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Addressing Teachers’ unmet needs and persistent challenges impacting on their wellbeing in Africa: Education Policy and practices in five Countries

Mon, March 11, 8:00 to 9:30am, Hyatt Regency Miami, Floor: Third Level, Zamora

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Introduction: The teaching profession is currently considered one of the most highly stressful occupations in the world since the advent of the covid19 pandemic. The closure of schools and universities affected over 1.6 billion children and youth across the world. As a testament to this, WHO (2022), reported a notable surge in depression and anxiety prevalence among teachers; a 28% increase for major depressive disorders (from 193 million to 246 million people) and 26% for anxiety disorders (from 298 million to 374 million people) in just one year.

A study conducted by UNESCO in 2020 & 2021 from 14 countries in Africa (sample size of 1,072 teachers, 141 teacher educators, 1,182 school leaders and 150 inspectors/government officials) revealed that 31.0% of teachers and 33.0% of teacher educators were depressed, 24.6% of teachers and 19.9% of teacher educators affected by stress. Stress manifests as irritability or aggression, a feeling of loss of control, insomnia, fatigue or exhaustion, sadness, or memory problems. The high levels of stress are causing teacher burnout, lack of engagement, job dissatisfaction, poor performance, and some of the highest turnover rates ever.

A poor workplace environment has also been associated with increased anxiety and depressive symptoms among teachers. Research has showed that teachers are motivated by factors such as self-respect, feelings of accomplishment, relationship with the students, independence, and intellectual challenges. The absence of favourable systems and social support mechanisms however is reported to predict anxiety, burnout and depression symptoms and subsequently impacting on the mental health and wellbeing of teachers.

UNESCO IICBA has been working closely with its regional office for Southern Africa, the African Union, the Ministries of Education in 5 countries in Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Eswatini and Ethiopia) and to pilot a 4 fourfold systemic intervention to enhance teachers’ mental health, productivity, and quality of life. The intervention involves undertaking comprehensive research on the status of MHPSS for teachers in Africa, developing an African union, regional framework on mental health and psychosocial support for teachers, capacity enhancement of education sector personnel, school leaders and teacher unions, development of school based guidelines for teachers, mapping and creation of referral pathways, and putting in place innovative interventions such as to access services the mobile text technology used to offer a convenient, low cost and easily accessible form of psychological interventions to teacher in Uganda.

Objectives of the Panel Session: The panel will examine: i) How selected African countries are addressing the key challenges and unmet needs for teachers through dialogue and mainstreaming programs on mental health and psychosocial well-being for teachers and learners from the policy level and into practical responses at the school level; ii) promising practices across countries that contribute to existing efforts on mainstreaming MHPSS for teachers and learners in educational policies iii) how the existing platforms at the Teacher Unions, Teaching Service Commissions and other Ministries of Education departments are used to bring to the teachers voices, build resilience and empower teachers to reduce protests and foster MHPSS in their schools, teacher training colleges, institutions of higher learning and their communities.

Structure of the Panel: The session has 4 papers from UNESCO IICBA and three countries. Each panellist will utilise up to 15 minutes of presentation, followed by 5 minutes of quick reflections after each presentation and thereafter a plenary discussion that will focus on the main take away messages implementable in various contexts. The panel with therefore will take a one hour and forty-five minutes.
The first presentation will focus on presenting the data generated through research in selected countries in Africa to strengthen dialogue and education sector Reponses, Systems, Policies and Practices with quality MHPSS interventions for teachers. The second presentation will focus on the experiences of Ministry of Education and Teacher Development in the Kingdom of Eswatini that are being out in place to institutionalise MHPSS in Teacher Education Training. The third presentation will focus on Experiences from Uganda National Teachers’ Union (UNATU) in advocating for and creative safe spaces for teachers on MHPSS. The last presentation will highlight the work done by AHA Psychological Services based in Addis Ababa Ethiopia unpacking the counselling models and approaches, practices and Lessons that are being used enhance the social behavioral changes, resilience and coping mechanisms of teachers and learners affected by stress, burnout and anxiety in a schooling environment.

Perspectives: The role of education in promoting and protecting the well-being and mental health and psychosocial of teachers and learners is immense. The teachers’ psychological and mental health is of utmost importance as it indirectly affects the learners they teach, the stress associated with the teaching profession can be linked to three major overlapping issues: burnout, anxiety, and depression, which have a myriad of effects, including an impact on teachers’ health, well-being, and productivity. Effective integration of mental health in schools enables increased mental health literacy, social and emotional competencies among learners, identification of at-risk learners, and reduction of the likelihood of mental health concerns developing into more severe mental health problems.

Importance to CIES: This panel session will showcase how systemic institutionalized evidence based MHPSS interventions in various contexts in Africa are critical in building the resilience of teachers and learners in Africa. Without such interventions, coupled with lack of clear understanding of what factors play a key role in triggering stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression among teachers and how these relate to each other; the education sector in Africa will continue to experience high teacher attrition rates, lack of engagement, job dissatisfaction, and poor performance.

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