India needs eleven (11) million teachers to reach Sustainable Development Goal 4 of the United Nations (UN); India is making sure to achieve all the requirements before 2030.
Achieving Sustainable Development Goal Four (SDG 4) in India requires three (3) million teachers and over eight (8) million secondary teachers.
SDG 4 seeks to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030.
The need for teachers in India was released in a report by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics (UIS) on the 5th of October. According to the report, a total of eleven (11) million primary, and secondary teachers are needed to meet up with the SDG 4 goal in India.
For starters, India will be launching on August 22 a training program for four hundred twenty thousand (420,000 or 42 lakhs) teachers, the largest training in the world of its kind.
SDG4 requirements worldwide
In the same report, data provided by UIS showed the number of teachers needed worldwide to achieve the SDG 4 goal.
Of the total number of teachers, twenty-four and four-tenths (24.4) million would be primary school teachers and forty-four and four-tenths (44.4) million – secondary school teachers. This vast numbers of teachers required will satisfy the education targets of the United Nations.
India isn’t the only country that needs to recruit a large number of teachers.
Sub Saharan regions have the highest requirement for teachers, both primary and secondary. The district would need to hire seventeen (17) million primary and secondary teachers to be able to achieve the set SDG 4 by the United Nations.
Also, Southern Asia follows second on the list. The Asian region needs fifteen (15) million primary and secondary teachers as well. Hence, these countries need to embark on a recruitment drive for primary, and secondary teachers.
SDG4 requirements for India
Aside from the recruitment needs of the states highlighted, there are other resource requirements.
First, classrooms need to be built to accommodate a large number of children requiring education.
Having too many children in classrooms will overcome effective teaching and limit the understanding of students as well.
Secondly, teachers require training and teaching resources. These training resources are essential tools for an efficient teaching process.
The teachers must be motivated in terms of money to carry out their duties as well. Research studies have proved that an increase in teachers’ salaries results in an equal, and substantial increase in pupil academic performance.
Considering the capability of developing countries, funding teacher’s recruitment and provision of required resources is a challenge.
Hence, the need for the International community to extend a helping hand to the states, which isn’t forthcoming yet, says the Chief Executive Officer of the Varkey Foundation, Vikas Pota.
United Nations (UN) Rationale for SDG4
The UN sees the lack of adequately trained teachers, poor conditions of schools and equity issues related to opportunities provided to rural children as causes for the poor quality of education.
For quality education to be provided to the children of impoverished families, investment is needed in educational scholarships, teacher training workshops, school building and improvement of water and electricity access to schools.
