UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

09/03/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/03/2025 15:03

Teachers cannot be coded

Yet, around the world, countries are still struggling to train, recruit and retain enough qualified teachers. The World Summit on Teachers 2025 spotlights the pressing need to tackle teacher shortages, elevate the profession and invest in teacher education. The first UNESCO and Teacher Task Force Global Report on Teachers shows that 44 million more primary and secondary teachers are needed by 2030 to reach education goals.

Coupled with this crisis in teacher shortages is the artificial intelligence disruption, which will be the central theme of Digital Learning Week 2025, UNESCO's flagship event on technology and learning. The integration of AI into education presents both transformative opportunities and complex challenges, reshaping pedagogies, curricula and education governance while raising critical questions about equity, ethics and human agency.

Militza Saavedra Montero, a teacher from Concepción in south-central Chile, sees AI as a great opportunity in her classroom. She participated in a UNESCO training on strengthening teachers' digital competencies in Chile, where she learned about the various standards and evolution of digital tools. AI supports her to save precious time.

Militza Saavedra Montero
© UNESCO
"AI allows us to quickly develop proposals, ideas, creativity, and materials, and evaluate them. It is our classroom ally."
Militza Saavedra Montero
Teacher from Chile
Militza feels that her role as a teacher is essential in helping students use technology with a critical mindset. The challenge is to teach people how to use AI responsibly. For some teachers AI introduces uncertainty, demanding new skills and redefining professional roles. For others, it opens up new possibilities for innovation, personalized learning and greater efficiency in the classroom.

Between transformative opportunities and complex challenges
Digital tools, including AI, can help teachers personalize learning for each student, cut down on paperwork, and open access to learning resources beyond the classroom. But these opportunities also bring serious challenges.

Many students still lack reliable internet or devices, which deepens inequality. AI systems can carry hidden biases, are prone to errors, risking unfair outcomes for learners. And if used without care, technology can reduce human interaction, which lies at the heart of meaningful teaching. That is why UNESCO stresses that while AI can support education, teachers must remain at its core, guiding students with the empathy, creativity, and judgment that no machine can replace.

But teachers around the globe face mounting pressures: insufficient resources, growing class sizes, rising societal expectations, and, in many cases, declining social recognition of their role. As a result, the percentage of primary teachers leaving the profession has doubled from 4.6% in 2015 to over 9% in 2022.

For UNESCO, the way forward is not about choosing between technology and teachers but about ensuring they work hand in hand for the benefit of learners. As Caroline Aidanu, an educator at the Daraja Secondary School in Kenya, powerfully puts it: "Teachers cannot be coded because they bring life into the classroom, they can empower students and make them feel seen."

Thumbnail
Teachers cannot be coded
play_arrow
©UNESCO
"Teachers cannot be coded", UNESCO's global education campaign reaffirms the irreplaceable role of teachers in the future of education. This campaign gives voice to teachers and learners and underlines the importance of keeping teaching at the heart of education systems. It underscores the essential role teachers play in guiding societies through today's global challenges, from adapting to the disruptions of AI, to equipping learners of all ages with evolving literacy skills and nurturing resilience and hope in times of crisis and conflict.
UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization published this content on September 03, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on September 03, 2025 at 21:03 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]