Teacher shortage

The teaching workforce is ageing. A considerable number of countries already have an old teaching force, with 49% of teachers in upper secondary education in Sweden aged 50 and over. Moreover, recent signs point to a worsening of the situation in several other countries, such as Germany and New Zealand.

Already the teaching profession must compete for a shrinking pool of young talent, at a time when the attractiveness of school-level teaching as a career is declining. Teachers are typically being asked to do more work for less reward. Salaries are falling compared with other professions while our knowledge-based societies are placing new demands on teachers' abilities, such as mastering information and communications technology OCT) as part of their core teaching requirements. Faced with these problems, ensuring that there will be enough skilled teachers to educate all children becomes an issue of major importance to policymakers.