Report: Building effective teacher salary systems in fragile and conflict-affected states

Excerpt from the report entitled Building effective teacher salary systems in fragile and conflict-affected states: 

'Why are good teacher salary systems important? 

As mentioned in Chapter 1, teacher pay is directly linked with expanding access to schooling and if teachers are paid late, paid an insufficient amount or not paid at all, this will directly impact on their motivation, morale and presence in the classroom. This will make teaching an unattractive profession, reduce the time teachers spend in the classroom and thus impact negatively on children’s learning. This chapter briefly outlines two key issues common to teacher salary systems in developing countries.

2.1 The large size of the teaching force in the civil service 

A nation’s teaching force typically makes up the largest portion of its civil servant cohort, and is
often even larger than its military (UNESCO, 2011). Teacher salaries in Africa make up a significant portion of a nation’s education budget and invariably represent the largest percentage of recurrent expenditure under education. A UNESCO Institute of Statistics (2011) survey of 34 countries in SubSaharan Africa showed that spending on teaching personnel alone – which included teacher and administrative salaries as well as investment in professional development – accounted for more than 50 per cent of total public spending on education. When only recurrent expenditure is considered, teacher salaries comprise an even larger portion of the budget: 69, 56 and 55 per cent of recurrent expenditure devoted to salaries at the primary, lower secondary and upper secondary levels respectively (UIS, 2011). 

2.2 The link between teacher salaries, pupil-teacher ratios and quality 

Lack of support for teacher salaries can lead to great difficulties in the retention of quality teachers resulting in a direct negative impact on educational quality (Sommers, 2005). Education systems that do not have the financial resources to recruit additional teachers typically accommodate expanding student enrolment rates by increasing the number of students in the classroom (UIS, 2011). After school fees were abolished in Uganda in 1996, for example, the average primary pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) grew from 35:1 in 1995 to 59:1 in 1998, although it has since fallen to 49:1 in 2009 (De Kemp, 2008 and UIS Data Centre, 2011). Smaller PTRs generally have a positive effect on the classroom environment and on the quality of learning, particularly in the early grades, as smaller PTRs lead to increased levels of time-on-task as well as individualised attention paid to students (Boissière, 2004).  

Likewise, larger PTRs can have a negative impact on education quality. An education system’s inability to provide support for teacher salaries and recruit additional teachers to meet the needs of increasing student enrolments can thus have a negative impact on the overall quality of the learning environment and in many cases on the quality of student learning.' 

Check out the full report here. 

Report: Every Child Needs a Teacher: Closing the Trained Teacher Gap

October 5th is World Teachers' Day, so it seems fitting to provide an excerpt from the report from the Global Campaign for Education entitled Every Child Needs a Teacher: Closing the Trained Teacher Gap.

The report on teacher training and poor conditions faced by teachers: 

'Some countries count those who have completed primary school and a one-month training course as trained, while others require a three-year education degree. Even with these flexible and often low standards, a third of countries report that no more than half of their pre-primary school teachers are trained; at primary level, reported rates are slightly higher, but thirty one countries report that fewer than three quarters of teachers are trained (to any accepted national standard) and a number report falling levels of training. In Mali, where half of primary school teachers are trained, only a quarter have had training lasting six months or longer. Nearly half of countries reporting training levels at lower secondary level state that fewer than three quarters of teachers are trained. Niger had just 1,059 trained lower secondary school teachers in 2010 – compared to 1.4 million children of lower secondary school age. 

[...] 

The overwhelming lesson is that high quality education requires sufficient recruitment of teachers who are trained, supported, paid and managed as professionals. The recruitment of low-skill, untrained teachers in recent decades has proved disastrous for education quality - and much current training provision needs improvement. Teachers are paid paltry amounts, for example just $125 a month in Niger; many have to travel long distances to collect pay that is often days, weeks or even months late. A motivated, highly skilled teacher workforce produces the best education; yet too often teachers are treated as low-grade service delivery employees, expected to deliver classes and administer tests according to a script, and rewarded or punished on the basis of test scores. The deprofessionalisation of teachers denies students the possibility of great teaching.'

I couldn't agree more with this statement: 'A motivated, highly skilled teacher workforce produces the best education; yet too often teachers are treated as low-grade service delivery employees' .

What is your experience as a teacher? Have you felt supported, or undervalued by your school? Is too much pressure placed upon teachers? What can help teachers perform their best, and therefore help bring out the best in students?

Worth reading the report in full - you can find it here. 

Grade inflation - time to give in?

An interesting debate and not something exclusive to the USA. Every year when GCSE or A-Level results come out in the UK talk of grade inflation fills the news.

Chris Blattman suggests here that we shouldn't resist 'the new equilibrium'. Having marked students' work myself, I kind of agree with this. As Chris Blattman suggests, surely it's all relative? So, for example if there are only five piles of graded work ranging from A+ to B-, in theory is this not the same as the graded work in five piles ranging from A to E? And I hesitate to add: the B- therefore being equivalent to the E...or have I been subjected to too much of a private school mentality?! Or do certain grades have connotations and therefore an A- will always be viewed (subconsciously) as better than a B despite the fact their quality is the same (given that they would both be in the second pile of graded work).

I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on this and Chris Blattman's suggestion that we should go with the flow.