Who Gets to Teach? Rethinking Pathways to the Classroom

UNESCO’s Global Report on Teachers: Addressing Teacher Shortages and Transforming the Profession highlights that 44 million additional primary and secondary teachers are required by 2030, 15 million for Sub-Saharan Africa alone. This raises a critical question for education stakeholders:

What will it take to bring in – and keep – diverse, driven, and supported teachers where students need them most?

As a leading voice for affordable non-state education, IDPF brings perspectives from low-fee private schools (LFPS) to global discourse. So far this year I have joined partners at three different global events where challenges and opportunities to address teacher shortages were discussed. Driven by our commitment to continuously learning, we also joined the Global Pre-Service Collective—to better understand what works in teacher prep across diverse contexts.

International Education Funders Group (IEFG) Together Singapore, April 2025: A Global Conversation on the Future of Teaching

I joined a panel with Dhir Jhingran , Language and Learning Foundation India and Daniel Suryadarma, Asian Development Bank Institute, on partnering with governments to tackle teacher recruitment, deployment, and training – especially for underserved areas

I called for bold, unconventional approaches and spotlighted Ghana’s Untrained Teachers Diploma in Basic Education (UTDBE) as a standout example.

In 2004, Ghana had achieved universal primary education, but many rural teachers were untrained. Backed by $15 million from GPE, UTDBE trained over 8,000 unqualified teachers already in classrooms, without pulling them from their posts. This flexible, context-specific model strengthened the rural teacher pipeline and outperformed traditional systems in deployment and retention, offering important lessons. In 2017, Ghana raised the minimum qualification for basic school teachers to a Bachelor of Education. While intended to improve quality, the move has narrowed the pipeline, excluding many aspiring teachers. Temporary licensure may offer short-term relief, but lasting impact will require more ambitious, inclusive solutions.

My fellow panelists addressed teacher shortages across diverse contexts, pointing to challenges such as inequitable deployment, inadequate training, and governance gaps. They also shared promising strategies from localized recruitment and rational deployment and highlighted the role of philanthropy in driving innovation and addressing data gaps.

Elevating Alternative Pathways

During a roundtable at the IEFG Annual Meeting, co-hosted by Education.org, IDP Foundation, Porticus, and the Jacobs Foundation, I moderated a discussion on “Alternative Pathways to the Classroom,” focused on addressing teacher shortages in rural and non-state settings. A key insight was that effective, locally driven solutions already exist – but often lack the bold commitment to scale. Rigid certification systems in many countries limit access to the profession, yet promising models like the Madrasa Early Childhood Program, CAMFED’s learner guides, and Kenya’s Accelerated Education initiative are expanding the teacher pipeline by training local youth and women through micro-credentials, without compromising quality.

Segal Connect, Tanzania, May 2025, Addressing Africa’s Teacher Crisis: Recruitment, Retention, and Pathways to 2030

I had the honor of hosting a session alongside Angela Kithao, Africa Regional Director at TeachUNITED, and Kerubo Okioga, Regional Director for Africa at Porticus. Angela’s key message stayed with me:

“Teaching in the contexts where we work can be challenging. It lifts a heavy weight when teachers receive the right support; training, mentoring, coaching, and motivation – to succeed in their role.”

I left the event reflecting on the point that we risk worsening the teacher crisis if we fail to support those already in the classroom.

Education World Forum, London, May 2025 a fireside chat with Ghana’s Minister for Education

We co-hosted an event with Global Schools Forum and the Jacobs Foundation titled “Leading the Charge: Ghana’s Mission to Transform African Education”, featuring the Hon. Haruna Iddrisu. It was deeply reassuring to hear the Minister emphasize “support to teachers” as central to his reform agenda:

After time with other funders in Singapore and with doers in Dar es Salaam, it was in London that I recognized the critical role of leadership in tackling the complex challenges facing teachers. The Minister’s focus on foundational learning, strategic partnerships, and teacher investment reflected global evidence and clearly aligned with Ghana’s national vision. His pledge to “not just open the door but give the key” to partners captured the inclusive leadership needed to transform education systems.

Final Reflections: Bold Action, Strong Systems, and Local Solutions

At IDP Foundation, we champion system-level change because lasting impact comes from the ground up. Real progress means backing flexible, evidence-based pathways that reflect local realities—especially in overlooked communities—rather than imposing one-size-fits-all reforms.

With only 20% of Ghana’s population enrolling in tertiary and less than 2% graduating with education degrees, the current system is too narrow and exclusive to meet the scale of the challenge. Policy must evolve. That means recognizing diverse entry points into the profession, investing in context-relevant training models, and creating pathways that value both quality and access.

The teacher shortage is not just a numbers problem – it’s a systems problem. It demands bold policies rooted in local experience and a collective commitment to reimagining who gets to teach and how we support them to stay. The time to act is now.