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The latest TALIS report released by the OECD focuses on primary and upper secondary teachers and highlights the challenges they face to carry out their work.

While the focus of Teaching and Learning International Study (TALIS) reports led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been on lower secondary education so far, this report broadens the picture to include both primary and upper secondary teachers.

Similar challenges for primary and upper secondary teachers

Significant similarities between both levels are revealed, such as the highly needed support for training, personnel and material resources at all levels of school systems.

Primary education seems to lack qualified teachers and information and communication technology resources the most. The issue of gender imbalance in school leadership positions is also most striking in primary education. At the same time, primary teachers tend to co-operate more and are more ready to teach classes jointly.

In upper secondary education, the main challenge is the administrative burden falling on principals, giving them little time to work on actual learning-related tasks. Mentoring and induction activities are more widely available at the higher levels, but teachers are not always engaged in those.

Teachers are passionate about their profession

The 2013 TALIS report shows that most teachers, across all education levels, feel that their profession is not valued by their society. At the same time, TALIS data clearly show that a vast majority of teachers are satisfied with their profession, across all levels of education and countries. “This is a striking statistic, which points to the passion teachers have for their profession,” underlined Education International (EI) General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen.

Adequate distribution of resources needed

One of the TALIS most important policy recommendations is to ensure an equitable distribution of human and material resources across the school system. TALIS data show that the shortage of qualified teachers increases at the same path than the level of schooling. “A very alarming finding” is the fact that approximately one in five primary teachers work in schools where principals report a qualified teachers’ shortage hindering instruction, said van Leeuwen.

Primary schools also report a highly significant shortage of support personnel, which is of particular concern to EI as the highest levels of students with special needs and behavioral problems are found in primary education.

Van Leeuwen went on to say that EI strongly supports the report’s conclusion that “governments should review resource allocations” across all levels of the schooling system – and across urban and rural, high and low socioeconomic status schools. This is a way to ensure “a fair and equitable distribution of resources with special focus on deficiencies in primary education”, when children acquire basic skills enabling them to succeed during the next cycles of education.

Create a clear career path for teachers

Another TALIS key policy recommendation is that governments should review the principal’s role at all levels of education. If governments want to recruit and retain top candidates as teachers, the teaching profession needs to be seen as a career in which advancement is possible.

The General Secretary of EI insisted that “offering opportunities to mentoring, professional development, meaningful feedback which touches upon all aspects of teachers work, and increasing their self-efficacy and job satisfaction are other important recommendations of this valuable report.”