The number of teachers taking an early retirement package has surged to about 47-hundred this year.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said on Friday that the number of teachers retiring early came to four-thousand-745 this year in 16 municipal and provincial education offices, up 24 percent year-on-year.

The figure is steadily rising as it recorded two-thousand-776 in 2009, three-thousand-548 in 2010 and three-thousand-818 in 2011.

The ministry attributes the rise to education offices’ securing funds for early retirees and teachers' weakening authority in schools.