy members of the profession.
- While the general standards for admission to teacher preparation should be
maintained, persons who may lack some of the formal academic requirements for
admission, but who possess valuable experience, particularly in technical and
vocational fields, may be admitted.
- Adequate grants or financial assistance should be available to students preparing
for teaching to enable them to follow the courses provided and to live decently;
as far as possible, the competent authorities should seek to establish a system
of free teacher-preparation institutions.
- Information concerning the opportunities and the grants or financial assistance
for teacher preparation should be readily available to students and other persons
who may wish to prepare for teaching.
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- Fair consideration should be given to the value of teacher-preparation programmes
completed in other countries as establishing in whole or in part the right to
practise teaching.
- Steps should be taken with a view to achieving international recognition of
teaching credentials conferring professional status in terms of standards agreed
to internationally
Teacher-preparation programmes
- The purpose of a teacher-preparation programme should be to develop in each
student his general education and personal culture, his ability to teach and educate
others, an awareness of the principles which underlie good human relations, within
and across national boundaries, and a sense of responsibility to contribute both
by teaching and by example to social, cultural, and economic progress.
- Fundamentally, a teacher-preparation programme should include:
- general studies;
- study of the main elements of philosophy, psychology, sociology as applied
to education, the theory and history of education, and of comparative education,
experimental pedagogy, school administration and methods of teaching the various
subjects;
- studies related to the student's intended field of teaching;
- practice in teaching and in conducting extra-curricular activities under the
guidance of fully qualified teacher
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- All teachers should be prepared in general, special and pedagogical subjects
in universities, or in institutions on a level comparable to universities, or
else in special institutions for the preparation of teachers.
- The content of teacher-preparation programmes may reasonably vary according
to the tasks the teachers are required to perform in different types of schools,
such as establishments for handicapped children or technical and vocational schools.
In the latter case, the programmes might include some practical experience to
be acquired in industry, commerce or agriculture.
- A teacher-preparation programme may provide for a professional course either
concurrently with or subsequent to a course of personal academic or specialized
education or skill cultivation.
- Education for teaching should normally be full time; special arrangements
may be made for older entrants to the profession and persons in other exceptional
categories to undertake all or part of their course on a part-time basis, on condition
that the content of such courses and the standards of attainment are on the same
level as those of the full-time courses.
- Consideration should be given to the desirability of providing for the education
of different types of teachers, whether primary, secondary, technical, specialist
or vocational teachers, in institutions organically related or geographically
adjacent to one another.
Teacher-preparation institutions
- The staff of teacher-preparation institutions should be qualified to teach
in their own discipline at a level equivalent to that of higher education. The
staff teaching pedagogical subjects should have had experience of teaching in
schools and wherever possible should have this experience periodically refreshed
by secondment to teaching duties in schools.
- Research and experimentation in education and in the teaching of particular
subjects should be promoted through the provision of research facilities in teacher-preparation
institutions and research work by their staff and students. All staff concerned
with teacher education should be aware of the findings of research in the field
with which they are concerned and endeavour to pass on its results to students.
Students as well as staff should have the opportunity of expressing their views
on the arrangements governing the life, work and discipline of a teacher-preparation
institution.
- Teacher-preparation institutions should form a focus of development in the
education service, both keeping schools abreast of the results of research and
methodological progress, and reflecting in their own work the experience of schools
and teachers.The teacher-preparation institutions should, either severally or
jointly, and in collaboration with another institution of higher education or
with the competent education authorities, or not, be responsible for certifying
that the student has satisfactorily completed the course.
- School authorities, in co-operation with teacher-preparation institutions,
should take appropriate measures to provide the newly trained teachers with an
employment in keeping with their preparation, and individual wishes and circumstances.
- Further education for teachers
- Authorities and teachers should recognize the importance of in-service education
designed to secure a systematic improvement of the quality and content of education
and of teaching techniques.
- Authorities, in consultation with teachers' organizations, should promote
the establishment of a wide system of in-service education, available free to
all teachers. Such a system should provide a variety of arrangements and should
involve the participation of teacher-preparation institutions, scientific and
cultural institutions, and teachers' organizations. Refresher courses should be
provided, especially for teachers returning to teaching after a break in service.
- Courses and other appropriate facilities should be so designed as to enable
teachers to improve their qualifications, to alter or enlarge the scope of their
work or seek promotion and to keep up to date with their subject and field of
education as regards both content and method.
- Measures should be taken to make books and other material available to teachers
to improve their general education and professional qualifications.
- Teachers should be given both the opportunities and the incentives to participate
in courses and facilities and should take full advantage of them.
- School authorities should make every endeavour to ensure that schools can
apply relevant research findings both in the subjects of study and in teaching
methods.
- Authorities should encourage and, as far as possible, assist teachers to travel
in their own country and abroad, either in groups or individually, with a view
to their further education.
- It would be desirable that measures taken for the preparation and further
education of teachers should be developed and supplemented by financial and technical
co-operation on an international or regional basis.
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