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EIGHTH ITEM ON THE AGENDA

Report of the meeting of the Joint ILO/UNESCO
Committee of Experts on the Application of the
Recommendation concerning the Status of
Teachers (CEART)
(Paris, 15-18 September 1997)

1. The Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (CEART) held its Fourth Special Session at UNESCO headquarters in Paris from 15 to 18 September 1997.

2. Its agenda covered the following items:

• review of reports on national and regional trends concerning education and teachers prepared for the 45th International Conference on Education of UNESCO (Geneva, 1996) and the Joint Meeting on the Impact of Structural Adjustment on Educational Personnel of the ILO (Geneva, 1996), and the outcomes of both meetings;
• review of studies and workshops on specific topics such as teacher education, employment and career opportunities, participation in decision-making, consultation and negotiation between teachers and educational authorities, stress and burn-out in the teaching profession, and the status of women teachers;
• examination of information supplied by international teachers' organizations and consideration of allegations concerning non-observance of the Recommendation's provisions submitted by national and international teachers' organizations;
• surveys on data collection and indicators for teachers in relation to the Joint Committee's methodology to fulfil its mandate;
• action taken to promote the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation;
• developments related to the preparation of a Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel.

3. The extensive information available to the Joint Committee included background documents prepared by the ILO and UNESCO secretariats, reports prepared for the major ILO and UNESCO meetings mentioned above and other sources as specified in its mandate and methods of work. On this basis, the Joint Committee analysed progress achieved in implementing the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation and its effect on the status of teachers and of educational access and quality in key areas, and recommended future activities.

4. The report of the session¹ consists of an introduction and sections on an analysis of employment, career opportunities and retention of teachers; participation, consultation and collective bargaining in the teaching profession; education for teachers; the status of women teachers in technical education and training; action taken to promote knowledge and implementation of the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation; information supplied by international teachers' organizations; allegations from teachers' organizations on non-observance of the Recommendation and future procedures for consideration of allegations; developments regarding the draft Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel; and proposals for future action. Three annexes contain the Joint Committee's detailed analysis, conclusions and recommendations on allegations received from teachers' organizations, the extensive documentation used as a basis for the Joint Committee's work, and the proposed agenda for its next session.

The status of teachers and the ILO/UNESCO
Recommendation: Principal areas of ILO competence

5. Reviewing trends in the financing and provision of education in relation to the standards for teachers' status set out in the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation, the Joint Committee concluded that years of economic rationalization, structural adjustment, technological change and alterations in societal expectations continued to have a negative effect on teachers' morale. These combined with other factors, often linked to these changes, such as adverse remuneration and status relative to other professions, and the growth in stress, violence and insecurity in schools, to produce serious consequences for entry into the profession and retention of qualified individuals as teachers. Governments, teachers, communities and other partners shared responsibility for the decline in professionalism and status of teaching and education. The consequences included the increasing ageing and feminization of the teaching profession, even though women remained underrepresented in certain disciplines and in positions of responsibility. The scenarios described above have in turn led to a sharper international focus on the standards established by the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation, as evidenced by repeated reference to them in high-level meetings and commissions and their outcomes. A strategy for redressing the situation is proposed in the Joint Committee's report, incorporating a number of improvements in the education, employment, working conditions and commitment of teachers based on a higher degree of professionalization. The continued value of the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation's principles in seeking solutions to the identified problems is reaffirmed.

6. The Joint Committee also reviewed the extent of teachers' participation in educational decision-making through consultation and negotiation. It found that, despite positive signs that the educational community recognized the need for greater involvement of teachers in policy and reform decisions, such recognition still did not extend to the explicit role of teachers' organizations in many cases, and fell short of concrete measures to advance application of the principles contained in the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation. Both the ILO and UNESCO were urged to seek out and identify successful systems of consultation and negotiation involving teachers' organizations and the specific roles that teachers have played in educational reform.

7. The Joint Committee's report examines the status of women teachers generally and in technical education and training. It finds that gender equality in teaching continues to be inhibited by factors such as disproportionate family responsibilities, cultural and social biases, male-oriented promotion criteria and procedures, and weak participation by women in managerial and trade union leadership positions. Consequently, despite the steady numerical "feminization" of teaching, women are underrepresented in many technical and scientific teaching fields, as professors in higher education, and in management positions at many levels of education. It is proposed in the report that efforts should concentrate on developing strategies and policies for change through national workshops involving governments, employers and workers and NGOs.

Allegations by teachers' organizations

8. The Joint Committee noted nine communications from teachers' organizations since its last session which related to the application of the Recommendation. Of these, six were deemed receivable in whole or in part and examined according to the relevant procedures approved by the Governing Body of the ILO² and by the Executive Board of UNESCO. In addition, three cases on which the Joint Committee had requested information on further developments since they were first examined at the previous session in 1994 were again reviewed. The Joint Committee's examination of the nine cases, its findings, conclusions and recommendations in each case are set out in Annex 2 to its report.

9. In view of the fact that the Joint Committee meets only once every three years, the Joint Committee recommended improved working methods with regard to the handling of such communications in the interest of a more effective process and more timely response to governments and teachers' organizations. In the event that the final draft of a report on an allegation received after the end of its previous session is prepared more than one year prior to the next scheduled meeting of the full Joint Committee, it is proposed to authorize the Working Party on Allegations, composed of three members nominated by the full Committee, to transmit the final draft to the Governing Body of the ILO and to the Executive Board of UNESCO for their consideration, provided that it has been approved by the Joint Committee using the most appropriate means of consultation.

UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of
Higher-Education Teaching Personnel

10. The Joint Committee was apprised of developments since 1994 with regard to the elaboration of the proposed new instrument, many of whose provisions concern core areas of the ILO's competence. The Joint Committee welcomed the proposal by the ILO Governing Body to extend the Joint Committee's mandate to include monitoring of the new instrument, subject to approval of an extension of the mandate by the competent bodies of the ILO and of UNESCO. It observed that the provision of adequate resources to facilitate monitoring, including collecting and publishing appropriate statistical indicators, would be essential. A separate paper³ is before the Committee regarding the adoption by the UNESCO General Conference of the new Recommendation and potential follow-up action.

Proposals for future action

11. In its proposals for future action, the Joint Committee noted that resource limitations might restrict the nature and number of initiatives undertaken to monitor, promote knowledge of, and assist member States in the implementation of, the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation. Accordingly, it recommended a limited number of high-priority measures in furtherance of these objectives, including: completion of an updated publication containing commentaries on the Recommendation; creation of a site on the Internet to provide information; pursuance of the partnership strategy adopted in 1994, emphasizing the integration of relevant aspects of the Recommendation in all ILO and UNESCO activities related to education and training; preparation of a high-profile thematic report on the status of teachers, focusing on forward-looking procedures and structures which encourage the participation of teachers and teachers' organizations in educational reform and, where feasible, the extension of previous work in the areas of continuing education, competency levels of teachers and stress and burn-out in the teaching profession. To underpin its role of monitoring the effectiveness of the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation, the Joint Committee recommends that the ILO and UNESCO launch the initial phase of a long-term international project on indicators, based on the findings and recommendations of an international feasibility study presented at its 1997 session. The project should associate governments, teachers' organizations, other education stakeholders at national level, and international governmental and non-governmental organizations in its design and implementation.

12. The Committee on Legal Issues and International Labour Standards may wish to recommend that the Governing Body --

1. take note of the report on the Fourth Special Session of the Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers;
2. authorize the Director-General to communicate the report to the governments of member States and, through them, to the employers' and workers' organizations concerned, as well as to the intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations concerned, and to invite them to continue and to intensify their efforts to apply all provisions of the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation, notably in the light of the Joint Committee's proposals on a strategy for improving teachers' status;
3. authorize the Director-General to communicate the relevant part of Annex 2 containing the Joint Committee's analysis of the allegations before it to the Governments of Albania, Bolivia, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Senegal and Yugoslavia and to the teachers' organizations concerned, including the United Kingdom teachers' union, and where appropriate, to invite them to take the necessary follow-up action as recommended in the report;
4. forward the report to the International Labour Conference at its 86th Session (June 1998) for examination in the first instance by the Committee on the Application of Standards;
5. request the Director-General to take into consideration, where appropriate in consultation with the Director-General of UNESCO, the Joint Committee's proposals for future action by the ILO and UNESCO contained in paragraphs 84-88 of its report, in planning and implementing future ILO activities, due account being taken of available resources.

Geneva, 13 February 1998.

Point for decision: Paragraph 12.

¹  CEART/SP/1997/13.

²  GB.252/12/23, para. 21.

³  GB.271/LILS/9.