Solving the Teacher Shortage Problem in Ghana: Critical Perspectives for Understanding the Issues

The problem of getting sufficient numbers of qualified teachers to staff classrooms is one of the most significant public policy issues facing many countries. In Ghana, the problem of teacher shortage has been a perennial one, necessitated by educational expansion as well as adverse socio-economic and political circumstances, and exacerbated by high attrition rate. Efforts to find a solution are still ongoing. This paper aims to contribute to the search for solutions to the teacher shortage problem in Ghana. The paper takes the view that before education policy makers think about whether to recruit more teachers or retain existing teachers, it is important that they clearly understand the complex nature of the phenomenon of teacher shortage. The paper, therefore, reconceptualises the phenomenon of teacher shortage, clarifying it by disentangling and explicating its constituent variables. It also discusses various policy options for addressing teacher shortages, and indicates the implications of those options for teaching quality and teacher status. The ultimate objective is to provide a framework for analysing the problem of teacher shortage in a more critical way so that any interventions would be more focused and appropriately targeted.