How financial technology could help solve a global teacher shortage

A global teacher shortage is looming, which would affect students for years to come. Teaching shortages could lead to larger class sizes and increased teacher burnout, ultimately placing a long-term strain on education systems worldwide.

A recent UNESCO projects report found that 44 million additional teachers are needed worldwide to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030. The report highlights a demand for 70% of these additional teachers at the secondary level and a need to replace over half of the existing teachers leaving the profession. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 notes that teachers will be among the occupations expected to experience high growth in the years to come.

But teachers are leaving the profession for a myriad of reasons, including high stress levels, burnout, lack of support, heavy workloads and challenging working conditions. Financial strain is also often cited as one of the top reasons teachers leave the field. Teaching is stressful enough but struggling to make ends meet at the same time can be too much for some to handle.

An exodus of teachers would have wider effects. One of the most pressing issues relating to a teacher shortage is “recruiting, preparing and retaining sufficient numbers of qualified teachers,” according to the Brookings Institute. Hiring and training teachers is no easy task. Larger school districts in the US, for example, spend nearly $25,000 on average to replace a departing teacher. No wonder then that 86% of US public schools are struggling to hire educators.

Helping teachers, schools and pupils survive and thrive during these challenging economic times requires the right tools. Advances in financial technology (fintech) can play a role in helping to curb an exodus from the teaching profession.

Empowering teachers by improving their financial literacy and education can also help them in the classroom, both by relieving money worries and providing them with financial knowledge to pass on to students. Advances in fintech can provide teachers with relevant, useful and actionable information at the click of a button on mobile devices.

Accessible and relevant financial education is a great start for teachers, but having the ability to apply that information in the workplace is also critical in paving a path to financial wellness and stability. Fintech solutions that support teachers’ financial journeys such as personal finance and budgeting apps, investment and savings apps and digital retirement planning tools, can all help teachers make their money work harder and smarter.

The percentage of people who say budgeting has “helped them get out or stay out of debt” has increased from 73% in 2018 to 89% in 2024. In the UK, over 18 million people used budgeting apps in 2024, while another report indicates that 40% of Germans also use digital budgeting apps.

Investment apps are widely regarded as having democratised investing, making it more accessible to a broader range of individuals. Mobile brokerage apps often offer resources to help users learn about the basics of investing, develop a good financial strategy and other crucial concepts.

Our research with The Harris Poll found that 70% of teachers say it would be helpful to be paid more frequently than twice per month. And so on-demand pay is another fintech solution that could help teachers live a better financial life and stay longer on the job while also supporting their financial wellbeing. This voluntary employee benefit can help teachers pay bills on time as it addresses the problem of the timing of their paychecks and their bills being misaligned.

These tools can provide real-time visibility of daily earnings, empowering teachers with the knowledge to make the best decisions for themselves and their families. Timeliness and transparency are critical to making ends meet and staying out of debt – an unexpected expense in the middle of a teachers’ pay period could send their financial situation into turmoil. Employers could offer such fintech solutions as part of a financial wellness benefit package.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”, according to Nelson Mandela. Teachers play such a pivotal role in the advancement of society. And while fintech cannot address every challenge they face, it can help to ease their money worries and help them focus on what matters most – teaching.