Teachers for Rural Schools A challenge for Africa

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Teachers for Rural SchoolsA challenge for Africa

• Aidan Mulkeen
• Africa Region
• World Bank

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What makes a child go to school?
Rural areas

• Weaker demand (PUSH)
• Less educated parents
• Lower parent interest in education
• More competing duties
• Homes less conducive to study

• Weaker schools (PULL)
• Fewer teachers,
• Less qualified teachers
• Weaker support
• Weaker supervision
• Lower quality.

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What makes a child go to school?
The children who are hard to reachget a WORSE
education service than their urban cousins
PULL attraction of a good school

• PUSH
• from parents

Rural areas

• Weaker demand (PUSH)
• Less educated parents
• Lower parent interest in education
• More competing duties
• Homes less conducive to study

• Weaker schools (PULL)
• Fewer teachers,
• Less qualified teachers
• Weaker support
• Weaker supervision
• Lower quality.

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Teacher deployment

• Facilities,
• Electricity, water, housing
• Social activities
• Health
• Greater risks,
• Poorer care
• Opportunities
• Further study
• Promotion

• Gender
• Security
• Splitting families
• finding a husband
• HIV
• access to care
• Local language

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The hidden problem
Averages figures for districts mask much greater
differences, and hide the real problem in the
most remote schools. In Lesotho some isolated
schools have no qualified teacher at all
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The hidden problem
The rural-urban disparity in teacher provision
is bigger than thestatistics suggest
Average Pupil Teacher Ratio
Averages figures for districts mask much greater
differences, and hide the real problem in the
most remote schools. In Lesotho some isolated
schools have no qualified teacher at all
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Planned deployment

• Each teacher is assigned to a post, based on a
  plan
• Advantages
• Rational plan
• Transparent process
• Disadvantages
• Hard to enforce
• Increased attrition/ wastage

• Mozambique
• Each province allocates teachers.
• Teachers often refuse postings in remote schools.
  These often later get posts in urban schools.
• Malawi
• Teachers assigned to schools and trained in situ.
  
• Trickle-back, teachers manage to get transfers
  back to more desirable schools.

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Free market deployment

• Each school recruits its own teachers
• Advantages
• Greater take-up, teachers only apply if
  interested
• More local recruitment, greater retention
• Disadvantages
• Local influence
• Market effects more unqualified teachers in
  less desirable areas.
• Difficult to transfer?

• Lesotho
• Each school is allocated a number of POSTS, based
  on school numbers.
• School management committees can advertise, and
  select the teacher
• Most places are filled. Little variation in PTR.
• Best qualified teachers can get the most
  attractive jobs. More unqualified teachers in
  remote schools.

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Solutions Incentives

• Financial incentives
• Need to be substantial
• Undermined by other opportunities in urban areas
  (double shift, extra coaching, private schools)
• Classification difficult, border effects
• Housing
• Attractive incentive (especially for female)
• High cost, maintenance, difficulty of recovery

• Forced deployment
• risk attrition, loss of experience, hard to
  implement
• Targeted recruitment
• once they go to college they do not want to go
  back
• Alternatives
• Family-friendly deployment
• Requirement to teach in a rural area

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Solutions Incentives
Teacher deployment is a crisis. Simply having
more teachers isnot sufficient. Many
countriesalready have unemployed teachersand a
shortage in rural areas.

• Financial incentives
• Need to be substantial
• Undermined by other opportunities in urban areas
  (double shift, extra coaching, private schools)
• Classification difficult, border effects
• Housing
• Attractive incentive (especially for female)
• High cost, maintenance, difficulty of recovery

• Forced deployment
• risk attrition, loss of experience, hard to
  implement
• Targeted recruitment
• once they go to college they do not want to go
  back
• Alternatives
• Family-friendly deployment
• Requirement to teach in a rural area

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Reaching rural children

• Geographical mapping in West Africa shows that
  attendance falls off very rapidly with distance
  to school

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Implications of changing walking distance
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5km walking distance (70 coverage)
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2km walking distance (25 coverage)
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Utilisation

• Usual model full size school, 1 teacher per
  grade.
• May need a population of nearly 1,000 people
• With dropout, may have large numbers in lower
  classes, and very small senior classes.
• Options
• Incomplete schools / satellite schools
• High dropout at point of transition
• Double shift teaching
• Often shorter contact hours, lower quality
• Multigrade teaching
• Widely used in OECD countries, effective.
• Needs training, curricular flexibility and
  teaching materials.
• Works best with older (literate) students

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Utilisation
Many teachers in rural schools areunderused,
teaching small classes.Serious work on small
multigrade schools is needed.

• Usual model full size school, 1 teacher per
  grade.
• May need a population of nearly 1,000 people
• With dropout, may have large numbers in lower
  classes, and very small senior classes.
• Options
• Incomplete schools / satellite schools
• High dropout at point of transition
• Double shift teaching
• Often shorter contact hours, lower quality
• Multigrade teaching
• Widely used in OECD countries, effective.
• Needs training, curricular flexibility and
  teaching materials.
• Works best with older (literate) students

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Teacher management

• Harder in rural areas
• Increased absenteeism
• Specific policies to transfer misbehaving
  teachers!
• Pay collection and dealing with ministry.
• Less inspection
• Less access to support services poorer quality
• Less monitoring by community

• Solutions
• Streamline administration
• Increased support from within schools
• Head teachers,
• Senior teachers
• Increased monitoring by community.

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Teacher management
Supporting and monitoring remote teachers is
very costly. In-school support and
monitoringneed to be developed.

• Harder in rural areas
• Increased absenteeism
• Specific policies to transfer misbehaving
  teachers!
• Pay collection and dealing with ministry.
• Less inspection
• Less access to support services poorer quality
• Less monitoring by community

• Solutions
• Streamline administration
• Increased support from within schools
• Head teachers,
• Senior teachers
• Increased monitoring by community.

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Key messages

• Rural education is not getting sufficient
  attention from policy makers. Without reaching
  rural areas, achieving the MDGs will not be
  possible.
• Teachers for rural areas are a key problem
• Need action on
• Deployment (getting teachers to schools)
• Utilisation (multigrade?)
• Management (ensuring attendance, and quality)