Audrey Azoulay Pleads for an Upgrade of Teachers’ Status to Reduce the Global Shortage

Upgrade of Teachers’ Status: The objective of delivering elementary and secondary education for everyone by the year 2030 still requires 44 million teachers, according to new figures released by UNESCO just in time for World Teachers’ Day (5 October). Along with a financing issue, the profession’s unattractiveness is a problem. To raise the standing of teachers, UNESCO offers its Member States 7 guidelines.

Teachers are essential to our society, yet there is a serious vocations shortage in this field. Some parts of the world are short on applicants. In some areas, the first few years of employment are marked by an extremely high dropout rate. The solution is the same in all situations: we need to value, encourage, and train teachers more, according to Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO. He pleaded for an upgrade of teachers’ status.

Audrey Azoulay Pleads for an Upgrade of Teachers’ Status

The global teacher shortage was pegged by UNESCO at 69 million in 2016. The Organisation finds that the shortage has been decreased by approximately one third, with a new estimate of 44 million, in a fresh report released on World Teachers’ Day 2023. Although things have changed, they haven’t changed enough to suit the world’s educational needs.

The region that has advanced the most is Southern Asia, where the teacher shortage has decreased by half since 2016 to an estimated 7.8 million instructors needed. Sub-Saharan Africa, on the other hand, has made little advancement and is solely responsible for one third of the present global deficit. Despite having low birth rates, Europe and North America have the third-largest teacher deficit in the world, with 4.8 million more instructors needed. There is a 3.2 million person shortage in Latin America and the Caribbean.

UNESCO carried a research to learn more about the causes of this teacher shortage. Teaching is too frequently an undesirable profession, according to a review of attrition statistics from 79 nations in various locations and stages of development. As a result, there is a definite increase in the dropout rate over their career and a failure to attract young individuals to the industry.

The attrition rate among primary school teachers in these 79 nations, which gauges the percentage of educators who choose to quit the field permanently, nearly doubled from 4.62% in 2015 to 9.06% in 2022. Poor working conditions, high levels of stress, and low pay are three key issues that are prevalent regardless of the country.

Working conditions can be hampered by a wide range of problems, from a lack of supplies that increases teachers’ workload to onerous administrative duties and subpar school administration that can lower teacher morale. Stress levels are a concern as well; instructors who report “a lot” of stress at work are more than twice as likely to desire to quit, especially in the first five years.

Low pay further detracts from the profession’s appeal. Only one in two nations worldwide pay primary school teachers equally or more than other occupations requiring a comparable degree of education.

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Attracting younger generations to the profession

Only three out of ten countries are in Europe and North America, where the issue is more pronounced. Many high-income nations pay teachers at the upper secondary level up to 75% less than what is paid to people in similar occupations.

Compared to their female counterparts, men teachers tend to leave the profession at higher rates. Primary teacher attrition rates for men were 9.2%% globally in 2021 compared to 4.2% for women. This is especially true given the gender prejudices, which include ideas about who should be in charge of children’s education, and the reality that males can change occupations more readily and frequently have greater professional prospects in other fields.

Few countries track when teachers quit their jobs over the course of their careers, but the data that is available suggests that new teachers are more likely to do so than their more seasoned colleagues, showing that they require more help to handle the workload.

UNESCO has seven recommendations

Given the widespread lack of teachers, UNESCO suggests the following seven strategies to increase the appeal of the teaching profession, which should be customised to fit local conditions and concerns:

• Make improvements to programmes for initial teacher education and ongoing professional development.
• Create mentoring programmes that match seasoned educators with less-experienced ones and promote peer cooperation.
• Make that teachers receive competitive pay and benefits, especially when compared to other occupations requiring a comparable level of education, as well as chances for promotion.
• Streamline administrative procedures and paperwork so that teachers can concentrate more on instruction and less on administration.
• By establishing acceptable expectations for working hours and avoiding excessive workload, you may encourage a good work-life balance.
• To assist teachers in managing stress and emotional difficulties, make mental health and counselling services available.
• Encourage supportive and powerful school leadership that honours teachers’ opinions, offers helpful criticism, and creates a happy work atmosphere.