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Education systems are under pressure from several directions at once. Many countries face teacher shortages, weak learning results, tight budgets, and growing gaps between what schools teach and the skills students need. Climate shocks, technology changes, and long-running inequality are making the challenge even harder.

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Education systems around the world are trying to do more with too little. More children are in school than a decade ago, but progress has slowed sharply. In many places, schools are struggling not only to bring students into classrooms, but also to help them learn, stay engaged, and prepare for fast-changing economies.

For years, global education policy focused heavily on access. That push brought real gains. Since 2015, about 110 million more children and young people have entered school, and secondary completion has also improved.

But the broader picture is much less encouraging. Around 251 million children and youth are still out of school worldwide. The decline in that number has been very small over the past decade, showing that many systems are no longer improving fast enough.

## Teacher shortages are hitting quality

One of the clearest pressures is the shortage of teachers. UNESCO has warned that the world needs tens of millions of additional teachers by 2030 to meet demand in primary and secondary education. The shortage is most severe in lower-income countries and fast-growing regions, but it is not limited to them.

Schools are also finding it harder to retain staff. In many systems, teachers face heavy workloads, limited support, low relative pay, and rising expectations. That combination affects recruitment, morale, and classroom quality. In some regions, the share of teachers with minimum required qualifications has also fallen in recent years.

This matters because education systems do not keep up by enrolling students alone. They keep up when students are taught well, consistently, and at the right level. When classrooms are overcrowded or schools cannot fill posts in subjects such as science and mathematics, learning suffers quickly.

## Learning has stalled or fallen

Even where access has improved, learning outcomes have become a major concern. International test results have shown sharp declines. In the 2022 round of PISA, average performance across OECD countries fell by about 10 score points in reading and nearly 15 points in mathematics compared with 2018. The drop in mathematics was described as unprecedented and roughly equal to three-quarters of a school year of learning.

The pandemic played a major role, but it did not create every weakness. In several systems, reading and science performance had already shown signs of decline before COVID-19. School closures then exposed older problems, including unequal home support, weak digital access, and limited capacity to help students catch up.

Many schools now face a harder task than before: they must teach regular curriculum, repair lost learning, support student well-being, and manage wider social pressures at the same time.

## Money is not keeping pace with need

Funding is another major constraint. UNESCO and the World Bank have found that many countries still spend below agreed education benchmarks. The gaps between rich and poor countries remain very wide. In 2022, low-income countries spent only about $55 per learner, compared with $8,543 in high-income countries.

That gap affects almost everything: teacher hiring, school maintenance, textbooks, connectivity, transport, school meals, and support for children with additional needs. It also limits a system’s ability to respond to shocks.

External support is not closing the gap. The share of official development assistance going to education fell from 9.3% in 2019 to 7.6% in 2022. At the same time, debt burdens have narrowed fiscal space in many countries. In Africa, countries in 2022 spent almost as much on debt servicing as on education.

## Technology is changing faster than schools

Another reason systems are struggling to keep up is that the world outside school is changing very quickly. Employers increasingly want digital, problem-solving, and AI-related skills. Yet many children still leave school without strong foundational literacy and numeracy, let alone newer technical skills.

This creates a double challenge. Schools must help students master basic reading and mathematics, while also adapting curricula and teaching to a more digital economy. UNICEF has warned that many systems still have weak planning, weak data, and limited digital infrastructure. In some places, instruction is not matched to the child’s level or language, making learning harder from the start.

Technology can help, but it also risks widening inequality. Students with stable internet, devices, and support at home can benefit more quickly than those without them. That makes the digital divide a school quality issue as well as a social one.

## Crises keep interrupting education

Education systems are also being asked to operate through repeated disruption. Conflict, displacement, and extreme weather are interrupting schooling for millions of children. UNICEF said at least 242 million children in 85 countries had their schooling disrupted in 2024 because of climate hazards such as heatwaves, floods, and cyclones.

These shocks do not just close schools for a few days. They can damage buildings, displace teachers and families, and push vulnerable children out of education entirely. Systems that are already underfunded often have the least capacity to recover.

The result is a growing sense that education ministries are chasing several moving targets at once: access, quality, equity, recovery, technology, and resilience. That is why many systems appear to be falling behind even when they are working harder than before.

AI Perspective

The education challenge is no longer only about getting children into school. It is about whether schools can stay stable and deliver real learning in a world that is changing quickly. Systems that invest in teachers, foundational skills, and resilience are more likely to keep up than those forced to react crisis by crisis.