Africa faces a deficit of 15 million in the supply of teachers, which hinders the continent’s development, a senior African Union (AU) official has said.

Mohammed Belhocine, the AU commissioner for education, science, technology and innovation, made the remarks on Friday at a press briefing at the ongoing 45th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the AU in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, warning that this deficit has a negative impact on the continent’s ability to meet its education and development aspirations, Xinhua news agency reported.

The commissioner, therefore, called on the continent to take steps to bridge this gap to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in education by 2030 set by the United Nations.

“This teacher deficit is huge, and we need strong efforts to bridge the gap and make the best use of what we are already investing in our educational systems,” Belhocine said.

Africa needs an investment of about $90 billion to bridge the gap, improve infrastructure in education, and meet the SDGs on schedule, observed the commissioner.

The situation in Africa is due to the diminishing social status of the teaching profession, according to Belhocine. “Today, it is more flamboyant to be a businessman than to be a teacher. This is what is creating the gap in the supply of teachers.”

He urged the rebranding of the teaching profession to motivate more competent people to embrace the profession.

“The other solution is to use digitalization as a shortcut so that with digital infrastructure in place, one teacher can reach more children at the same time using the electronic platform and reduce the burden of the deficit,” Belhocine said, adding that information and communications technology proficiency should be part of teacher training for this solution to succeed.

He also called for global support for improving educational systems in Africa to achieve better outcomes, because the entire world might need to depend on African youth in the next 20 years due to the low population growth in other parts of the world.

The AU Executive Council’s 45th Ordinary Session, a meeting of foreign ministers of AU members, is a prelude to the 6th Mid-Year Coordination Meetings of the heads of state of AU members.