The Sectoral Activities Programme of the International Labour Organization carried out an action programme Teachers for the future: Meeting teacher shortages to achieve education for all during the period 2004-2007 to help constituents in member States to improve access to and quality of education, in the framework of the international Education for All Campaign. The action programme brought together national education stakeholders - governments, teachers' unions and private school employers - to investigate the causes, dimensions, impact and policy options to address teacher shortages affecting educational access and quality, using the ILO principles of social dialogue. National reports and national and regional policy dialogue forum outcomes have been published, including recommended measures to address teacher shortages in the respective countries or regions.

The problems were not the same in all countries. In developing countries, chronic teacher shortages combined with lack of basic teaching and learning conditions have for decades led to excessively large classes, high drop out rates, denial of even minimum access, especially for girls, and generally poor educational quality. Among major issues addressed in most countries were:

• levels of initial teacher education;
• minimum provision of continual professional development and in-service training;
• salaries to attract and retain better teaching candidates and/or alternative provisions for teacher supply to rural areas, especially without recourse to shortcuts such as long term use of contractual teachers, all of this in a context of severe budgetary and fiscal constraints;
• providing for better quality teaching and learning environments, including teaching support infrastructure;
• addressing gender disparities which discourage educational opportunities for girls; and
• enhanced social dialogue (consultation and negotiation) mechanisms between education employers and unions

Countries covered:

Africa: Lesotho, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa (national reports), Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe; Niger and Senegal;
Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico; Caribbean: Dominica and Trinidad and Tobago;
Central and Eastern Europe: Bulgaria