International Summit on The Teaching Profession afholdes hvert år for at give landene inspiration til at udvikle skolen. Hvorfor bruger vi ikke den inspiration og viden i Danmark? Det havde jeg forberedt at forklare på årets summit:

I am a teacher, and I represent ten thousands of teachers working in the public primary and secondary school, but I believe that I talk on behalf of all the danish teachers. We all became teachers because we had a dream of making a difference for the future generations. This dream - and the significance we have for our students - is the reason why we still come to work every day and do whatever we can to give the very best teaching to our students. However, in many ways we experience to be opposed in our work by the politicians and the authorities.

I participated in the first Summit in 2011 and I've participated in all the Summits since then, except in 2013 when the danish government chose to lockout the danish teachers for four weeks.

Every time I returned to Denmark after a Summit, I've been filled with ideas and inspiration to how we can improve the Danish education system. I got the inspiration from the reports from other countries and from the research that was presented to us during the conferences.

Despite the fact that various ministers and I have returned home with the same inspiration, I regret to establish that it's extremely difficult to realize the new thoughts and visions. And I understand from my colleagues from the other countries that I'm not alone with this experience.

If we want these meetings to make a positive difference when we return home, we have to discuss this challenge.

From a danish perspective I see two major obstacles. Firstly, the school has become a political battlefield. So, the political prestige is more important than the knowledge we have from research and the teachers' practice experience. However, what is even more decisive, the financial management has taken over the school policy entirely.

I am here with the danish Minister of Education. We don't agree on everything, but we share the wish to develop the school based on our knowledge about what it takes for the students to have the best teaching.

I cannot talk for the minister, but from my point of view our common ambition is being impeded for two reasons. The first one is that the ministry of finance has taken over control of the school policy. The second one is that the politicians don't want to lose their face, so they cling stubbornly to their previous decisions without relating to the realities in the schools.

This is what I see as the major impediments for us to develop the schools together based on the knowledge we get from the ISTP-meetings. Perhaps we should bring this challenge on the agenda for our next meeting.