UN report: 44M tutors needed worldwide by 2030
More Filipino teachers are leaving the country to teach in neighboring countries, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said Saturday, as the global shortage in educators continues.
This dovetails with a recent United Nations global report, which revealed that teachers may come in short supply worldwide by 2030.
The report said there is an urgent need for 44 million primary and secondary teachers worldwide by 2030, with seven out of 10 educators needed at the secondary level. Sub-Saharan Africa faces a particularly daunting challenge, with an estimated demand for 15 million new teachers by 2030.
A collaborative effort between the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030, aims to address this looming crisis by mobilizing recommended actions to empower, recruit, train, and support teachers.
Gatchalian, the Senate education committee chair, said he has talked to teachers who have left the country, citing higher pay in neighboring Southeast Asian countries where their fluency in English makes them even more employable.
“From my observation this has happened based on my trips overseas where I’m coordinating with the embassies and catching up with fellow countrymen who are mostly teachers,” he said in an interview with Teleradyo Serbisyo.
“A lot of Asian countries hire Filipino teachers because they are fluent in English and they are adept in teaching. While we are grateful for more job opportunities, it can be quite concerning because in turn, we will lose more teachers in the country,” he added.
Citing the UN study study, Gatchalian said countries globally are short of teachers, and the Philippines is one of the affected countries.
In the country, the K to 12 curriculum and growing population are among the driving factors to there being too few teachers for the number of students.
“This is due to the growing population, around 200,000-300,000 students are being added every year and if we can recall, the K to 12 curriculum meant that we were adding two more years in senior high. And since there is also a global demand of teachers, a lot of teachers are leaving the country,” Gatchalian said.
Enhancing wages, promoting better working conditions, and investing in education are essential steps in attracting and retaining quality educators, according to UNESCO.
The teacher shortage extends globally, affecting both developing nations and high-income regions like Europe and North America. Attrition rates among primary teachers have nearly doubled from 4.62 percent in 2015 to 9.06 percent in 2022, according to the report. With AFP