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For 50 years, Canadian teachers have been volunteering their time and expertise to assist their colleagues in developing countries in Africa, Asia, South America and the Caribbean.
Through their work, coordinated by the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) and funded in part by CIDA, the Canadian International Development Agency, teams of teachers from our country have helped build the capacity of nascent teachers’ organizations, provided technical support and infrastructure, and offered inservice and professional development programs to teachers who often have little more formal education than the students they are expected to teach. Edna Dach’s account of her service with Project Overseas, which appears in this issue of the ATA News, is illustrative of the projects undertaken by these volunteers and the enthusiasm with which their assistance is received.
The reach of these modest programs is astonishing. Through them, Canadian teachers have engaged with over 13,000 undertrained teachers and nearly 2,300 teacher trainers who, in turn, share their new skills and knowledge with 23,000 teachers in marginalized areas of developing countries. These teachers are in turn responsible for the education of over 2 million students.
All this work and all the resulting benefits are now at risk because of a short-sighted decision by CIDA officials and Bev Oda, the federal minister of international cooperation, to cancel the funding for CTF’s International Program and bring to a jarring halt a partnership that has endured for over five decades. Though it seems impossible to get a straight explanation from Minister Oda (who may be distracted by her own ethical difficulties) or from the bureaucrats at CIDA, it seems that at least part of the rationale for the cancellation of funding is that CTF’s programs are not sufficiently “concentrated” and that most of the CIDA funding is spent in this country rather than abroad.
The irony is that these purported deficiencies derive from precisely the characteristics of CTF’s international program that have made them so successful. The programs are not concentrated because they do not need to be. Although individual Canadian teachers’ organizations operating under the CTF umbrella have ongoing relationships with teacher groups in specific countries, these programs are not predicated on maintaining a permanent staff of do-gooders in the countries that are receiving assistance. Instead, the model is intended to enable a series of short, sharply focused projects led by practising Canadian teachers who build up and then build on indigenous capacity. Instead of promoting dependency, this is a model that respects and relies on local teachers in the targeted countries to adapt, develop and spread the learning they have acquired.
Similarly, the simple reason why the bulk of CIDA funding provided to the CTF is spent in Canada rather than abroad is because all the teachers delivering programs on the ground are unpaid volunteers, as are many of the recipient teachers, and the value of their collective contribution is not recorded in simple dollar terms. But planning and coordinating the efforts of these volunteers and arranging for their efficient deployment abroad are critical if the projects are to succeed, and this does cost money. It should be noted that the bill for CTF’s international programs is not borne entirely by CIDA; Canadian teachers’ federations and organizations, including the ATA, contribute substantial and ongoing financial support to the projects on behalf of their member teachers; that would be you and me. It should also be noted that the Canadian participants in the programs often return to their classrooms in this country with new insights that enrich their teaching and the education of their students.
As I have argued previously in this space, investing in education in developing countries is not just about being virtuous or feeling good about ourselves. Instead, it is a necessary component of a robust and effective foreign policy that promotes global human rights, security and economic development, and, as long as we continue to share the same planet, doing this ultimately benefits Canadians here at home.
All our colleagues abroad are asking for is a little help. And all we are asking for is a little help from the federal government to make that possible. And so in this spirit, let me ask you for a little help as well: please e-mail the Honourable Bev Oda at Oda.B@parl.gc.ca and contact your member of parliament, and let both of them know that you support the restoration of funding for CTF’s International Program (you can identify and contact your MP by visiting http://bit.ly/d2f2cm). As well, please consider signing the CTF petition at www.ctf-fce.ca.
Your colleagues here and across the seas are counting on you.
I welcome your comments—contact me at dennis.theobald@ata.ab.ca.
