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Education unions from across the Pacific region – Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu – met to address the ongoing worldwide teacher shortages, calling governments and international institutions to prioritize public education and invest in teachers, echoing the United Nations (UN) recommendations on the teaching profession.

From August 4th–6th, 2025, Education International Asia-Pacific Region (EIAP) and the Council of Pacific Education (COPE) jointly organized a strategic planning meeting and the official launch of the EI Go Public! Fund Education campaign in Nadi, Fiji. The gathering brought together over 36 teacher union representatives, education leaders, and international partners, alongside representatives from EIAP, Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA, the International Labour Organization (ILO), and UNESCO.

Trade unions’ crucial role in ensuring respect for teachers’ rights

Trade unions must lead the campaign for better pay and working conditions for teachers, said the International Labour Organization (ILO) Director for Pacific Island Countries Martin Wandera in his opening remarks, adding that this leadership plays a huge part in addressing the global teacher shortage crisis – 50 million teachers missing worldwide.

“The global teacher shortage is not just a crisis of numbers but a crisis of morale, of working conditions, and of political will. The teaching profession must be grounded in the principles of decent work – fair pay, safe working environments, access to quality training, and respect for the right to organize,” he explained.

Mr. Wandera further reminded participants that “teachers are not just implementers of education policy, they are nation-builders. Strong, democratic unions are essential to ensuring that teachers are empowered to fulfil that role.”

He went on stressing that the crisis threatens the global ability to deliver quality education for all and “undermines broader social and economic development because education is the key to success.”

Mary Anne Therese Manuson, Education Programme Specialist at the UNESCO Regional Office for the Pacific States, highlighted the scale of the challenge: “The world faces a critical shortage of teachers, hindering the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4. To achieve universal education by 2030, we need an estimated 44 million additional teachers worldwide. Yet teacher attrition has doubled in recent years, driven by low salaries, poor working conditions, and a lack of recognition. Transforming the teaching profession requires comprehensive, equity-driven approaches, from improving salaries and working conditions to empowering teachers as co-creators in education policy.”

Dr. Sharan KC, from Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA, affirmed APHEDA’s partnership in the Go Public! campaign and underscored the critical role of educators in achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on quality education for all. He emphasized the importance of respecting and supporting the teaching profession and noted that the campaign provides a powerful platform for enabling educators to deliver quality education for all.

Participants strongly condemned chronic underfunding, the undervaluing of teachers, and the rise of privatization. They called for an end to the commodification of education and insisted it must be funded fairly, sustainably, and transparently.

A Roadmap for action – The UN Recommendations

The meeting further endorsed the UN recommendations on the teaching profession recommendations as a roadmap for strengthening the Pacific teaching profession. Four priority areas were highlighted:

R7. Quality education is not possible without adequate financing. Funding for public education should be guaranteed at a level of at least 6 per cent of gross domestic product and 20 per cent of total government expenditure. Such spending should be transparent and shielded from austerity measures.

R8. Long-term funding for well-qualified and well-supported teachers is an investment in the quality and sustainability of education systems. Governments should invest in teachers through competitive salaries and incentives; high-quality, accessible and affordable teacher training; and continuing professional development (CPD) and quality teaching and learning materials; as well as through the provision of qualified education support personnel.

R37. Working conditions should also provide for stable contractual forms; a safe and healthy workplace; manageable teacher-to-student ratios; support structures for managing problematic student behaviour; balanced workloads; safe, affordable and adequate housing; relevant, quality and accessible training and professional development opportunities; equitable access to technology and other resources; adequate social protection and pensions; and working-time arrangements (including duties beyond classroom teaching such as lesson preparation, marking and out-of-class student and parent engagements) that allow for adequate rest and work-life balance.

R48. Coordinated and institutionalized social dialogue between governments (at the appropriate level), representative teachers’ organizations and relevant employers’ organizations should be the principal means for developing policies on education, teaching and the teaching profession. In addition to issues related directly to employment and working conditions, social dialogue should also cover wider education policy issues, in particular in relation to technology and the transformation of education, just transitions and teaching for entry into the world of work. Collective bargaining should be used to determine conditions affecting teachers.

The Global Report on Teachers, a call to action

Australia and New Zealand need to do more to assist Pacific countries in addressing the 300,000 teachers needed in the Oceania region, also acknowledged EI Go Public! Campaign Manager Angelo Gavrielatos. He said countries such as Fiji, which lost an average of 600 teachers annually to the two countries must be assisted. “Yes, 0.3 million does not sound like much when you compare it to 15 million of sub-Sahara Africa, but when you consider our island nations and our populations, 0.3 million in Oceania is a huge problem.”

Gavrielatos also stressed that the first Global Report on Teachers by UNESCO and the International Teacher Task Force stresses the urgency of this challenge and calls for immediate action. He added that the report “is not just a monitoring tool, it is a call to action”, “grounded in a humanistic and rights-based vision of education, and inspired by the normative instruments on teachers, the International Commission on the Futures of Education, the outcomes of the Transforming Education Summit and the recommendations of the UN High Level Panel on the Teaching Profession, this report reaffirms that teachers are central to achieving SDG 4 — and to transforming education itself.”

He went on to note that “investing in teachers is essential to closing the global education gap by 2030, yet current funding levels remain insufficient.”

For him, transforming the teaching profession for a new social contract requires a comprehensive, equity-driven approach, and “teachers must be engaged as co-creators in education policy, particularly in shaping their own professional development.”

Meetings with top Pacific educational stakeholders

The EI delegation — consisting of Angelo Gavrielatos, Campaign Manager for Go Public! Fund Education, Anand Singh, Regional Director, EIAP and Neselinda Meta, Secretary General of COPE — met with members of the Pacific Heads of Education Systems (PHES) Steering Committee, who were convening in Nadi at the same time.

During this meeting, the delegation presented the UN recommendations and called on governments to establish a Pacific Teacher Commission to coordinate regional efforts on teacher supply, policy, professional development, and retention. EI offered full support to governments and regional institutions in developing and operationalizing such a body, emphasizing that a collaborative, Pacific-wide approach would be essential to tackling the teacher shortage and ensuring quality education for all.

As a result of Pacific Heads of Education Systems (PHES) Steering Committee meeting, PHES members adopted a decision where they “recognized the work by Education International regarding the teaching profession, highlighted as a Conference of Pacific Education Ministers (CPEM) priority after the regional studies on the teaching profession.”

Ensuring a bright future for future generations

Raising the voice of classroom teachers, Fiji Teachers’ Union (FTU) General Secretary Muniappa Goundar called for improved dialogue between education stakeholders and the Ministry of Education on the proposed extension of classroom hours for pre-primary school students in his country.

“What we are saying is: lets’ take some time to do it properly, use the media and stakeholders – in this case, the parents, give children time to settle in, to stay the whole day or not.”

We see children sleeping on the floor, exhausted. Is this helpful for the children to sleep on a concrete floor? he asked, acknowledging that “we should be able to come up with a win-win situation for everybody.”

He also insisted that “our concern, which we brought to the Education Ministry as well as the Finance Ministry, is to leave it to the teachers.”

“We will negotiate to see what the best way out is for those young children. We want the best for our children,” Mr. Goundar concluded.

Putting a halt to the teacher migration overseas

Fijian Teachers’ Association (FTA) General Secretary Paula Manumanunitoga also explained that “in the previous government, there were hardly any teachers migrating. Since the governmental change, there have been great many teachers moving abroad. As we all know, the greener pastures offered overseas are lucrative, with better pay.”

He added: “We are worried, because we do not want teacher shortages to badly affect education in this country.”

For the FTA, the reason for teachers leaving the country is clearly identified: the pay issue. “If we compare Australia and Fiji, we are far behind. We also have teachers from Fiji who are teaching in Mongolia. We have Fijian teachers everywhere. They have left because they are not paid enough. The best solution to the issue is for the government to think about increasing the pay for teachers.”

Even though migration is a global issue, migration will certainly cause teacher shortages, he said, and “the government should strategize and have some consultations done to find solutions.”

Mr Manumanunitoga went on mentioning teacher shortages in primary schools, in secondary schools, and in specialized education in Fiji. “The teachers’ working conditions, the strenuous, stressful situations that the overcrowding in schools brings to them, very low pay, we will suggest to the Ministry some ways we can improve that.”

According to him, the ILO Pacific Office director correctly identified “what we need to do to strengthen trade unionism. Collectively, we can obtain gains from the government. If we stand together, united, we can make an impact.”

Moving forward

In closing, Council of Pacific Education (COPE) General Secretary Neselinda Meta expressed deep gratitude to participants, partners, and facilitators: “Let us speak as one Pacific voice and say: Go Public. Fund Education. Invest in Teachers – and the time is now.”

The campaign advances with renewed unity, strategic clarity, and a commitment to ensuring every Pacific child has access to a well-supported, qualified teacher in every classroom, in every country and on every island in the Pacific.