INVESTING IN TEACHERS IS AN ECONOMIC IMPERATIVE

Why education policy must move from social spending to national growth strategy

- BY SUNNY VARKEY | Special to Gulf News

Every government today is searching for ways to reignite growth. From industrial strategies to AI investment, from stimulus packages to entrepreneurship drives, leaders are deploying every lever in the policy toolkit. Yet one of the most powerful engines of long-term prosperity remains consistently undervalued: our teachers.

Teachers are not only nurturers of curiosity, knowledge, and character. They are the invisible infrastructure of every economy, the “mother of all professions.” Before a scientist invents, before an engineer builds, before an entrepreneur launches, each sits in a classroom. The economic future of nations is written not only in boardrooms and laboratories but in the patient, daily work of teachers.

The overlooked growth engine

Consider the numbers. In the UK, research by Frontier Economics shows that improving teaching quality by just one standard deviation can raise annual GDP by 0.7-0.8 per cent, a seismic impact for any advanced economy. The Education Policy Institute has demonstrated that investing £4 billion in teacher professional development over 10 years would yield a societal benefit of £61 billion over the same period.