Many children don’t receive an education that is good enough to give them the best chance of flourishing in life. One of the ways to change this is to make sure that they have access to teachers who are well-trained, qualified, supported and motivated.

Better teachers are key to ensuring quality education. And when learners have access to quality education, there are positive knock-on effects for gender equity, social cohesion, sustainable development and peace.

That’s why, as the theme of this year’s World Teachers’ Day (commemorated each year on October 5) tells us, the transformation of education begins with teachers. And it’s why supporting teachers for quality teaching is so important to GPE.

GPE 2025 prioritizes quality teaching

GPE 2025 highlights the critical role of teachers in transforming education systems. We support better data and diagnostics on teachers and teaching, as well as policies that advance teaching quality and teacher support and management.

GPE also continues to promote engagement of teachers and school leaders, by encouraging their participation in dialogue on education issues and the inclusion of teacher organizations in local education groups.

We work with countries to make focused investments in policies and programs that are grounded in evidence to support and upskill teachers. This includes results-based financing to incentivize policy reforms that address obstacles to effective teaching.

Since 2002, this has contributed to 67 million more students being taught by professionally trained teachers in GPE partner countries. In addition, GPE’s support for COVID-19 response has enabled partner countries to train teachers on distance learning and psychosocial support, and to provide this support to teachers themselves.

GPE supports teachers in a range of partner countries

In Ethiopia, grants totaling US$368 million supported education reforms to improve the quality of teaching and learning in over 40,000 schools. With GPE’s support, a new curriculum was developed, and nearly 300,000 teachers received in-service training, while over 100,000 teachers had completed pre-service training by 2018.

In São Tomé and Príncipe, GPE supports the establishment of a national system of in-service teacher training, which includes evaluating teacher competencies, defining a competency-based training framework, developing training plans, setting up a certification process, and training teachers.

In The Gambia, GPE approved a $30 million grant in 2018 that included a $4.2 million component to support to teacher recruitment and deployment activities. Responding to clearly identified needs related to teacher allocation and equity and in support of the strategies put forward in the Gambia’s education sector plan, GPE's grant particularly focused on hardship allowances for teachers and special incentives to female teachers.

In Zambia, GPE provided COVID-19 funding to train teachers to use SMS, WhatsApp and radio phone-ins to monitor student learning and stay connected to students who are at risk of dropping out.

In Uganda, GPE funding has helped to build a stronger teaching force. A GPE-supported program running from 2014 to 2020 trained 14,500 teachers, 2,500 head teachers, and 1,500 primary teacher college tutors on early grade reading. Student early grade reading assessment scores improved in this period, pointing to the positive impact of training. GPE’s $100 million grant also supported improved teacher supervision through an ICT intervention, trained head teachers and deputy head teachers on school management issues, and provided curriculum-based teaching and learning materials.

GPE supports global and regional learning, innovation, knowledge and guidance on teachers and teaching

Beyond this work in partner countries, through its Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) GPE has also been supporting learning on a range of related topics such as entry and retention in the teaching profession, empowering teachers as agents of change and the role of teachers’ unions in teacher professional development.

GPE also supports a number of KIX grants, such as for adapting and scaling teacher professional development approaches in Ghana, Honduras and Uzbekistan, teaching at the right level in Zambia, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire, and strengthening STEM teacher training in Bhutan, Nigeria and Tanzania.

GPE has also recently published a guidance note on value for money in relation to teachers and teaching and a mapping of diagnostic and analytical tools on teachers and the broader education workforce.

This combined package of support, in concert with the broader efforts of the partnership, contributes to ensuring that all children and young people in partner countries have access to the quality teaching that is so vital for them to learn. In this way, GPE supports the transformation of education.

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Learn more on GPE's support to quality teaching