From UNESCO's 8th Policy Dialogue Forum Forum of the Teacher Task Force for Education 2030

1. Group 3

2.  Commissions for Financing global education opportunity
 Common Platform for Education in Emergencies and
Protracted Crises

3.  Need to increase quantum of funds for education- within these, teachers is
the most important investment, not a drain on the national exchequer.
 Need to strengthen domestic resources. States to reform and strengthen
fiscal systems- progressive taxation to raise additional resources,
compensate for abolition of fees, have positive equity impact. eg Brazil-
earmarking share of taxation revenue to education
 States need to adhere with global financing benchmarks: 6% GDP and
20% of national budget for education, ODA commitments.
 State Responsibility to be maintained-unregulated privatization a real risk
from perspective of equity. Regulatory mechanisms for PPPs in education
needed nationally within existing global benchmarks.
 Fees as top up funding source is still a reality in countries, but FFA
commits us to 12 yrs free & there is considerable evidence of negative
impact on equity. Need for global & national roadmap towards 12yrs free
education

4.  Budgetary decisions are inherently political: Member states to put in
place mechanisms for scrutiny over national budgets -budget
transparency (including in negotiations and contracting), oversight, open
social dialogue around decision making
 States to make allocations based on strong and integrated national sector
plans and support equitable national systems
 Governments to adopt sector wide approach across the budget cycle.
 Decentralization of financial resources to the school level could
contribute to improving effectiveness of service delivery, provided that
school actors and parents have the capacity to managed resources. Need
for national benchmarks for community to use in planning.
 Governments to institutionalize the role of teachers, their associations and
civil society as stakeholders in negotiations around financing decisions,
subsequent follow up
 Capacities of planners, policy makers and management staff need to
be built to better identify financing needs, allocate and manage
resources equitably: this also requires investment.
 Evidence and research based policy for planning important- but difficult
to generalize from individual cases
 Data integrity- good and disaggregated data is needed for making
allocations- this needs to be funded too

5.  Impact in education usually takes time to achieve: Donors and planners must allow
time for policies and programmes to show impact.
 Impact is not only measured by student achievements in standardized tests.
 Countries to have comprehensive teacher policy and fully funded plan:
 Teacher recruitment, retention and deployment
 Teacher education (initial and continuing)
 Teacher employment, working conditions, career path/structure
 Teacher rewards and remuneration
 Teacher standards
 Teacher accountability
 School governance
 Donors and governments must prioritize investments with sustainable impact
 Overall effort needed to stop decline of teacher status
 Cuts may be made by both national governments and donors to ensure savings.
Efficiency not on the back of working conditions of teachers. Cuts in expat
consultant salaries or earmarked grants to MPs for starting new schools
 Oppose: IMF Conditionality for loans- increasing PTRs/teaching time
 Possible area of research: Why are some countries increasing and maintaining
high levels of financing to education

6.  All resource allocations must be targeted to
addressing existing inequalities- eg. income
quintiles, gender, location, disability
 Policy makers need information about each school to
ensure need based allocation. This requires states to
maintain disaggregated data and analysis.
 Need for governments to allot best teachers to
remote areas- salaries, living conditions, address
imbalances in deployment

7.  All governments should have comprehensive teacher policies
with fully costed and funded operational plans linked to results
focusing on educational quality, equity and inclusion.
 Member states should undertake appropriate processes and
build capacities to ensure most effective and efficient
mobilization and management of resources respecting the
rights and responsibilities of the teaching profession.
 Task Force should get engaged with international fora dealing
with financing of education including the Commission & the EiE
platform to reinforce the criticality` of financing quality
teaching and teacher development as a sustainable strategy
for achieving the SDGs