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Teacher Absence in the Developing World
In South Africa the problem of teacher absence is so bad that frustrated students rioted when teachers repeatedly failed to show up for class. But the problem is not limited to South Africa, teachers are absent throughout the developing world. Spot checks by the World Bank, for example, indicate that on a typical day 11% of teachers are absent in Peru, 16% are absent in Bangladesh, 27% in Uganda and 25% in India.
Even when teachers are present they are often not teaching. In India, where a quarter of the teachers are absent on any particular day, only about half of those present are actually teaching. (These are national averages, in some states the problem is worse.)
The problem is not low salaries. Salaries for public school teachers in India are above the norm for that country. Indeed, if anything, absenteeism increases with salary (and it is higher in public schools than in private schools, despite lower wages in the latter). The problem is political power, teacher unions, and poor incentives.
Teachers are literate and they vote so they are a powerful political force especially where teacher unions are strong. As if this were not enough, in India, the teachers have historically had a guarantee of representation in the state Legislative Councils so political power has often flowed to teachers far in excess of their numbers. As a result, it's virtually impossible to fire a teacher for absenteeism.
The situation in South Africa is not that different than in India. The NYTimes article on South Africa has this to say:
“We have the highest level of teacher unionization in the world, but their focus is on rights, not responsibilities,” Mamphela Ramphele, former vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town, said in a recent speech.
Some reforms are planned in South Africa, including greater monitoring of teacher attendance but this offhand remark suggests the difficulties:
“We must ask ourselves to what extent teachers in many historically disadvantaged schools unwittingly perpetuate the wishes of Hendrik Verwoerd,” [President Zuma] recently told a gathering of principals, implicitly challenging the powerful South African Democratic Teachers’ Union, which is part of the governing alliance (!). (Emphasis added, AT.)
Posted by Alex Tabarrok on September 23, 2009 at 07:41 AM in Economics, Education | Permalink
Comments
I would be good if rich countries like US invest more in NGO's and other organizations to improve the lot of young people in poor countries instead of wasting loads of money on destructive technologies that kill millions of innocent civilians.
Posted by: Sriram at Sep 23, 2009 8:25:15 AM
There are even drunk (primary school) teachers in Africa. See this recent very sad story in Uganda: http://allafrica.com/stories/200908050723.html
As for India, Esther Duflo (about whom Tyler posted yesterday) carried out a randomized experiment in Indian schools and found that teachers do respond to financial incentives.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1141004
Posted by: CuriousEconomist at Sep 23, 2009 8:29:21 AM
We have a similar problem with the teachers' union in New Jersey (the felicitously named New Jersey Education Association).
Posted by: Rich Berger at Sep 23, 2009 8:49:25 AM
I have the impression that other civil servants in poor countries behave the same way. So maybe the problem is not just teachers.
Posted by: spencer at Sep 23, 2009 8:58:08 AM
Oooh. Someone used the word 'invest'.
Personally, I'd say waste. As in waste money collecting the tax. Waste money in deciding where the money was to go. Waste money on setting up the 'programs'. Of course a big building will have to be built and staffed somewhere in the Washington/Boston Yuppie Good Idea Zone. Then of course we need to recruit and staff the NGO's. They'll all need health care, training schools, each country will need administration buildings, staff. ( Anyone seen any improvement yet?).
Now about five years into this money flushing exercise, but good for lefty yuppie graduates of worthless, but expensive lefty schools and, ahem, 'disciplines', we will have our first study on 'effectiveness'. This will start a few years of back and forth amongst secular lefty do-gooder faithful. ( Still no kids really educated who were first 10 when the boondoggle started and now 17 and out of 'school'.)
By now the NGO is fully versed in buying political support, hiring the useless lefty daughters and sons so they can drink, have sex and get paid and get lefty do-good moralizing awards in some tropical local, driving Toyota Land Rovers, wearing Pantagonia and hitting My Face on their Appple laptops.
.......
I could go on.
Posted by: Paul at Sep 23, 2009 8:59:00 AM
I'm currently reading James Tooley's "The Beautiful Tree" which tells the story of back-alley private schools for the poor in India and Africa, not financed by governments or NGOs, but by parents themselves. You can read a nice review of the book here:http://www.city-journal.org/2009/bc0619lj.html
A fascinating book!
Posted by: CuriousEconomist at Sep 23, 2009 9:10:43 AM
This is not limited to the developing world. This is pretty much how schools operate in poor urban areas in the United States. In Detroit schools, only 25% of students graduate high school, and out of those who graduate only half have basic literacy skills, despite education being as well funded as most schools in Western Europe, and being better funded than schools in all but the most wealthy local suburbs. Yet it is pretty much political suicide to say there is any problem other than insufficient funding... and you will be attacked for "not supporting public education" if you imply any other government-funded alternative or even support basic literacy tests for teachers (Yes, the teachers unions are opposed to basic literacy tests for teachers!!! They are worried that too many of their members are functionally illiterate!!!). I would go as far to say that students in India are more literate in English than the majority of Detroit high school students.
What surprises me though, is not how well the teachers unions have the political system gamed, but how well they have managed to brainwash the general public... How many people here will defend the teachers and unions in a place like Detroit, and will present a system like school vouchers as some conspiracy to deny poor kids education (something that the teachers unions are already doing a fantastic job at doing without vouchers!). Watch the rabid teachers union supports chime in, and I doubt any are actually teachers.
Posted by: Vehical Driver at Sep 23, 2009 9:24:31 AM
We have a similar problem here. In my years in school it was amazing to me how often teachers were out and we had substitutes. You do not see anything close to that level of absenteeism in private enterprise.
Posted by: Floccina at Sep 23, 2009 9:24:59 AM
How true Paul!
Imagine if all those resources we've spent over the years were spent and directed by industrious entrepreneur types.
Imagine even more if there was some money to be made!
Posted by: Jason at Sep 23, 2009 9:26:47 AM
Funny, when he mentioned "destructive technologies that kill millions of innocent civilians" I thought he was referring to teachers' unions.
Posted by: jjj at Sep 23, 2009 9:56:10 AM
Teacher absence in the developing world? How about teacher absence in the developed world? Yes, that's right folks, right here in the good old USA, in Chicago, kids are a month into school and still don't have teachers.
http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=36930
Posted by: Zarik at Sep 23, 2009 10:21:21 AM
Although, I do not know what the absenteeism rate is for Mexico, it is widespread, too. There are other similarities. The leader of the National Union of Education Workers (the largest union in Latin America) was paramount in getting Felipe Calderón elected; her son-in-law was correspondingly appointed Education Under-Secretary; the Union receives, besides their members'fees, very important amounts of money from Mexico's Federal Government, etc.
Posted by: Fernando at Sep 23, 2009 10:22:23 AM
Education is too important to be trusted to government and unions.
Posted by: Al Brown at Sep 23, 2009 10:24:29 AM
Besides the problem with the quality of teachers there are numerous other problems in South African schools. There is a lack of decent pre-school education in townships. Children must start grade 1 in the year they turn seven and there is a specific set of abilities that they are expected to have the day they start school. In good schools children are helped with extra therapies but parents have to pay for these themselves. This is obviously something that can only happen in wealthier schools. A lot of children start school and they are behind already.
Another problem is the lack of mother tongue education. There are eleven official languages in our country but township children are mostly taught in English by people who are second language speakers themselves and who have varying levels of competency in the language. There is compelling research indicating that children do better when their education is in the language spoken at home. It seems like common sense really - if you cannot understand a language how can you learn anything in it? Lobby groups for mother tongue education are mostly from the Afrikaans communities and unfortunately the issue has become very politicised. The education department sees this as the Afrikaner trying to keep some government schools mostly white. Some Afrikaans schools are forced to change to English (or to provide it as another instruction medium) with no extra support from the education department and the issue is now playing out in the courts as a constitutional issue.
I could go on. How our tertiary institutions are affected, the drop in standards, the low matric pass requirements, how a lot of township kids work hard and pass and still can't find work, 20 year olds that go to school with much younger children, the high levels of crime. It is overwhelming for us who live here even though some of us can afford private schools for our children. I don't think that more money from rich countries would solve the problem. The system is broken and I think communities within our country must start insisting that government govern better.
A book called 'Toxic Mix' by Graeme Bloch that looks at the issues in our education system was recently published. I haven't read it yet myself but thought you may want to look at it.
http://nb.book.co.za/blog/2009/09/21/graeme-bloch-launches-the-toxic-mix-at-kalk-bay-books/
Posted by: Stephni at Sep 23, 2009 11:48:05 AM
I second recommending James Tooley. Here's a link to a Cato podcast with him:
http://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=6015
I'm surprised that Tyler didn't mention him in his post, since his work seems to be the response to this problem.
Posted by: kebko at Sep 23, 2009 11:57:42 AM
here in bklyn if only 1 class per day(1/7) is taught by a sub that constitutes success...14% per day. However this number is sure to go up. Why?? No less than 20% percent of teachers r pregnant. They'll all be taking extended leaves on nyc's dime. Teacher sick days always come around other holidays. ALWAYS. No wonder the city pays Joel Klein's(NYC schools chancellor) kids tuition to attend private schools. Nice to see Randi Weingarten on tour with Obama. School choice in DC? Dead on arrival. Where do Obama's girls go to school??
Posted by: jm at Sep 23, 2009 12:48:20 PM
Paul,
one such lefty do-gooder blogs here, under the name Tyler Cowen.
Posted by: sandre at Sep 23, 2009 1:00:18 PM
Big city schools are generally stressful and have crappy labor-management relations.
Here in our ordinary Boston suburb, absenteeism runs about 4% (lowest in September, highest in May). The principal gets really annoyed is you're "sick" around a long weekend.
Posted by: Roger Sweeny at Sep 23, 2009 3:09:49 PM
A lot more of it has to do with salaries and other perks than you think. In Malawi, drivers can earn the same or greater salaries than rural teachers - I met one once. He said to me:
"Why would I remain a teacher? Before, I was stuck in one place. Now I can see all of the country and other countries as well, and get paid more!"
Posted by: Matt at Sep 23, 2009 5:17:50 PM
Even when teachers are present they are often not teaching ... The problem is not low salaries ... The problem is political power, teacher unions, and poor incentives.
Hey, just like New York City.
It looks like there are some universals in politics.
Posted by: Jim Glass at Sep 23, 2009 8:12:50 PM
Wow, students who actually want to learn and are angry at the attitude of the teachers. Something must done to resolve this problem....
Posted by: externe festplatte at Sep 24, 2009 4:31:59 AM
Why do the others show up? I'm not being sarcastic. It seems like the "rich" country options are to say "hey, teachers, show up to work." That may not be effective. The other option is to toss them some money and hope that the bulk of it gets to the teachers that show up for showing up. Again, sketchy.
It seems like a Montessori model is the solution. You can say you don't favor a Montessori model, but I've come to the conclusion that grad school (at least in engineering) is basically a Montessori model. So, why is it good for US grad students (and the undergrads they often teach)? You can say that I'm wrong about that, but, well, I don't think so. You can say that the Montessori model won't work for young children, but it was designed for young children. You can say that the Montessori model won't work for other cultures, but the Prussian model isn't working for them either. In fact, I'd bet they are already implementing a Montessori system by necessity if not design, just like US grad school.
Posted by: Andrew at Sep 24, 2009 5:01:56 AM
Education is vital to any country, especially to a developing one whose human capital will determine and shape the direction of its future, whether toward prosperity and well-being, or poverty and perdition. So, it is frustrating to discover within this survey, posted on the website of the School Choice Campaign, a flagship project of the Centre for Civil Society to bring about reforms in schools in India, a high rate of attrition among teachers in the developing world, which averages about 19% across the countries studied. The authors of this study, ‘Missing in Action: Teacher and Health Worker Absence in Developing Countries,” examine the many causes for such absences. Topping off the list is the state of working conditions (or the quality of infrastructure), especially in rural areas, that plays a major role in a teacher’s decision whether or not to teach that particular day: “This finding is consistent with the idea that teachers and health workers are extremely unlikely to be fired for absence, but that their decisions about whether to go to work are influenced by the working conditions they face.” To correct these problems, the authors recommend the following: increased local control in terms of giving local institutions the power to hire and fire teachers; improve the existing civil service system; experiment with systems, and offering access to school vouchers wherein parents decide on how to spend public money and can choose among schools within both public and private school systems.
Posted by: webcams at Sep 24, 2009 6:20:44 AM
I am a high school economics teacher and I get very frustrated by public school bashing. I support Free Market economics, but it is not a religion. It is okay to have some tax supported institutions.
180 days of work...I wish. For the past two summers, I have kept track of the number of hours I worked as a teacher. I took the number of hours and divided by 8 to get the number of work days. I have worked 50 and 48 days for the last two summers. Why do some people refuse to give credit to teachers for their work outside of the contract time?
I am currently looking at the time I work outside of the contact for this school year. I am excited to have data to refute the tired idea that teachers only work 9 months out of the year. On average, I work about 50 hours per week during the school year.
The most ignorant comment I have read on this topic: "Now, dumb students become teachers." I don’t know how to respond. Maybe because I am dumb.
Posted by: Eric in PA at Sep 24, 2009 3:31:31 PM
Eric,
You should take it easy. As I understand the union's position, there is no way measure your performance or to reward or punish you based on merit. You ought to cut back by about 20 hours a week. There should be several mentors at the school who can show you how to do it.
Posted by: kebko at Sep 24, 2009 6:14:39 PM
