Teachers and teaching in Sierra Leone: teacher quality and management study

This study aims to provide guidance to the Government of Sierra Leone in how to translate investments in education into quality learning. It centers on teachers, the single most important predictor of the quality of an education system. Joyful, rigorous, and focused learning happens when teachers have the necessary inputs and capacity to do their job. Decades of research provide important insights into what successful education systems both do for and ask of teachers. For example, traditional teacher training, which consists of overly theoretical and one-size-fits-all education, needs to be replaced with continuous, personalized, and practical training. While moving away from traditional practices is not easy, it is possible and necessary to improve learning. This study looks at the different stages of the teaching profession: (i) the decision to pursue a teaching career; (ii) pre-service training; (iii) the entry into the teaching service; (iv) deployment; (v) initial training; and (vi) continuous professional development. It provides an overview of each stage and makes recommendations based on global evidence. The results reveal multiple opportunities for improvement, and many measures could be implemented in the short term, including working with the six institutions that provide pre-service training to institute minimum standards; improving the entry and exit exams of pre-service institutions; avoiding hiring unqualified teachers; and institutionalizing the teacher deployment protocol.