Best Practice: General criteria for forecasting teacher workforce

MBSSE is overall responsible for forecasting the demand of teachers for national planning and budgeting, while TSC must forecast for annual recruitment and deployment.

The following criteria (estimations) can be applied to forecast the demand for teachers at national level:

• Teacher student ratio
• Population growth and annual increase of children in the school age
• Demographic changes (for instance people moving from rural areas to Freetown)
• Increase or decrease in dropout rate
• Increase or decrease of passing rates
• The need for qualified teachers at each level (pre-, grades 1-3, grades 4-6, etc.)
• The need for qualified subject teachers in different specialisations in secondary schools
• Promotions from teacher into school leader positions or into the civil service
• Turnover rate, including scheduled retirements, estimated separations from service, etc.