Commonwealth Ministers Move to End Teacher “Poaching”

Education ministers from across the Commonwealth were today meeting in Lincolnshire to agree a set of rules to stop richer countries "poaching" teachers from the developing world.

Representatives from 30 Commonwealth countries - including 20 education ministers - are attending the two-day meeting with the aim of agreeing a protocol to prevent teachers in developing countries being poached to plug the gaps in the supply of teachers in developed countries.

Rich and poor Commonwealth members are sharply divided on the issue. Those losing their teachers to richer nations are frustrated at a time when they are struggling to reach a globally agreed goal of guaranteeing every primary-aged child an education by 2015. Africa needs 5 million new teachers before then to meet that goal.

The UK is seen as a particularly bad offender among the richer countries recruiting abroad. One in seven new teachers in the UK now comes from overseas. Some 12,800 non-EU nationals have been issued work permits since 2001.

This week's meetings were agreed at last October's 15th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in Edinburgh, where the anger felt by countries such as Jamaica, Trinidad and South Africa was palpable.

On that occasion the South African education minister, Professor Kader Asmal, labelled the act of rich countries "poaching" teachers from poorer countries "neo-colonial". South Africa lost 2,000 teachers a year to better-off countries, he said.

"No developed country should be actively involved in recruiting teachers from less developed countries. It causes a lot of harm to countries trying to improve education. It is bogus to say you are trying to help other countries when at the same time you are taking the cream of teachers away," he said.

However, teachers are not just coming to the UK from developing nations. Australian and Canadian teachers are increasingly opting to spend some time in a UK classroom, though there is less concern among their governments as they are normally expected to return to finish their careers at home.

The new protocol will also tackle the issue of working rights to prevent teachers being enlisted to richer countries by recruitment agencies which may seek to profit from the less stringent guarantees applied to agency teachers.

Steve Sinnott, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, which helped set up the conference, said: "Teachers welcome the initiative to develop ethical practices that local education authorities and teacher recruitment agencies must be made to follow.

"A protocol outlining an ethical position can make a real contribution to ensuring that the education of children across the world is protected.

"Past failures to tackle teacher shortages in developed countries, such as the UK, [have] damaged vulnerable education systems across the world. Teachers have been poached to come to the UK, undermining children's education in many small states."

Tomorrow delegates are due to discuss action to tackle growing teacher shortages, particularly in Africa, as a consequence of the HIV/Aids pandemic.

The Commonwealth secretary-general, Don McKinnon, said: "These two meetings address the same challenge: how Commonwealth countries, particularly small developing states, can maintain a workforce of teachers able to deliver the Millennium Development Goal of achieving universal primary education by 2015."