New UIS projections on teacher shortages

The UIS has released a new series of projections to help governments better gauge future needs for primary education teachers.

Across the world, countries are committed to reaching the goal of Universal Primary Education (UPE) by 2015. The UIS has identified the countries that need to expand their teaching forces in order to be able to enrol all primary school-age children by this target date. According to UIS estimates, 96 out of 195 countries will need at least 1.9 million more teachers in classrooms by 2015 than in 2007.

The projections by the UIS indicate that 27 out of 45 countries in sub-Saharan Africa face a critical teacher gap. In these countries, 2.6 million teachers were in the classrooms in 2007. This number must grow to 3.7 million in just eight years to meet the UPE goal. This means that for every two teachers teaching in 2007 in the region, there must be three in 2015.

Consult the UIS projections:

• Projecting the Global Demand for Teachers
• French version