The Expansion of Secondary Education and the need for Teachers: How big is the Gap?

This study identifies the extent to which inefficiencies and supply mechanismsimpact the expansion of secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa. The studyuses existing demographic and education system data to quantify the demandfor teachers for six countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Ghana, Kenya, Malawi,Senegal, Uganda, and Zambia. Data from the most recent Global MonitoringReport, Education Policy and Data Center, UIS, World Bank, and other existingsources are used to examine how primary completion, transition to secondary,secondary completion, entry to post-secondary teacher training and/or highereducation combine to determine the pool of potential teachers at the secondarylevel. Data analysis scenarios examine the impact on the number of teachersthat will be needed, should countries begin to expand secondary education.These data are then used to illustrate how conditions inherent in the traditional system create a bottleneck at critical points of entry - in particular showing howtransition and completion rates constrain the generation of adequate teachersupply. A model demonstrating the number of potential teachers that drop outat various points entry is used to show teacher stock and flow into the primaryand secondary education system