Papua New Guinea should look to Australia's approach to help it solve a looming shortage of its teaching workforce.

A report from the Lowy Institute, released on Monday, said Australia's closest neighbour would need up to 124,000 teachers by 2033 to be able to teach a growing number of students.

However, training institutions in the country can only accredit 2200 people each year.

The report's author Serena Sasingian, who has held senior PNG government and non-profit roles, said the island nation had spent more than $1.5 billion in its most recent budget on education, but it did not address the workforce problem.

Australia has also provided about $1.2 billion into 170 education projects in PNG between 2008 and 2024.

"Despite this substantial investment, learning outcomes remain weak," the report said.

"PNG's challenge is now structural: it must shift from expanding access to delivering learning under a school system that requires far more qualified teachers."

The Pacific nation, which has an estimated population of about 11.8 million, should develop a 10-year plan to bolster the number of teachers, Ms Sasingian recommended.

It should also carry out steps to make teaching a profession that high-performing students would seek out post-school.

"Teaching must compete for talented graduates, offering the incentives, status, and career pathways to draw them into serving the population," the report said.

Australia should be a model for how teacher shortages could be addressed.

"Despite having a highly skilled economy and a much more developed education system, it has treated teacher shortages as a national workforce problem requiring direct financial intervention," the report said.

"If a high-income country such as Australia considers its teacher shortage serious enough to reduce the private cost of teacher education ... PNG's considerably more acute workforce challenge warrants at least the same policy urgency."

Compounding the looming teacher shortage was the impending retirement of 20,000 people, meaning the workforce was unlikely to grow.

Ms Sasingian said the number of new teachers being accredited would have to triple in order to keep up with student numbers.

"Meeting this challenge requires PNG to rebuild teaching as a valued profession capable of attracting, developing, and retaining high-performing graduates," she said.

Australian Associated Press