China: strengthening the quality of education in rural communities

[About the book]: Everyone remembers a good teacher. But across the world, in developing country contexts, millions of children, seventy five million at the last estimate, have no access to schooling and no opportunity to engage with any teachers at all. And of the lucky ones in schools the chances of meeting a teacher to remember are dropping. In some parts of the world qualified teachers are a rarity with millions of untrained adults taking over the role of teacher. Schools and teachers in many parts of the world face significant challenges. Enrolment is expanding to meet the millennium targets to have every child in school by 2015. Yet the supply of good quality teachers is falling behind. Not the least because the image of the teaching profession is deterring many from entering the profession. Poor status, low salaries and inadequate working conditions characterise perceptions of teachers in many countries. There are strong critiques of the one dimensional, didactic approach to pedagogic practice. Despite this, millions of teachers are carrying out, often heroically, the task of educating a newly enfranchised generation of learners. This book focuses on the teacher role. It examines the problems of finding and retaining teachers and also on how these teachers can be supported, trained and educated. The book examines the ways in which teachers can help in raising achievement levels and contributing to poverty alleviation. The main argument of this book is that existing policy structures around teachers, whilst barely adequate in the twentieth century, are not adequate at all in the twenty-first. The book identifies the global pressures on teaching and shows how these are particularly acute in developing economies. In summarising the key policy and research issues and analysing innovatory approaches to teacher supply, retention, training, education and career enhancement, the book provides a key text for policy makers, researchers and others working in this important development area