Are Teachers Valued in Education in Emergencies Settings? What We Know and How We Address the Challenges

In this blogpost, Christopher Henderson reflects on an event held on 1 October by NORRAG and the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies to mark World Teachers’ Day (5 October), highlighting the urgent need for investments in teachers’ work and wellbeing. 

Sheikh Muhammed pointed around the stifling hot and cramped classroom – with longing eyes following the motion of his hand – and said “we need fans and teacher rooms … people say we are professionals, but we are not treated like it.”  

As an uncontracted Rohingya ‘volunteer’ teacher in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Muhammed’s aspiration for fans and a teacher room may seem rudimentary. But his hope will likely remain unfulfilled, and his work conditions unlikely to improve. 

Muhammed’s situation symbolises the reality that too many teachers in emergency settings cope with: they do not feel valued, yet they are expected to do so much with so little.    

It is time to shift the status quo

The evidence strongly suggests the possibility of significant returns when we invest in teachers’ professional development, work conditions, and wellbeing. For a long time, research has clearly shown the irreplaceable influence of skilled, well compensated, and compassionate teachers on children’s learning and future livelihoods. 

Teachers have a positive influence on quality education outcomes, and yet are expected to put up with intolerable work conditions. 

In 2024 we are firmly aware of the protective risks and mental health challenges that the work of teaching in emergency settings can bring, but too few teachers experience the improved conditions that a solid body of evidence recommends. 

To mark World Teachers Day on October the 5th, NORRAG and the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies co-curated an open panel discussion to further clarify the urgent need for investments in teachers’ work and wellbeing. 

We invited UNESCO’s Teacher Task Force (TTF) Head of Secretariat Carlos Vargas Tamez, UNHCR Senior Education Advisor Nina Papadopoulos, and International Rescue Committee (IRC) researcher Dr. Danni Falk to respond to the critical question: are teachers valued in education in emergency settings? 

Panellists and audience members concurred that teachers are chronically undervalued, citing persistent issues in our sector, but they also believe solutions are in motion to better value and protect teachers in emergencies. 

Stem teacher attrition rates

Carlos Vargas opened the discussion, citing UNESCO’s Global Report on Teachers finding that the world confronts a shortage of 44 million teachers, 58 percent of which is attributable to teacher attrition. 

Especially in crisis-affected contexts, teachers are leaving the profession due to the negative relationship between the risks teachers face and their motivation to stay. When teachers leave, children and communities lose the pedagogical innovation and critical care strategies that teachers have honed over many years. 

Vargas also makes it clear that the risks teachers contend with include the material conditions in which they work, threats on their lives due to the misappropriation of education facilities and targeted attacks by armed forces, and their exclusion from decision making processes. As Danni Falk from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) later affirms, the cumulative nature of these risks contributes to burnout and the ‘impossible choice’ to continue or discontinue teaching. 

Don’t just listen to teachers’ voices, make space at the table

“In emergencies, we often see that strategies, plans, and educational reforms fail because they don’t take into consideration the voices and expert knowledge of teachers in situ … they know first hand what works and what doesn’t in emergency settings”, Vargas says.

In this sense, and as Vargas asserts, teachers are not only the implementers of directives, they are ideators, too. Their perspectives and contributions can actually drive success in policy. Or, as research shows, when appropriately resourced and supported teachers can be ‘transformative intellectuals’ and ‘agents of change.’ 

Vargas also implies that we need to leverage the disruptive nature of emergencies to improve the proximity between teachers and decision makers. 

Remove the systemic barriers that inhibit refugee teachers’ work

Referring to settings of forced displacement, Nina Papadopoulos shares that “while refugee teachers are essential to providing stability and education … their work is frequently undermined by systemic barriers.” 

Citing findings from UNHCR’s recent Barriers to Breakthroughs publication and mirroring arguments from NORRAG’s Policy Insights: Refugee Teachers compendium, Papadopoulos highlights two key issues requiring attention: fair and timely compensation and the integration of refugee teachers into national education systems.    

On the topic of teacher salaries, Papadopoulos describes how only a few international organisations pay refugee teachers in some contexts. But more often than not, donors are reluctant to fund recurring expenditures and leave teachers with temporary and insecure incomes, having to depend on family or community contributions to make ends meet. 

Promising examples do exist, however, whereby refugee teachers are integrated into national teacher payrolls where donor infrastructure is paired with government funds to cover salaries, such as in Rwanda and to a lesser extent in Chad. 

Examples like these are rare, Papadopoulos admits, meaning most refugee teachers are instead isolated and undervalued on the periphery of host-country education systems, especially when their prior qualifications and experiences are not recognized. 

In this regard, progress is being made. As UNESCO’s Carlos Vargas promoted earlier in the discussion, a qualifications passport is being implemented in Zambia which could mitigate systemic barriers to teachers’ ability to work and have groundbreaking benefits for teachers there and further afield; if the political will is there.  

Enhance teacher wellbeing

Tying panellists’ previous points together, IRC’s Danni Falk argues that teachers’ wellbeing needs to be at the centre of our advocacy and actions. 

Echoing the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies Executive Director Petra Heusser’s opening remarks, Falk recognizes teachers as frontline professionals in emergency responses – like doctors and paramedics – and credits teachers as longer term peace builders, with a vital effect on the development and security of their communities.

“Teachers understand the importance of their work, they take it very seriously, and their wellbeing enhances their professional identity and motivation to teach”, Falk says. 

But she also insists that teacher wellbeing is a multidimensional and multiscalar issue, meaning policies and practices at different levels of the systems must consider factors inside and outside of schools, and in ways that positively influence teachers’ professional status, psychosocial safety, and capacity to fulfil their roles. 

At the school level, this could mean that teachers have more agency for curricula and pedagogical decision making, at the community level it might mean that teachers’ security and protection from violence is prioritised, and at the national level it should mean that teacher remuneration is adequate and paid on time.  

Convince the unconverted

As we moved into audience discussion, Petra Heusser suggests we are at risk of preaching to the converted; she asks how we can convince the unconverted of the need to invest in teachers, as an end unto themselves, and as a key factor in achieving quality education for all. 

Referring to refugee teachers in particular, Nina Papadopoulos believes that we need to mobilise our colleagues who are positioned to influence decisions at the highest possible level. 

But to do this, Papadopoulos also believes we need better data on the ‘return of investments’ in teachers; noting how donors and host-country governments want better foresight on the economic, peace, or political dividends that come from funding teacher salaries and better integrating teachers in national systems. Adding to this, Vargas suggests that better evidence on the costs of teacher attrition on current systems and future generations is also needed.  

Develop a coherent and shared vision for teachers

An audience member asked what further evidence or rationale is required for donors to scale and sustain their investments in teachers. This elicited valuable contributions from donors who were also in attendance. 

Education Cannot Wait’s Fatou Niang promoted upcoming opportunities to produce and collate data on investments in teachers, reflecting Papadopoulos’ and Vargas’ points above. While Swiss Development and Cooperation’s Martina Ramming called for improved coherence between United Nations agencies, INGOs, governments, and donors on the need to value teachers’ work in emergency settings. 

This response implies that researchers, policy analysts, and advocates need to continue bringing key actors together, get them on the same page, and convene broad agreement on how and why teachers in emergencies matter, as this event sought to achieve.

The Author:

Christopher Henderson, Education in Emergencies Specialist, NORRAG