Most teachers are leaving their jobs while others are resigning and retiring every year, leaving 10,000 vacancies for teachers in the Education Department.
Brian Gaius Monie, from the Department of Education revealed this at a workshop on the development of national youth employment framework at the Gateway Hotel in Port Moresby yesterday.
Mr Monie said the teachers are leaving for better jobs with better salary packages.
Presenting his paper on employment focused education policies and curriculum, Mr Monie said some teachers are retiring and others are resigning to take up other jobs in other industries.
Mr Monie also said from the record, there are about two million school-aged kids from four to 14 years old in the country.
From these, 1,500,000 are currently enrolled at various schools from elementary to secondary schools.
The remaining are still in the villages or doing nothing in towns and cities.
The number of unemployed youths is rising every year, Mr Monie said.
But the Department of Education is working with the Office of Higher Education to address this issue through technical education and vocational training. Mr Monie said the department has already certified 4,860 certificates and diplomas to technical education and vocational students who completed their trainings to find jobs.
George Bopi from the Office of Higher Education said close to one million youths between the ages of 15 to 25 are not in school. Mr Bopi said many training institutions are training people where there are no jobs in the labour market.
Pacific Flash/Post Courier