The United Nations has recently announced that 69 million teachers are needed around the globe for the next 14 years in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals it laid out.
The statistics was released by UNESCO saying that these teachers will be tasked to teach 263 million around the world who haven't got the opportunity to have primary or secondary education, to improve the quality of education to areas who already have, and decrease the number of classes that are already too large.
The statistics also stressed that although there's a need for teachers all over the world, the greatest need is in the sub-Saharan African regions where the population of primary and secondary students are growing. In Malawi, for example, it is common to have up to 100 students in one class. To date, around 17 million teachers are needed to fill that gap.
On the other hand, Southeast Asia needs around 15 million teachers and an additional 11 million secondary school children in order to make the student-teacher ratio.
"Education systems are only as good as their teachers. Global progress will depend on whether there even is a teacher, or a classroom in which to teach with a manageable number of children instead 60, 70 or even more pupils. We also need training, resources and support for teachers to do their job," said Silvia Montoya, the director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
According to the UNESCO, the Sustainable Development Goals aim to encourage the involvement of local communities and the use of local investments. This will, in turn, make foreign aid take a back seat to give locals the opportunity to take part in rehabilitation and development. The UN aims to to achieve this development by 2030.
There are a total of 17 goals which overlap and intersect with each other but the need for education comes in fourth. The goal which focuses on education states that everyone should have equal opportunity to receive quality education and life-long learning.
In order to achieve this, the organization has to confront the challenges which include low teacher salaries and the decrease in the number of secondary school enrollment. Thus, the program also needs more support from the international community to develop these teachers' programs.
