Many of the districts in part of South Florida are experiencing a severe lack of qualified educators.
The Okeechobee County School District, like it has done for numerous years, employs foreign instructors to deal with the current teacher shortage. The school system employs 430 educators, some of whom are natives of other nations (such as India, the Philippines, Peru, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Ghana, and Mexico), as well as instructors from other countries. A few foreign instructors work in primary schools, but the majority of them work in middle schools.
There will be a total of 30 foreign teachers in the Okeechobee County school system when classes begin on Wednesday. Of those, 15 are brand new hires. That is the highest total that they have ever achieved.
A longer-than-expected teacher deficit might mean even more foreign teachers for next year.