please i need your help with the following point. I lately gave my student the following  tense/ form task
 :
�UNESCO says there needs to
be a huge effort to get the 69 million teachers. At the moment, UNESCO says
there are "massive (short)  .................................     " of teachers around the world.
There are (current) ............................... 263 million children who do not go to school. Around
25 million of these might never get an education.� 
my question is concerning short ,  can we use shortnesses here instead of the right answer  which is shortages as we talk about the lack or not having enough of something.
Thanks in advance