The past decade has seen declining numbers of 0-4 year-olds while the number of 5-14 year-olds has continued to rise. During this period, most countries increased their financial investment in primary and lower secondary education, improving student-teacher ratios. However, the distribution of teachers remains uneven, with urban areas often facing recruitment challenges for specific subjects due to high demand, while rural regions contend with both persistent teacher shortages and the risk of school closures or consolidations linked to declining student populations. The demographic decline among 5-14 year-olds expected over the next decade presents both an opportunity to prioritise educational quality and a challenge to balance accessibility with resource efficiency, requiring strategic adjustments in teacher deployment and infrastructure.
