Keeping educators in class

Lopez, Perryman, Sims, Palojärvi and Mills discussing how to keep teachers happy.

WITH thousands of teachers leaving the profession each year, educationists gathered at the Varkey Foundation Global Education and Skills Forum 2019 (GESF) in Dubai to look at why teachers leave, and what we can do to make them stay. The hour-long “Keeping Teachers in the Profession” session in March was led by the University College London’s (UCL) Institute of Education (IOE) and chaired by the varsity’s Centre for Teachers and Teaching Research director Martin Mills (pic, first from right).

“We know teachers contribute a lot but we are having trouble attracting talents to the profession. Why don’t people want to be teachers? Why do others stay in the profession for so long? What do we need to prevent young teachers from leaving? How do we get teachers to want to work with children from marginalised backgrounds? These are issues we need to tackle,” he said, when addressing panellists Mott Hall Bridges Academy founder and principal Dr Nadia Lopez, Finland Ministry of Education and Culture (International Relations) director Jaana Palojärvi, and Assoc Prof Jane Perryman and Research Fellow Sam Sims from the IOE.