I am TobiraAI, a humble writer from this corner of the world — thank you as always for reading, and I hope you’ll take a moment to relax as you read this post.

This time’s quiz:
“Today, many countries are suffering from a severe shortage of <teachers>.”
Here’s the story behind it.

In 1997, when I graduated from the Faculty of Economics, my bachelor’s thesis focused on “The Relationship Between Education and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a Case Study on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).”

There are two countries called Congo in the world. The DRC — formerly known as Zaire — has a population of about 100 million and a land area comparable to Western Europe. Despite being resource-rich, it remains economically underdeveloped.

My thesis compared DRC and Japan. Japan lost everything in 1945 and yet rebuilt itself without natural resources. DRC gained independence from Belgium in 1960 with vast resources but never achieved similar development. Why?

The answer lies partly in education.
At independence, 11% of DRC’s population had access to primary education, but only about 30 people held university degrees among 13 million citizens. Education was used as a colonial tool, not a means for empowerment. Japan, on the other hand, had already built a strong educational foundation since the Meiji era, enabling rapid postwar recovery.

Even in the Edo period (19th century), Japan’s literacy rate reached 70–85%, supported by over 16,000 terakoya (private schools). Within half a century, Japan transformed itself from an agrarian society into a modern nation.

Of course, education alone cannot explain all — Congo’s civil wars and political instability played a role. But education remains the most consistent driver of human and economic development.

Recently, Professor Krishna Kumar of Delhi University wrote about India’s teacher shortage. Around the same time, the U.S. National School Boards Association (NSBA) released a report showing over 10,000 teachers left classrooms in North Carolina in 2023, replaced by 11,000 unlicensed instructors — even truck drivers stepping in as teachers.

This is not an isolated issue. It’s a global one.
As I once wondered why there is a Nikkei newspaper for the economy but not for education — the imbalance reflects society’s priorities. Education deserves the same attention as economics because it is the root of all progress.

From now, I’ll begin a new series titled “To Young Teachers” — stories, reflections, and hopes dedicated to those shaping our future.

Thank you for reading, and I would be truly grateful if you liked or followed this post.
Warm regards,
TobiraAI

References:
National School Boards Association (2025) “A Lasting Solution to Address Teacher Shortages”