Creating a highly qualified teaching workforce

• Main Authors: Li, Richard Ruochen, Kitchen, Hannah, George, Bert, Richardson, Mary, Fordham, Elizabeth
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2223-0947; 2223-0955
• DOI: 10.1787/0a821178-en

This chapter looks at how Georgia’s teacher appraisal system evaluates the country’s teachers and supports them to develop professionally. Several factors are preventing Georgia from creating a more modern and professional teacher workforce. Its teacher professional development scheme is based upon acquiring credits, the accumulation of which do not necessarily signal good teaching practice. Furthermore, most teachers still remain at the lowest level of the scheme, reflecting a lack of support to improve themselves. Finally, over a quarter of Georgia’s teachers are past retirement age, which contributes to a less motivated teaching population overall. To address this situation, Georgia should revise its teacher professional development scheme to focus more on demonstrating effective teaching practices and then use the scheme to support teachers to reach basic minimum standards of competence. To improve incoming teachers’ skills, initial teacher preparation standards should be strengthened, and older teachers will have to be supported in exiting the profession in order to make space for incoming teachers.