Over the past 15 years that I have been in education, technology has transformed classrooms into digital landscapes, opening new avenues for learning and engagement. While it offers incredible opportunities, this influx of technology brings forth a host of challenges, leaving many teachers like me feeling burnt out and overwhelmed.

The drowning effect

Gone are the days when a chalkboard and textbooks were the primary tools in our arsenal. (When I started teaching, I was still using an overhead projector!). Today, teachers are expected to be tech-savvy, integrating various devices, platforms, and apps into their lessons. Keeping up with the innovations in artificial intelligence, the plagiarism checkers, the constant updates and mastering new software can feel like trying to swim against a relentless tide.

In its latest report, “Technology in Education: A tool on whose terms”? , the 2023 GEM Report highlights the dizzying speed of change, with EdTech products changing every 36 months on average, and teachers training under pressure. The need to stay relevant and deliver engaging content while juggling the demands of a fast-paced digital environment can be suffocating. As we struggle to keep up with technological innovations, we need to remember that, whilst technology can support education, it cannot supplant it. Nothing should ever replace the human face in the education we give our children. In the United States where I work, an analysis of over 2 million students found that learning gaps widened with remote instruction exclusively. Teachers, in other words, are critical no matter the technology you put in.

The battle for attention

The allure of smartphones and tablets has captured the attention of our students, making it challenging to maintain their focus during class. Today, despite the distraction they cause, less than a quarter of countries ban smartphone use in schools. With social media, games, and a plethora of distractions at their fingertips, our students’ attention spans have suffered. The GEM report found that even just the presence of a mobile device in the near vicinity was enough to distract children and impact their learning. It often feels like a never-ending battle, trying to compete with the enticing world of digital entertainment.

The digital divide

While technology promises to bridge gaps and enhance inclusivity, it also exposes a stark reality — the digital divide. This became particularly clear during the COVID-19 pandemic. A rapid shift to online learning almost overnight left out at least half a billion students worldwide. Most of the students affected came from disadvantaged backgrounds, and those in rural areas, who lacked access to reliable internet connections or personal devices. As a result, teachers must navigate the delicate balance of incorporating technology into their classrooms while ensuring no student is left behind. Bridging this gap requires creative thinking and collaborative efforts, which can add further strain to an already overwhelmed teacher.

The erosion of human connection

Technology has undeniably transformed the way we communicate and interact. The rise of online education options has changed the way the teacher-student connection happens. And while online education has its benefits, it can also erode the vital human connection between teachers and students. The personal touch, the subtle nuances, and the empathy that can only be conveyed through face-to-face interaction often get lost in the virtual realm. Building relationships with students becomes a challenge when much of our communication is reduced to emails and virtual meetings.

Finding the silver lining

Amidst the chaos and burnout, it is crucial to remember that technology is a tool, not the ultimate goal of education. As teachers, we must adapt and find ways to harness its potential without compromising the core values that underpin our profession. Here are a few strategies to help navigate the challenges:

1. Embrace professional development: Seek out workshops, conferences, and online courses that focus on integrating technology effectively. Building your digital skills will not only boost your confidence but also make you better equipped to support your students. As the new GEM Report shows, governments need to ensure that the teaching community is offered appropriate training to use the tools being bought.
2. Collaborate with colleagues: Share your experiences, challenges, and triumphs with fellow teachers. Collaboration fosters a sense of camaraderie and helps discover innovative ways to tackle common obstacles. Teachers often feel unprepared and lack confidence teaching with technology, they need support yet only half of countries have ICT standards for developing their skills.
3. Set boundaries: Establish clear boundaries between work and personal life. It’s easy to get consumed by the demands of technology, but remember that self-care is essential to prevent burnout. Dedicate time to recharge and unplug from the digital world. One simple way to practice self-care and set a technology boundary is to take your work email off of your phone. We must also remember that screen time weighs heavily on children’s wellbeing including lower well-being, less curiosity, self-control, and emotional stability, higher anxiety or depression diagnosis.
4. Focus on pedagogy: Instead of getting caught up in the latest trends and gadgets, concentrate on the pedagogical aspects of teaching. Identify how technology can enhance learning outcomes and use it purposefully, rather than for the sake of novelty. This can be a difficult task as there is a lack of good quality evidence on which technology to use. As illustrated in the GEM report, a survey of teachers and administrators in 17 US states showed that only 11% requested peer-reviewed evidence prior to adoption.
5. Tailor instruction to student needs: Recognize the diversity of your students’ backgrounds and ensure that technology integration is inclusive. Provide alternative methods of learning for students without access, so no one is left behind. We need to remember that technology improves access for millions of students but excludes millions more.

Closing Thoughts:

The diary of a burned-out teacher may be filled with frustration and exhaustion, but it also holds glimpses of hope and resilience. By examining the risks and opportunities that technology presents in education and adopting proactive strategies, teachers can harness the benefits of technology, limit its downfall and overcome burnout to continue to inspire their students. Let us remember that technology should enhance education, not replace the human touch that makes teaching truly impactful.

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Siti works in a school of 672 students, of whom 44 have disabilities. She teaches 4^th, 5^th and 6^th grades.

“I didn’t want to be a teacher at the start, but one day in 2001 I met with street children who had disabilities – they had hearing barriers – which made me really eager to learn about disabilities so I took the master’s at university about special needs education,” Siti said. “I became a teacher in 2005 and have been teaching ever since”.

“Mostly I teach in one classroom, with all children together, but sometimes, when some children need to be taught separately, we break out into stimulation groups, which can be used for children with special conditions. Some need remedial lessons, for example. Some have tantrums.”

Teaching children with disabilities can be hard. “There’s an imbalance between the students and teachers in the school so the burden on the teachers is huge. The number of children with very challenging disabilities in the school is very high.”

To meet the needs of these children, Siti uses a few key teaching methods. “I design the class in the shape of U and I stand in the middle in order to give all students attention in the classroom.”

“In second grade there are Down’s syndrome students who have good achievements in dancing and singing. I always try to increase their self-confidence so that the other students can see them as part of their group.”

The 2013/4 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, Teaching and learning: Achieving quality for all, showed that classroom assessments can help teachers identify students who are struggling to learn, diagnose their learning difficulties and choose strategies to support them.

“This is my most useful teaching aid,” Siti said. “I have a tool for students so that I can monitor their progress from the beginning until the end of the semester. We look at each of the names of the children and what they have achieved. We then decide what each student will achieve in each subject in a year, so that each is reviewed at the end of each semester.”

Siti learned these teaching methods during her master’s degree in special education needs. She also receives ongoing training which is “independently organized by the school. It is training given by friends who have experience, a sort of network of other teachers. It’s very informal.”

While there is some training supported by the government, Siti explains, there is no systematic training in how to teach children with disabilities at the district level. As in many countries around the world, the result is that many teachers have no training at all in how to ensure children with disabilities are receiving the support they need.

Teachers urgently need training if they are to be able to help children break down the barriers caused by disadvantages such as disabilities. The Lao People’s Democratic Republic, for example, provides specialized training in teaching children with disabilities, and now has a network of 539 schools where children with disabilities are taught alongside their peers in an inclusive environment.

Governments should also hire more teachers with disabilities, who can better understand the needs of the children in their classroom. Mozambique, for instance, has been running training for visually impaired primary school teachers for more than 10 years. Communities have become familiar with their children being taught by visually impaired teachers, resulting in a positive change of attitude and helping create a more welcoming environment for teachers and students with disabilities.

“Things are improving in some areas – such as West Java,” Siti said, “but in general a very small proportion of children with disabilities are going to school.” The 2013/4 EFA Global Monitoring Report shows this is the case in many countries. In 14 of 15 low and middle income countries, people of working age with disabilities were about one-third less likely to have completed primary school.

“In my school there is no drop-out,” Siti said, “but in general there is no accurate data on how many children are dropping out and how many cannot access school because of their disability.”

Concrete data on the true scale and range of disabilities is lacking worldwide. As a result, the scale of disabilities is often underreported, and the needs of children affected by impairments are left unaddressed in many education plans.

“I hope that in the future all schools will be inclusive,” Siri told us.

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Mohammed arrived eight months ago in Zaatari, which has become the world’s second-largest refugee complex as more and more Syrians flee the civil war. “I was teaching in my school until it was completely destroyed, then I moved to another school. Once all schools in the area had been completely destroyed, then I left and came to Zaatari.”

Four months ago he got a job teaching. “Save the Children had a recruitment for schools and I applied for the job. They hired me because of my experience and because I have a university degree and have been teaching for 12 years.”

“My school is primary and secondary combined. Girls in the morning, boys in the afternoon. There are 800 students in primary and 400 students in secondary school.

“There are 25 to 40 in each class at my school, school 2. In school 1, there are from 80 to 120 in classes because it’s in one of the most densely populated areas of the camp. Zaatari is a massive, massive place. It takes a couple of hours to walk across the camp.”

“Our main problems are the shortage of text books, we need boards and markers,” Mohammed says, adding, “The school doesn’t look like a school. I want a yard where children can play. We want our school to look like other schools.”

Despite the difficulties, Mohammed says the majority of children in the camp are in school. “There are 50,000 children in the camp in total. Half of them are school-aged children and 20,000 are currently registered with a school. Some have missed up to three school years. It’s important they are enrolled into school.”

Globally, as we outlined in a policy paper last year, many children in or from countries affected by conflict don’t have a chance to go to school. Around half the world’s out-of-school population lives in conflict-affected countries, up from 42% in 2008.

The education systems of many countries embroiled in conflict are overlooked in the international aid structure, receiving neither long-term development assistance nor short-term humanitarian aid. The global education community has been calling for 4% of humanitarian aid to be allocated to education. Yet as we showed in the 2013/4 EFA Global Monitoring Report, the share of humanitarian aid for education has declined. In 2012, education accounted for just 1.4% of humanitarian aid, down from 2.2% in 2009.

Although you could hardly say Mohammed and the children he teaches are lucky, they have at least been able to receive help from United Nations agencies such as UNICEF and NGOs like Save the Children, which detailed the effects of the Syrian war in a report this year, A Devastating Toll: The impact of three years of war on the health of Syria’s children.

“We have received training how to teach the Jordanian curriculum,” Mohammed says. “UNICEF also gave us a course on how to be a good teacher. They are training other teachers at the end of March. It’s a good course.”

Save the Children also helps children who have been traumatized by their experiences. “We have many aggressive students because of the situations they faced during the crisis and supporting children in the camp with psychosocial support is important,” Mohammed says.

“Save the Children have their own caravan with some toys and they do some activities with the children to relieve the tension that they have. They give psychosocial support. We identify children who need support and direct them to the centres. There are over 60 centres in the camp.”

Mohammed say schools in Syria are being deliberately attacked and used as bases by fighting forces. In the 2011 EFA Global Monitoring Report, The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education, we drew attention to attacks on schools and the need to heighten human rights protection for education.

The United Nations Security Council subsequently put its weight behind one of the major recommendations of the report, when it unanimously adopted Resolution 1998 in July 2011. The resolution recognizes attacks on schools as grave violations of human rights, adding them to the crimes for which government forces and armed militias can be named in the UN secretary-general’s annual report on children and armed conflict.

“Some of the children are still scared of school because they saw their schools being destroyed because of bombing and think the schools here are like those in Syria,” Mohammed says. “Some of the schools were occupied by some of the fighting groups.”

“My school was attacked at night so neither the students nor teachers were there. They bombed the whole village that time and they destroyed the school because it was in the area.”

Mohammed underlines the need for humanitarian aid to focus more on education. “I wish that people keep supporting us here in the camp. The support by organisations like UNICEF and Save the Children in the camp is going very well but we still need more support. I hope we get back to Syria and if it lasts longer than I expect, I hope the standard of the school gets better here so that it’s good for our children.

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After graduating from Kabul University in the late 1980s, Nahida became a teacher. But then the Taliban came to power.

Under the Taliban: a secret school for girls
“It was their policy to close all the schools for females. For me, it was difficult to go to school to teach. When I went to my school, the principal was a mullah and he didn’t allow me to enter and asked me after that not to come to school.  But for the boys, school was open.

“When I understood the policy of Taliban was not to allow girls and female teachers to go to school, I started a home school for girls that was very secret and not official because families and their parents asked me to teach their daughters. It was a very strict time. Very difficult. I was afraid.”

When the Taliban fell, the way was open to restore education for girls. But first everything had to be rebuilt from scratch – there was literally nothing left.

The long process of rebuilding
“When I went to my school it was completely destroyed. The buildings had no windows, no doors. The surrounding wall was destroyed. Schools didn’t have any chairs, tables, blackboard, chalk – no school materials at all. First I cleaned the classes with the help of my teachers. I made the surrounding wall in mud and stones. I gave messages to families and, mosques and asked them to send their daughters to school.

“The girls came back slowly, slowly. I encouraged families, asked their parents to school, encouraged them, talked with them. Also I sent my female teachers to their homes. I announced it in different mosques.”

Despite improvements over the decade, the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2013/4 shows that Afghanistan still has the highest level of gender disparity in primary education in the world with only 71 girls in primary school for every 100 boys. In 1999, no girls were in secondary school in the country. By 2011, there were still only 55 girls in secondary school for every 100 boys.

For Nahida and her students, the conflict in Afghanistan is far from over. “Now in Afghanistan, war continues every day. There are suicide attacks, bombs. The insecurity, and instability is a big challenge for our people, especially for girls. When a suicide attack happens, families don’t allow their girls to go to school for one or two days. Also for boys, but especially for girls. I have organized special transportation for my students. It’s a good solution to prevent absenteeism of girls from school.”

The struggle to hire and train enough women teachers
Nahida’s long experience underlines how important it is for governments to hire and train female teachers. As our new gender summary of the EFA GMR 2013/4 shows, however, women teachers are particularly lacking in areas with wide gender disparity in enrolment.

In 2008, in Afghanistan, less than 30% of those in initial teacher education were female, even though the numbers had been increasing thanks to programmes enabling women to enter teaching with lower qualifications. In 2011, less than a third of teachers in primary education in the country were female.

Female teachers are even less likely to work in rural areas. “It’s the big challenge for education,” Nahida confirmed. “In the provinces, especially in the unstable provinces like the south of Afghanistan, the lack of female teachers causes schools difficulties. The government is planning to do more to educate and hire female teachers, but it is hard to send teachers to the provinces because of lack of security.”

A big part of the problem is that so few girls complete secondary school – the basic qualification for becoming a teacher. “Day by day the number of girls decreases especially in the high grade classes like 10, 11 and 12,” Nahida said.  Our WIDE database confirms that only 6% of young women aged15-24 years in rural areas had completed lower secondary school in 2010.

In the 2013/4 EFA Global Monitoring Report, we outline recommendations to help policy makers encourage more female teachers to work in disadvantaged areas, including providing female teachers with incentives, such as safe housing, to move to rural areas. Alternatively, local recruitment can also ensure that poor, rural girls receive the benefits of being taught by a female teacher.

In the case of Afghanistan, the government aims to increase the number of female teachers by 50% by 2014 with monetary and housing incentives for female teachers, and special teacher training programmes for women in remote areas and women who do not meet current qualification requirements.

Looking to the future
Conflict-affected countries like Afghanistan desperately need help. But total aid to basic education in Afghanistan fell from US$288 million in 2010 to US$217 million in 2011. Meanwhile, appeals for humanitarian aid during and after conflict tend to neglect education needs. In 2012, education received only 3% of the humanitarian funding raised for Afghanistan.

For Nahida, education is not something to be viewed as a problem, but as part of the solution for breaking the cycle of conflict: “Educated people don’t take guns,“ she said. “They don’t destroy their country and their schools.”

Join the #TeacherTuesday campaign: Write a blog, send a tweet, join our weekly Twitter Q&As. Read the tweetchat on Storify.

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Natelee, from the Bay Islands in Honduras is the second participating teacher in our ten-week #

There are 9 indigenous and minority groups in Honduras (Miskitu, Tawahka, Lenca, Tolupan, Maya-Chorti, Garifuna, Nahao, Pech, Negro de Habla Ingles) and 7 languages. Spanish is the first spoken language on the mainland, but English is the main spoken language on the Bay Islands, whose inhabitants are mainly descended from the Grand Cayman and Jamaica, with a scattering of Garifuna people.

“It leaves a gap,” said Natelee, a teacher in the Bay Islands, when we asked her what it was like being taught in a language different from your your own. “Some children won’t be able to read or write because they’ve been taught in a language they don’t understand.” Our Report shows that, in Honduras in 2011, 94% of those who spoke the language of instruction at home learned the basics in reading in primary school compared to only 62% of those who did not.

Being taught in a language they don’t understand not only impacts on whether children make the grades, but also whether they decide that school is worth carrying on with. “Over the years there have been a number of dropouts in our system,” Natelee explained, “Sometimes it’s because their learning style is not catered to, and others it’s because the language at school is not their first language”. The EFA GMR 2013/4 shows that in Honduras in 2010, only 75% of children were surviving to the last grade of primary education, with 25% dropping out.

Those least likely to complete their education the world over are the poorest, who often make up some of those speaking minority languages. Poor students speaking a minority language at home are among the lowest performers. In Honduras in 2011/12, only 10% of the poorest young people completed lower secondary school, compared to 84% of the richest. If these trends continue, it is projected that the poorest young people will reach lower secondary completion almost 100 years later than the richest young people.

Teachers are rarely prepared for the reality of multilingual classrooms, which exacerbates the learning barriers faced by children speaking minority languages. Our latest Report tells us that more than half the achievement gap in Guatemala between indigenous and non-indigenous speakers is attributed to the fact that indigenous children attend schools with fewer instructional materials, lower quality infrastructure and less qualified teachers. This underscores the importance of redressing such deficits to improve learning outcomes for indigenous children.

“You need to keep an open mind,” Natelee told us, when explaining the skills needed as a teacher when faced with a multilingual classroom. ‘A multicultural, multilingual classroom needs multimodels of teaching.’  Teachers need to respond to the children making up their classroom and integrate that response into their teaching methods, she told us; in other words, ‘placing the child at the centre of the process.’

Language and ethnicity are deeply intertwined, and this needs to be appreciated in teaching methods as well. As Natelee notes, in the Bay Islands the students have different traditions, religious and spiritual beliefs. “Some chant, some are more evangelistic, some rain dances, or drum, and appreciate connections with the earth and the ground” she said. She incorporates these cultures into all her classes, counting with almond seeds in mathematics class, for instance, using coconut as drums in music class, and teaching about the islands’ local coral in science lessons.

By accepting and embracing different languages and ethnicities into their teaching styles, teachers will be teaching the values of diversity to their students as well. “Just because you speak a different language, doesn’t mean you’re less important than others”, Natelee said. Providing an inclusive education results in a classroom of children who are “proud of their cultural identity and respectful of others.”

Unless we ensure education works for all children, no matter their background, we will not be guaranteeing children their right to a quality education. This year is ‘El Año de la Inclusión’ – The Year of Inclusion – in Honduras. Let’s hope this spirit carries forwards after then into 2015 and beyond, not just in Honduras, but all around the world.

Join the #TeacherTuesday campaign: Write a blog, send a tweet, join our weekly Twitter Q&As – Tweetchat with Natelee 4th March 4-5pm GMT

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“Teachers are few and far between”, Esnart told the audience at the global launch event of the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2013/4 in Ethiopia last month. “The truth of the matter is that huge classes and learning under unfavorable conditions in Malawi drastically reduce the quality of time that a teacher can spend with a child. This is having a negative impact on the quality of teaching and children’s ability to learn.”

Malawi has one of the world’s most dramatic teacher shortages. Our latest Report shows that the teaching force is growing at just 1% per year in the country, and the average number of children per teacher has increased from 63 in 1999 to 76 in 2011. For Malawi to achieve universal primary education by 2015, it would have needed to increase its teaching force by 15% every year. But, in addition, the capacity of its teacher education programme is currently far from sufficient to meet this need.

Unfortunately, this situation is not rare and needs to be urgently addressed. Our latest Report shows that 5.2 million primary school teachers need to be recruited globally by 2015 if we are to achieve universal primary education.

Teachers in overcrowded classrooms will struggle to ensure the children obtain foundation skills when in school. Out of the six subjects Esnart was supposed to get through, she’d sometimes teach just 2, or 3. “I just ran out of time,” she said. With limited one-on-one time with the teacher, some of the children fell asleep in class, she said, others started hitting each other or just went out to play. It is no wonder that dropout rates in such circumstances are high.

The knock-on effects of overcrowded classrooms and a lack of teachers are severe: “You will be shocked to hear that some children in Malawi reach grades three and four without being able to add up, read or write,” Esnart told us. “I’ve even seen children as old as 9 and 10 who are unable to read and write their names when clearly they should be able to do this.” Our Report confirms that even spending 4 years in school is not enough. Less than a third of young people who left school after spending no more than 4 years in school in Malawi are literate.

Low quality education of this nature has contributed to there being 250 million children who do not learn the basics around the world. In Malawi, less than half of children know how to read or count. Over the long term, this leaves young people illiterate when they are trying to find a livelihood. Youth literacy rates hardly improved over a decade in Malawi, rising from 72% in 2000 to 77% in 2010.

This teacher shortage is affecting the disadvantaged – girls, the poor, those in rural areas and the disabled – the hardest, making it essential that governments do their utmost to get teachers where they are needed most. Left unaddressed, crosscutting disadvantages of this nature build tall barriers that children find hard to overcome: In Malawi in 2010, fewer than 5% of rural poor girls were completing lower secondary school.

Part of the problem, explains Esnart, is that “rural children are taught by teachers who are often demotivated due to poor working conditions, poor accommodation and from living in remote areas where they are unable to access healthcare and other social amenities.”

To help address this imbalance, the Malawian government has introduced a hardship allowance and offers a faster career track for teachers who work in rural areas. Open distance training is also now available to enable more teachers to be recruited locally. However, in Esnart’s words, ‘the government needs to do more to improve teacher salaries, conditions, building teacher housing, giving electricity, better facilities closer to rural areas.”

The quality of an education system is only as good as the quality of its teachers. Our Report shows clearly that it is not enough just to want to teach. People should enter the profession with at least a lower secondary education. In Malawi, however, the teaching profession is not attracting the best candidates. Esnart describes the teaching profession as “a last resort”. Candidates are signing on to the profession, in other words, “because they have nowhere else to go.”

To address these deficits and meet future demand as enrolment increases, it is vital that countries ensure they attract the best candidates to the job and have the capacity to train them. Countries must start planning now to make up the shortfall, not only in primary schools but also at the lower secondary education level.

I think that you will all agree that this has to change, said Esnart at the end of her interview. We do.

 Join the #TeacherTuesday campaign: Write a blog, send a tweet, join our weekly Twitter Q&As

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Teachers need more support to meet such daily challenges, as we showed in the 2013/4 EFA Global Monitoring Report, Teaching and learning: Achieving quality for all. But policies can only be effective if those responsible for implementing them are involved in shaping them. Policy-makers who aim to improve education quality rarely consult teachers or their unions, however. A survey in 10 countries showed that all teachers thought it was vital to have influence on the direction of policy, but only 23% felt they had any at all.

To this effect, #TeacherTuesday is designed to give teachers a voice, and allow them to describe the difficulties of their everyday work. It is the start of an ongoing consultation the EFA Global Monitoring Report team will be carrying out with teachers, with the aim of publishing a teachers’ resource based on our latest Report later this year.

Next Tuesday, our campaign begins with the story of Esnart, from Malawi. In her country, which is suffering from a huge teacher shortage, fewer than half of children are learning the basics. Our latest Report shows that globally there is a huge lack of qualified teachers, which hits disadvantaged children hardest. At current rates of recruitment, almost 60 countries will still not have enough primary school teachers in 2015.

Join us next Tuesday, February 25, at midday GMT on twitter to hear Esnart talk about the reality of trying to teach over 200 students without a classroom, asking children to sit in the open sun and to write in the sand because they have no books. Ask her questions online as she takes over our account for an hour.

To coincide with International Women’s Day, when we will launch the Gender Summary of the 2013/4 EFA Global Monitoring Report, Mariam Khalique, will write about the challenges of being a female teacher in Pakistan, where gender equality is far from being achieved and there are only 82 girls for every 100 boys in primary school. Mariam is the former teacher of Malala Yousafzai, the young education activist who was shot by the Taliban.

For the third anniversary of the Syrian conflict, on March 16, we will hear from a teacher, Mohammed, who taught in Syria until the fighting got too much. Supported by UNICEF, he is now working as a teaching assistant in Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, which hosts over 100,000 Syrian refugees.

We are delighted to be able to announce that some of the world’s most influential teacher bloggers and networks are supporting our campaign, including Tom Whitby from the USA, Julie Lindsay from Australia, Jennifer James and the Mom Bloggers for Social Good network, Joe Bowers from Canada, Rosalia Arteaga, the former President of Ecuador, Emmanuel Davidenkoff from France, Zimbabwean blogger, @SirNige, regular education blogger at the Times of India, Meeta Sengupta, regular education blogger at South Africa’s Mail & Guardian, Athambile, TeachPitch and more.

Given their reach, teacher unions are key partners for governments. This is why we are joining forces for #TeacherTuesday with Education International, the global federation of teachers and teacher unions, which represents over 30 million education personnel.

To find out more about the teachers taking part in our campaign over the coming weeks, please visit our website. Take part in  by writing your own blog, following #TeacherTuesday, sharing other blogs as they are written, and talking with the teachers every week on Twitter.

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