UNESCO. Teaching and learning: achieving quality for all: EFA global monitoring report, 2013-2014. 2014. Pages: 481

The 11th EFA Global Monitoring Report provides an update on progress that countries are making towards the global education goals that were agreed in 2000. It also calls for placing education at the heart of the global development  agenda after 2015. It is clear that the goals will not be achieved with 57 million children out of school. One third of primary school age children are not learning the basics, whether they are in school or not. To reach the goals, the Report calls on Governments to redouble efforts to provide learning to all who face disadvantages – whether from poverty, gender, where they live or other factors. 

Governments must step up efforts to recruit an additional 1.6 million teachers to achieve universal primary education by 2015. This Report identifies four strategies to provide the best teachers to reach all children with a good quality education. First, the right teachers must be selected to reflect the diversity of the children they will be teaching. Second, teachers must be trained to support the weakest learners, starting from the early grades. A third strategy aims to overcome inequalities in learning by allocating the best teachers to the most challenging parts of a country. Lastly, governments must provide teachers with the right mix of incentives to encourage them to remain in the profession and to make sure all children are learning, regardless of their circumstances, it is stated in the report.

EFA Global Monitoring Report