EU at risk of teacher shortage

An important finding of the report “Key Data on Education in Europe 2012” by the Eurydice Network are the growing teacher shortages. Several Member States, including Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria and Belgium, may face serious teacher shortages in the future.

For instance, the study points out that 40% of German 15 year-olds have no specialised science teacher and around 30% of Dutch students of the same age have no specialised teacher in science or maths.

The problem comes from the ageing pool in the teaching profession: over 30% of teachers in Germany, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium are currently approaching retirement age and nearly half the primary teachers in Germany, Italy and Sweden are older than 50.

Click here to read the full press release by the European Commission that includes some important statistics.

Click here to watch a video interview on Key Data on Education in Europe 2012 with Brian Holmes and Andrea Puhl from the Executive Agency for Education, Audiovisual and Culture.