The world needs more qualified teachers to achieve its education goals by 2030. But recruitment is only part of the challenge. Education ministers are awash with the challenges of AI, social cohesion and mental health. Yet less is said about the critical need to prepare teachers to help face the task, develop throughout their careers, and give them reasons to stay.
There are no common standards for the preparation teachers should have across countries. Only 11% of low-income countries require primary teachers to hold a bachelor’s degree, compared with 79% of high-income countries. A teacher can therefore meet the national standard in one country but fall short of the standard in another. This makes global figures difficult to compare. It is why there is now a move towards reporting the share of teachers with a bachelor’s degree as a common measure in SDG 4.
Having said that, teacher preparedness is weakening in different ways. At the very least, teachers need the qualifications and training to face these challenges. Globally, around 90% of primary teachers meet their country’s minimum academic requirements, while 82% meet professional training requirements. The 2026 GEM Report shows that these averages have changed little over the past decade, but they conceal worrying trends. In low-income countries, the share of primary teachers meeting minimum academic requirements fell from 89% in 2013 to 77% in 2024. In high-income countries, the share meeting professional training requirements fell from 95% to 88%.
This fact is context specific, however. In some poorer countries, there may be more qualified teachers than they can afford. Teacher salaries account for a larger share of education budgets and public finances are constrained. Senegal, for example, had a surplus of qualified teachers in 2020. Calls to train more teachers therefore need to go hand in hand with the funding to employ them.
Teachers are often left to their own devices once they enter a classroom. In 2023, the share of lower secondary teachers who had received training in the previous year ranged from 36% in Norway to 97% in Lithuania. Participation alone does not tell us whether that training helped. In the 2024 Teaching and Learning International Survey, just over half of teachers in participating countries said their professional learning had a significant positive impact on their teaching.
The challenging nature of the job means teacher retention is under strain. One indication that teachers are not finding satisfaction in their work is the rate of teacher attrition each year. Data on this issue is not comparable, which is why it is being dropped from the list of SDG 4 indicators. But this doesn’t mean it is not an issue for policy makers to be aware of. The data we have show that, each year, an estimated 6% of primary teachers, 9% of lower secondary teachers and 7% of upper secondary teachers leave the profession. This issue is made more complex by the fact, featured in the 2024/5 GEM Report, that teachers with higher qualifications are more likely to leave the profession.
Meeting SDG target 4.c on teachers means looking beyond how many teachers systems recruit. It means asking whether teachers are prepared for the classroom, supported to improve and able to build a lasting career.
