The supply of teachers is failing to keep pace with the demand for primary education. According to the latest UIS data, the world needs to create 1.7 million new teaching posts by 2015 to reach Universal Primary Education (UPE). In addition, 5.1 million teachers are expected to leave the profession and must be replaced. In total, 6.8 million teachers will be needed to ensure every child’s right to basic education.
The UIS has created an interactive info-graphic to illustrate the gap between the supply and demand for teachers by region. The situation is most extreme in sub-Saharan Africa, where the school-aged population continues to rise. More than 1.8 million primary school teachers are required by 2015. In other words, the supply of teachers in the region must increase by 10% every year to meet the goal of UPE. (via Global Action Week 2013)
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“[UNITED STATES] Poverty is getting so concentrated in America that one out of five public schools was classified as as a “high-poverty” school in 2011 by the U.S. Department of Education. To win this unwelcome designation, 75 percent or more of an elementary, middle or high school’s students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch. About a decade earlier, in 2000, only one in eight public schools was deemed to be high poverty. That’s about a 60 percent increase in the number of very poor schools!” — Education By The Numbers | The number of high-poverty schools increases by about 60 percent
Last week, Chicago announced the closure of 50 public schools, the majority of them on the South and West sides of the city, in the poorer neighbourhoods. The closures represent about eight per cent of the 681 public schools in Chicago, the third-largest school district in the country.
More than 400,000 students are enrolled in these public schools, a large majority African-American or Hispanic and from low-income families. In fact, around 100 schools have closed since 2001 in Chicago where 88 per cent of the students affected were African-American, according to the New York Times.
(via Education International - US: 50 schools to be shut down - largest public school closure in history)
“Nigeria: Extremist attacks hit school attendance (21 May 2013)” —
EI [Education International] has strongly condemned attacks on Nigerian schools, teachers and students that have kept 15,000 children away from school since last February. News of the attacks by Boko Haram (BH) extremists came from IRIN, the news service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The attacks on state schools in the Borno State, North-Eastern Nigeria, have continued.
Teachers killed and schools burnt down
Most of the affected children are primary school students, according to a Borno State Ministry of Education spokesman. So far, BH has burned or destroyed 50 of the state’s 175 schools, he said. Teachers in the state have confirmed the numbers.
Students are staying at home for fear of attack, or being transferred to private Islamic schools, known in the north as Islamiyya. On 6 May, state schools were officially to reopen following a six-week break, but many have stayed closed, as officials and teachers fear attack.
via Education International - Nigeria: Extremist attacks hit school attendance
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