Regional Data Collection 

Survey on teachers in East and South and West Asia

The shortage of teachers, especially trained teachers, is blamed for the poor quality of education in many countries. But are the best teachers being sent to the communities that most need them? Which districts have a growing need for teachers?

To answer these questions, countries require more nuanced country-level data that can help determine recruitment and training policies. In response, the UIS is launching a new sub-national survey on teachers in 21 countries of East and South and West Asia.

Following the success of regional data collections in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, the UIS developed the latest questionnaire in consultation with regional stakeholders and Member States. The survey will help policymakers determine where resources should be allocated to meet national education goals and prepare countries to respond to upcoming international education data needs on quality and equity.

Specifically, data from this survey will provide a clearer picture of teacher workforce management in participating countries, in particular the qualification, recruitment and deployment of teachers.

With these data, policymakers and development partners will be better equipped to answer the following questions:

• Is the teaching workforce adequately distributed across regions?
• Do all regions have enough qualified teachers? How does that compare to other countries?
• Where should a country expect to replace teachers due to attrition or an ageing workforce and where does it need to recruit additional teachers to fill in current gaps?
• Is the professional status of teachers the same throughout the country?

Preliminary results from a pilot survey show that not all countries face the same challenges. For example, in Cambodia, some provinces lack qualified teachers, whereas others (in the top-right quadrant) need to focus on both training and recruitment.

Training or recruitment? Pupil-teacher ratios and proportion of teachers with a lower secondary education, selected countries.