2015 is quickly approaching and we are running out of time on our global quest to achieve universal primary education (UPE), improving all aspects of educational quality and learning outcomes, expanding early childhood education and care, ensuring all children have access to free and compulsory primary education, and see to it that gender disparities are eliminated. That is not to say vast improvements have not been made, but there is still much work to be done.

Within the educational landscape the student is often the primary focus, but without teachers the learning outcomes and quality improvements will not grow. Teachers are an integral part of the large puzzle that intertwines the MDGs and EFA goals, and according to a recent UNESCO report published last month, the education sector is experiencing a teacher crisis that if left unaddressed could prevent some United Nations member states from meeting the universal primary education and quality goals put forth. Per the data gathered, countries will need to recruit a total of 4 million teachers to achieve universal primary education by 2015; the region facing the greatest challenges by a large margin is sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for more than one-half (63%) of the additional teachers needed to achieve UPE by 2015 or two-thirds (67%) by 2030.[1] Additionally, in 30 of the 91 countries with data, less than 75% of primary school teachers were trained according to national standards, posing a huge problem to the education these children are receiving[2].

The IDP Rising Schools Program (IDPRSP), and the IDP Foundation overall, are very invested in the economic and educational development of sub-Saharan Africa. In Ghana, where the IDPRSP was incubated and is actively expanding, basic and secondary education levels currently face a 60,000 teacher deficit after a mass layoff of untrained teachers[3]. This was all prompted by the Ghana Education Service (GES) and Ministry of Education (MOE) definition of a professional teacher as one who received training in a College of Education and maybe a University of Education, even when situations on the ground call for a second look at such limited definitions[4].