30,000 classrooms without teachers is a crisis waiting to happen – Adutwum

Former Education Minister Yaw Osei Adutwum has raised alarm over what he describes as a severe teacher shortage in Ghana, warning that about 30,000 classrooms currently have no teachers.

He said the situation could potentially leave nearly 1 million students without adequate teaching and learning support if urgent measures were not taken to address the gap.

Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana on Tuesday, September 8, Dr Adutwum said the scale of the shortage should be a major concern to policymakers because of its potential impact on the quality of education.

“We have 30,000 classrooms currently that don’t have teachers,” he said.

According to him, translating the number of teacherless classrooms into the number of students potentially affected paints an even more worrying picture.

“You’re talking about close to a million students who could potentially be sitting in classrooms without a teacher,” he said.

Dr Adutwum said the current Education Minister had recognised the challenge and requested clearance to recruit 50,000 teachers, but only 7,000 positions were reportedly approved.

“The Minister of Education asked for 50,000 teacher clearance. They gave him 7,000,” he said.

He warned that the situation required urgent political intervention, stressing that failure to address the shortage could have serious consequences for students’ academic outcomes.

“If the President doesn’t act quickly, we are going to be in trouble,” he warned.

His comments come amid growing concerns over poor performance in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), particularly in core subjects such as Mathematics.

Dr Adutwum argued that addressing poor examination results required policymakers to first tackle the conditions under which students were being taught.

He said learning difficulties among students should be identified much earlier, particularly when they enter senior high school, to enable teachers to intervene before those weaknesses become more pronounced at the WASSCE level.

The former Education Minister also linked the teacher shortage to Ghana’s broader economic prospects, arguing that education should be viewed not merely as a social service but as a critical investment in human capital.

He said ensuring that students have qualified teachers in classrooms was fundamental to developing the skills needed for Ghana to compete in an increasingly changing global economy.

Dr Adutwum also called for greater emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), artificial intelligence and information technology, saying young people must be equipped with practical skills capable of translating into productive employment.

“We cannot memorize our way out of poverty,” he said.

He maintained that Ghana’s education system must therefore go beyond preparing students to pass examinations and focus equally on developing the knowledge, competencies and practical skills required to drive economic transformation.