1.2 Purpose and Scope

1.2.1 Purpose

This Guide is designed to assist national policy- and decision-makers and education officials to develop an informed teacher policy as an integrated component of national education sector plans or policies, aligned to national development plans and strategies.

More specifically, the Guide is a tool designed to contribute to the elaboration of an evidence-informed national teacher policy, specific to each national context and drawing on the evidence of good practices from a wide range of countries and organizations.^{Footnote 1}

Based on the best available evidence on teacher policy and the teaching profession, the Guide aims to:

• Present an overview of teacher-related policy dimensions and issues that need to be considered when elaborating a national teacher policy and how they are interrelated
• Outline policy responses that need to be considered
• Suggest steps to elaborate and implement a national teacher policy.

The Guide is not a diagnostic tool as such – it assumes that a careful diagnosis of the status of teachers and teaching has already been completed prior to policy development, or is to be conducted as part of the teacher policy development process. Chapter 2 (Section 2.3) provides examples of some diagnostic tools or instruments developed by international organisations.