African countries are facing the world’s worst teacher shortage. To shore up the deficit and achieve universal primary education by 2030, 6.1 million primary school teachers need to be hired in Africa alone.
As COVID-19 exacerbates pressures placed on education budgets, it is crucial that the deployment of quality teachers in Africa is driven by a quest for equity, effectiveness, and efficiency, since no child should be deprived of learning opportunities because of the school they attend or their area of residence.
UNICEF Innocenti is seeking to expand the evidence base on teacher deployment in Africa in order to identify how the deployment of qualified teachers can be optimized to improve equity in learning outcomes. While the equity of primary school teacher placement is the intended focus of this research, pre-primary teacher deployment will also be analyzed.
The proposed research will include the following phases and outputs, co-created with Ministries of Education, UNICEF regional and country offices, and SDG4 partners:
Countries currently participating in the Teachers for All project:
