The world faces an education workforce crisis that directly impacts young learners. According to UNESCO, countries will need to recruit 44 million teachers (primary and secondary) by 2030 to meet demand and replace staff who leave the profession. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, millions more are needed to reach minimum staffing levels.

This shortage matters most for early grades, Grades 1–5, because this is where children develop the foundational skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. If the teacher is absent, under-qualified, or over-burdened, students may lose vital instructional time, which is harder to recover later.

Why Early Grades Are Especially Vulnerable

Grade 1 through Grade 5 are the years when children transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn,” and begin mastering numeracy and basic reasoning. When teacher shortages occur in these grades, the consequences are severe:

• Students may receive less direct instruction, more time in less-effective group activities, or tasks without meaningful feedback.
• Teachers who remain may be pulled into multi-grade classrooms, larger class sizes or supporting unsupervised self-learning, reducing the time available for skill development.
• Children who miss foundational instruction fall behind their peers, and over time the gap widens.

Research in Rwanda shows teacher turnover has a measurable impact on student learning: when a teacher leaves, subsequent student scores decline by roughly 0.05 standard deviations.

In West Africa, only 67% of primary teachers meet national qualification standards, and attrition rates exceed 20% annually in some countries.

Even in industrialised nations, shortages matter: in a 2025 analysis by Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development (OECD), although unfilled primary teaching positions in most countries were under 3%, the challenge remains managing teacher quality and retention, especially in remote or disadvantaged communities.

The Pandemic Amplified the Problem

The COVID-19 pandemic put unprecedented strain on education systems. Schools closed, teachers were stretched thin, and recovery efforts turned to prioritizing the early grades. A 2023 World Bank report noted that learning losses were most extreme for younger children who often lacked strong foundational skills before the pandemic.

Teacher shortages added to this burden: as education systems reopened, many found themselves understaffed, leading to larger, combined classes, more reliance on substitute or unqualified teachers, and less individualized support. The result: young learners risk falling even further behind.

Implications for Foundational Learning

When teacher shortages persist, foundational learning (literacy & numeracy) suffers:

• Children receive less scaffolded instruction and weaker corrections of mistakes.
• Fewer assessments and feedback loops mean early errors are not caught.
• Instruction time may shrink as teachers cover more students or topics superficially.
• Over time, the cumulative effect is that learners enter Grades 4–5 without mastery of Grade 2–3 content, increasing the chance of grade repetition or dropping out.

This undermines global efforts under Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) which emphasizes quality and inclusive education by 2030. One of its targets is to “substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers” (Target 4.c). Without addressing teacher workforce shortages, that goal remains in jeopardy.

What Can Schools, Tutors & Nonprofits Do?

While recruiting and retaining teachers is a systemic challenge, education systems and organisations can adopt mitigations to support early-grade learning:

• Supplement teacher instruction with structured digital tools that ensure consistent lesson delivery and practice.
• Use auto-graded activities and dashboards so teachers spend less time on manual grading and more on targeted support.
• Provide ready-made, standards-aligned lessons to reduce teacher preparation time and ensure quality content even when new or substitute teachers step in.
• Support offline or low-connectivity access in rural/underserved areas to ensure continuity when teacher presence is inconsistent.

How AHS Education Supports Teachers Under Strain

This is exactly where AHS Education comes in. AHS’s platform is designed to support teachers, tutors and educational leaders who are managing heavy workloads, large classes or scarce staffing. How?

• Ready-to-use curriculum for Grades 1–5 aligned with U.S. state standards.
• Interactive video lessons coupled with auto-graded quizzes and printable worksheets, alleviating teacher prep and grading burdens.
• Dashboards for monitoring student progress, identifying skill gaps and enabling early interventions.
• Mobile and offline-capable tools, so learning continues even when classroom instruction is interrupted or teacher availability is limited.

By aligning with teacher support needs, AHS helps bridge the gap caused by staffing shortages and ensures foundational learning for children continues strongly.

If you’re a teacher, tutor or educational leader grappling with staff shortages, large classes or inconsistent instructional time, AHS Education is ready to help. Empower your learners, protect foundational skills and give your students the consistent structured learning they deserve. Visit AHSEdu.org to learn more.