Introduction: Overcoming inequalities in teaching and learning

Abstract

This Introduction highlights the main focus of the special issue on "Overcoming inequalities in teaching and learning". The 2013/4 Education for All Global Monitoring Report (GMR), Teaching and Learning: Achieving Quality Education for All, underlines the fact that a lack of attention to education quality and a failure to reach the marginalized have contributed to a learning crisis that needs urgent attention. Based on selected background papers for the 2013/4 GMR, this special issue draws attention to twin problems that restrain learning and result in wide inequalities: home background and teaching quality. To overcome the learning crisis, these factors must be tackled simultaneously. For education to be an equalizer, countries must develop contextually-relevant strategies, with particular attention to supporting teachers in their efforts to overcome inequalities in learning.