Around the world, financial barriers continue to jeopardize the future of the teaching profession, adversely affecting inclusivity and equity in education systems.
The profession is riddled with gaps, both in the number of qualified teachers and the funding to support new and existing teachers.
Through the Santiago Consensus, education stakeholders are urged to recognize the severity and the urgency of the crisis affecting the teaching profession while advocating for stronger and comprehensive policies.
Can we afford not to act?
Worldwide, a staggering 44 million new primary and secondary teachers will be required to provide a high-quality education to all students by 2030, at a cost estimated to be close to US$120 billion per year. Regions experiencing rapid population growth face the greatest projected shortages, driven by the need to create new teaching positions. In low-income nations, the teacher-to-pupil ratio is 52 to 1, compared to 15 to 1 in high-income nations, making classroom overcrowding a serious issue.
Rallying the international community in a consultative process
The Santiago Consensus articulates a common vision and set of priorities for global improvement of the teaching profession. The Teacher Task Force network, the SDG 4–Education 2030 High-Level Steering Committee, youth networks, and teachers and their organizations all participated in a comprehensive consultative process that was led by UNESCO. It urges swift action to strengthen teacher policies and reaffirms the significance of teachers as the educational foundation. The consensus was adopted following the World Summit on Teachers: a 2-day high-level gathering of political leaders, teacher representatives, international organizations and key education stakeholders organized by UNESCO and the government of Chile.
The Summit marked a pivotal moment for global dialogue, fostering conversations surrounding the challenges of teacher shortages, financing and policy alignment, and the rapidly evolving digital era.
Investing in teachers for lasting impact
The Santiago Consensus outlines a range of commitments from governments and education stakeholders toward achieving the same goal: upholding education systems that benefit the well-being, professional development and various capabilities of teachers.
Sustainable financing has emerged as one of the most pressing challenges associated with the teaching profession. We must advocate for accountability and transparency going forward. The Teacher Task Force used the Summit to amplify this call to action, building on this common understanding. It attended sessions on funding and launched a new paper on costing and financing the teaching profession as a strategic education investment, which it co-authored with UNESCO. The paper emphasizes that achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 necessitates sustainable funding of the teaching profession. It highlights the challenges and opportunities associated with sustainable investment in teachers and calls for renewed political commitment as well as strategic, evidence-based policy action to guarantee more effective budgeting. Financing accountability and fairness Turning from strategy to implementation, the paper also stresses the importance of mobilizing domestic resources for teachers by prioritizing education in national budgets and enshrining legal safeguards for education financing through a legally mandated minimum budget allocation.
Donors and international partners are encouraged to promote collective bargaining for equitable salary structures, comprehensive benefits, and protection against precarious employment arrangements, as well as to strengthen coordination at the national and global levels. This message is in line with the Compromiso de Sevilla, which says that “adequate financing to ensure inclusive, equitable, and quality education for all” is supported in the document that came out of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development.
Turning the Santiago Consensus into action
We are currently off-track to achieve SDG 4 to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
We must develop long-term investment strategies that promote equitable recruitment, fair compensation, ongoing professional development, and improved working conditions as a global education community. This shared goal of education for all is not achievable without bold financial commitments.
The replenishment campaign launched by GPE aims to end the global teaching and learning crisis and restock the organization’s funds earmarked for quality education for all. GPE’s fifth financing campaign, which was co-hosted by Nigeria and Italy, had ambitious goals: raise $5 billion for the GPE fund and get an additional $10 billion in cofinancing from development banks, bilateral donors, the private sector, and partners in philanthropy. If met, these goals would transform education systems in up to 96 low- and lower-middle-income countries and territories.
Collective action for teachers, with teachers
The Santiago Consensus is a shared pledge and global call to reimagine teaching as a collaborative, lifelong journey built on trust, respect and investment. Teachers’ voices and youth engagement must guide the creation of quality teacher policies that attract, support and retain dedicated educators.
Now is the time for bold international cooperation and sustainable financing to make those policies a reality.
We can work together to make every classroom a place of peace, hope, equity, inclusion, and empowerment for teachers and students alike. Let’s turn Santiago’s commitments into an action plan for teachers and by teachers.
