Teachers Are Disappearing: The World Needs 44 Million More by 2030

What happens when there are students in the classroom but no teacher? That scenario is quietly becoming reality in many parts of the world. The Global Report on Teachers, jointly published by UNESCO and the International Labour Organization (ILO), lays out this crisis in sobering numbers: by 2030, the world will need 44 million new primary and secondary school teachers.

This is not merely a recruitment problem. It is a warning that we could lose more than half of the teachers currently in classrooms.

Table of Contents

1. What Does 44 Million Actually Mean?
2. Why Are Teachers Leaving?
3. It's Not Just an African Story
4. The Teacher Crisis in Korea, the US, and Europe
5. How Can This Crisis Be Solved?

What Does 44 Million Actually Mean?

The 44 million figure isn't simply a count of empty teaching positions. It reflects two overlapping forces.

The first is rising demand. In regions where the school-age population is growing rapidly — such as sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia — students are multiplying faster than new schools and classrooms can be built.

The second is teacher attrition. The report reveals that 58% of the global teacher shortfall is caused by teachers leaving the profession. In other words, the educators already standing at the front of classrooms are simply walking away. The global attrition rate for primary school teachers nearly doubled from 4.62% in 2015 to 9.06% in 2022. And this exodus is concentrated overwhelmingly among teachers in their first five years on the job.

Achieving this goal would require an estimated $120 billion per year in additional funding for teacher salaries at the primary and secondary levels. Without that investment, the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 4 — ensuring quality education for all — cannot be reached.

Why Are Teachers Leaving?

The reasons teachers leave the profession are layered. The UNESCO report points to several interconnected causes.

Low social status and inadequate compensation are central. In many countries, teachers earn significantly less than professionals with comparable qualifications and experience in other fields. Starting salaries are low, and salary growth over a career is narrow.

Excessive administrative burdens are a major factor. Teaching is not just teaching. When you add report writing, parent communication, and after-school duties, many teachers find their non-instructional workload exceeds their classroom time. On average in OECD countries, teachers work 40–45 hours per week, yet formal teaching time is only about 20 hours.

Burnout and mental health crises are also significant. A convergence of challenges — diverse student needs, school violence, parent complaints, and encroachments on professional authority — has driven psychological exhaustion to alarming levels. This trend has been particularly pronounced since the pandemic.

"I had a dream of becoming a teacher. But by my third year, I dreaded going in every morning. Lesson prep regularly stretched past midnight. The parent phone calls never stopped." — An elementary school teacher in the US

It's Not Just an African Story

Many people associate teacher shortages with developing nations. But the UNESCO report makes clear that this crisis is global, including high-income countries.

Sub-Saharan Africa faces the most acute need — an estimated 15 million additional teachers by 2030. But the problem extends far beyond Africa.

In Europe and North America, the number of people entering teacher training programs is falling sharply. The shortage is particularly severe in mathematics, science, special education, and bilingual instruction. In the UK, applications to teacher education programs in 2025 reached only 70% of target enrollment. In the US, thousands of teaching positions go unfilled when the school year begins each fall.

The Teacher Crisis in Korea, the US, and Europe

South Korea: On the surface, South Korea seems to have adequate teacher supply. But beneath that surface, there is a growing phenomenon of young people actively avoiding the teaching profession. In 2024, applicants to the national teacher certification exam hit a historic low, and competition for elementary school positions dropped to 1.5:1. Repeated high-profile incidents of teacher authority being undermined, combined with mounting non-instructional workloads, have sharply eroded the appeal of teaching among younger generations.

United States: According to EdWeek, the teacher shortage deepened in 2025 amid the Trump administration's education budget cuts and policy uncertainty. In low-income schools in particular, unqualified substitute teachers are increasingly covering classes that certified teachers should fill. In the 2025–26 school year, an estimated 55,000 teaching positions across the US remained vacant.

Europe: Germany, France, Sweden, and other Western European nations are all grappling with teacher shortages. Germany alone is projected to face a shortfall of approximately 30,000 elementary school teachers by 2030. Finland, which maintains relatively high prestige for teaching, is nonetheless seeing declining entry into the profession among young people. In 2025, the European Commission called on member states to immediately address teacher compensation and improve the attractiveness of teaching as a career.

How Can This Crisis Be Solved?

UNESCO proposes seven measures to address the crisis:

1. Invest in initial teacher education and ongoing professional development
2. Establish mentoring programs: pair experienced teachers with new educators in structured support relationships
3. Offer competitive salaries and clear career pathways
4. Streamline administrative tasks: reduce non-instructional work so teachers can focus on teaching
5. Support healthy work-life balance
6. Provide mental health services for teachers
7. Raise the social status and public perception of teaching

Notably, the report warns against the narrative that "AI can replace teachers." While AI tools can help reduce administrative burdens and support personalized learning, the relational trust between a teacher and student, emotional support, and moral modeling are things AI cannot replicate.

When one teacher disappears, so do the dozens of students whose lives that teacher might have changed. The number 44 million is not just a statistic. It represents the potential of an entire generation the world stands to lose.

Sources

• UNESCO & ILO. Global Report on Teachers: Addressing Teacher Shortages and Transforming the Profession. UNESCO, 2024. Link
• UNESCO. "Global report on teachers: What you need to know." Link
• UN News. "UN issues global alert over teacher shortage." Link
• EdWeek. "The United Nations Says Teacher Shortages Are a Global Problem." September 2025. Link
• EdSurge. "The World's Classrooms Are Short 44 Million Teachers." Link