Teacher shortages plague Lithuania and Europe, prompting initiatives to upskill educators across various subjects.
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Lithuania faces a shortage of over 450 specialized educators at the start of the school year, with the most significant gaps in mathematics and Lithuanian language teachers, as well as chemistry and physics specialists; preschool education also suffers from a deficit of over 1000 specialists. This issue is not isolated to Lithuania, as similar situations exist in France, Hungary, Spain, and other European countries. To address this, the Lithuanian Ministry of Education, Science, and Sport has initiated a program allowing pedagogues with one or two years of studies to work in schools with high teacher shortages after completing free supplementary specialization courses. In Europe, challenges are also evident; for instance, France still has over 3000 unfilled teaching positions, often filled by temporary staff without the required specialization, and faces shortages particularly in physics, chemistry, mathematics, and language teachers. Other countries report severe issues: Poland lacked between 20,000 and 25,000 teachers last year, while Austria had a shortage of about 7,000, and Bulgaria averages around 1200 missing teachers, with many schools relying on retired staff.
