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Summary The UN estimates 8 million extra teachers are needed worldwide by 2015.
The world urgently needs to recruit more than 8 million extra teachers, according to UN estimates, warning that a looming shortage of primary school teachers threatens to undermine global efforts to ensure universal access to primary education by 2015.At least 2m new teaching positions will need to be created by 2015, the UN said in a report published this week. An additional 6.2 million teachers will need to be recruited to maintain current workforces and replace those expected to retire or leave classrooms due to career changes, illnesses, or death.An acute shortage of primary teachers represents one of the biggest hurdles to achieving the goal of universal primary education, said the report, which stressed: Policies that effectively address teacher training and retention should be at the core of national education policies.The estimated figures, prepared by UNESCOs Montreal-based Institute for Statistics, aim to help countries identify recruitment challenges and adjust their budgets accordingly.UNESCOs projections are based on estimates of the numbers of teachers needed to maintain current pupil-teacher ratios and try to account for attrition by estimating that 5% of teachers leave each year.
