Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers

(Fourth Special Session, Paris, 15-18 September 1997)

Report

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Introduction

1. The Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (CEART) held its Fourth Special Session in Paris at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) headquarters, from 15 to 18 September 1997.

2. The agenda of the Joint Committee covered the following items related to the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, 1966 (ILO/UNESCO Recommendation):

(a) review of regional and national reports and conclusions of the 45th International Conference on Education of UNESCO (ICE, Geneva, 1996);

(b) review of reports on national and regional trends and conclusions of the ILO Joint Meeting on the Impact of Structural Adjustment on Educational Personnel (JMEP, Geneva, 1996);

(d) consideration of reports and workshops focusing on further education of teachers; employment and career opportunities; and participation, consultation and negotiation between the teaching profession and educational authorities;

(f) consideration of allegations on non-observance of the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation received from teachers' organisations since the Sixth Ordinary Session (1994) and review of further developments in the allegations examined at the last Session;

(g) the forms of questionnaire to be used as envisaged by the Sixth Ordinary Session of the CEART (study of the data collection programmes of international organisations on teacher indicators);

(h) developments related to the preparation of a Recommendation concerning Higher Education Teaching Personnel;

(i) review of other action taken to promote and monitor the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation:

- implementation of the partnership strategy to promote the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation;

3. The present members of the Joint Committee, designated by the Governing Body of the ILO and by UNESCO, with a term of office extending to 31 December 2000, are as follows:

Members appointed by the Governing Body of the ILO

Prof. (Ms.) Anita Ghulam Ali*
(Pakistan)
Managing Director, Sindh Government Education Foundation

Dr. (Ms.) Eddah W. Gachukia
(Kenya)
Executive Director, Forum for African Women Educationalists(FAWE)

Dr. (Ms.) Maria Antonia Gallart
(Argentina)
Professor, Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) and Researcher, Centre of Population Studies

The Hon. Mr. Justice L. Trevor Olsson
(Australia)
Puisne Judge, Supreme Court of South Australia, and former President of the Industrial Court of South Australia

Dr. (Ms.) Anne-Lise Hostmark Tarrou
(Norway)
Professor of Education and Research Coordinator, Akershus College; Member of the Board, Section for Culture and Society, Norwegian Research Council; and former President and Coordinator, Research Support Group of the Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE)

Dr. Mark Thompson
(Canada)
William M Hamilton Professor of Industrial Relations, Industrial Relations Management Division, Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, University of British Colombia, and former member of the Board of Governors, Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia

Members appointed by UNESCO

Prof. (Ms.) Marie Eliou*
(Greece)
Professor of Educational Science, University of Athens, and Acting President, Pedagogical Institute of Greece

Ms. Zahia Farsi
(Algeria)
Trainer, University Institute for Teacher Training (U l F M ), Lyon Academy and former Director of Basic and Secondary Education Programme, Ministry of National Education, and Inspector General of Mathematics in Algeria

Prof. Sega Seck Fall
(Senegal)
Director, Graduate Institute for Teacher Training, Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, and Chairperson of the Committee on Teachers' Questions, National Commission on the Reform of Education and Training

Prof. (Ms.) Konai Helu-Thaman *
(Fiji)
Head of the School of Humanities, University of the South Pacific

Dr. Earle H. Newton
(Barbados)
Professor and Director, School of Education, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, and former Dean, Faculty of Education, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill

Dr. Gennady Ryabov
(Russian Federation)
President, Nizhny Novgorod Linguistic University, and member, Association of Teacher Training Institutions of the Russian Federation

Rapporteurs
Dr. Earle H. Newton,
Justice L. Trevor Olsson,
Dr. Mark Thompson

5. On behalf of the Director-General of UNESCO, Mrs. Aicha Bah Diallo, Director of the Basic Education Foundation and Mr. Valentin Klotz, Chief of the Salaried Employees and Professional Workers Branch representing the Director-General of the ILO welcomed the members of the Committee. The secretariat of the meeting was composed of, for UNESCO: Mr. Richard Halperin, Chief, Mr. Peter Gonda, Ms. Nathalie Brasseur, Ms. Patricia Cooper and Ms. Rollande Maccaud of the Section for Secondary and Teacher Education, Division for renovation of Secondary and Vocational Education, Mr. Robert Parua of the Division of Higher Education, Mr. Daniel De San and Mr. Guillermo Trasancos of the Office of International Standards and Legal Affairs; and for the ILO: Mr. Bill Ratteree and Ms. Corinne Feyler of the Salaried Employees and Professional Workers Branch, Mr. Loic Picard of the Application of Standards Branch, Mr. Conradus Damen of the Workers Activities Branch. Ms. Winsome Gordon, Director of the UNESCO Section for Primary Education, Mr. John Smyth, Chief Editor of the World Education Report;Ms. Magali Imbert of the ILO's Bureau of Statistics, and Mr. Yannick Simbron, Director of the ILO Office in Paris, also participated.

6. Ms. Aicha Bah Diallo, in welcoming the members of the Joint Committee, referred to difficulties, often extreme, currently being experienced by many of the 60 million teachers of the world. She drew attention to aspects such as the adverse impact of structural adjustment and the effects of military conflict in some regions. She also stressed the fundamental importance of catalysing better living and working conditions for teachers, so that they might discharge their tasks more effectively. The Joint Committee had an important role to play in assisting to promote such an outcome.

7. Mr. Valentin Klotz added his welcome on behalf of the ILO. He referred to the previous important work of the Joint Committee in promoting the concepts of the 1966 recommendation. He, too, drew attention to the impact of structural adjustment policies on teachers and education, and expressed the view that the outcomes of the major conferences held by the ILO and UNESCO in 1996 had been positive in focusing attention on the importance of investment in education and teachers in member countries. It was important to build national and international momentum around these efforts to reconstruct favourable teaching and learning conditions so that highly trained and competent people would enter and remain in teaching. The Joint Committee would have ample information before it from such sources with which to make a significant contribution in the next three years to furthering the status and role of teachers.

8. In the Report of its Sixth Ordinary Session, in 1994, the Joint Committee reviewed the implications of a series of case studies which had been commissioned by UNESCO and ILO on teacher training, on participation, consultation and collective bargaining in the teaching profession and on stress and burn-out of teachers. It also reflected on a range of concerns related to gender issues in the teaching profession. Based on its analysis, the Joint Committee expressed a series of proposals for further action. Having done so it drew attention to the need to test the general validity of the themes emerging from the initial case studies in relation to a wider range of countries and to examine a wider series of issues. It proposed a draft agenda for the present Special Session on that footing.

9. In the event, resource restrictions within UNESCO and ILO and limitations imposed on the time span of the Special Session have not permitted the Joint Committee to deal in detail with all aspects envisaged by the draft agenda. Its deliberations have, of necessity, been restricted to the main topics referred to in this report. These have been based on summaries produced by the joint secretariat, information supplied by international teacher organisations and a series of comprehensive research initiatives conducted and monographs produced in preparation for the ICE and the JMEP, both held in 1996. In their totality, the preliminary activities leading up to these events actually produced far more extensive and definitive material than might otherwise have been available to the Joint Committee, had a separate data gathering exercise been initiated by it. Details of those materials are set out in Annex l to this Report and the conclusions drawn by the Joint Committee with regard to them are reflected elsewhere in this Report.

Changing perspectives

10. The Joint Committee notes with satisfaction what appears to be a consensus on the part of the major stakeholders, emerging from the reports of the ICE, the JMEP and the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, of the need to recognize and give effect to the principles expressed in the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation. This appears to have stemmed from a growing awareness of the problems currently besetting teachers and education, as outlined in those reports. It seems to the Joint Committee that, prior to the issue of such reports, no consensus of that type was evident: Whilst the effects of the consensus are not yet evidenced by positive action to redress the relevant problems, its existence will certainly facilitate implementation of desirable and positive strategies in the future.

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