Where the Global Teacher Shortage Is Hitting Hardest

Teacher shortages are a global phenomenon, according to a report by UNESCO. While the problem is sometimes associated with aging societies which have to compensate for teacher retirements, the world's still-growing regions on the other hand are due to hire a lot of entirely new teacher positions by 2030. Both scenarios are expected to pose considerable challenges as teaching professionals are hard to come by and new hire projections in the developing world at times surpass the size of a region's entire teacher stock.

Europe and North America are looking to hire the third-most teachers out of seven world regions analyzed, at 4.8 million by 2030. The majority of these are positions replacing teachers who are retiring or leaving the profession otherwise. All in all, new hires needed until 2030 represent 38% of 2022 teacher stock in the region. The situation is similar in Southeast Asia as well as Latin America and the Caribbean. Eastern Asia, which is looking to hire replacement and new teachers, is nevertheless only looking at 21% of 2022 teacher stock in new hires needed—the lowest in the survey.

The situation is entirely different in Subsaharan Africa and Southern Asia, where more new teacher positions need to be filled as the regions' populations are still growing, producing larger cohorts of young children entering school age. In the former region, projected hires represent 178% of 2022 teacher stock, while hire projections for new teaching positions alone already surpass the number of teachers the region had in 2022. Despite a high 4.7 million entirely new teachers needed by 2030 (and 3.1 million needing to be replaced), the number only stood at 52% for Southern Asia. According to UNESCO, countries with growing populations like those in Subsaharan Africa and Southern Asia need to make improvements to the attractiveness of the teaching profession to hire and retain teaching professionals. The report concludes that Subsaharan Africa is unlikely to reach the hiring target by 2030.