The global shortage of teachers is set to worsen because of population growth and deteriorating working conditions, according to two reports released today - World Teachers' Day.
Education standards are under threat in developed nations as low salaries and poor conditions discourage recruits, says one report, a joint UN and International Labour Office (ILO) study.
A second, by the UK's Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), says people are being driven away from teaching in the developing world by derelict and overcrowded classrooms and by pay so low that teachers often absent themselves to work in second jobs.
The two reports make grim reading and highlight a growing global teaching crisis.
In March, the United States Department of Education estimated it would need 200,000 new teachers over the next four years, far in excess of the number in training, while Britain's shadow education secretary Theresa May claimed the country would be 100,000 teachers short in the next decade. Holland, Germany, Scandinavia and Belgium are also experiencing serious problems.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) and ILO report, one of the main problems is the difficulty in replacing retiring teachers. 'In many developed countries the age distribution of teachers is skewed towards older age groups, particularly at secondary level. Among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, only Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have 50 per cent or more of the teaching force aged below 40 at primary level.'
In developing countries, by contrast, where two-thirds of the world's 59 million teachers live and work, they tended to be young, inexperienced and often under-qualified. In many of the nations more than 30 per cent of teachers were aged below 30.
