Teachers are one of the most important inputs for learning, but in many low-income countries they are poorly distributed between schools. This paper discusses the case of Malawi, which has introduced new evidence-based policies and procedures to improve the equity and efficiency of the allocation of teachers to schools. The analysis finds that adherence to these policies has been highly variable between the country’s districts, with the most successful deploying 75 percent of teachers according to the rules and the least successful just 22 percent. Using administrative data, the paper identifies the impacts on student repetition rates of reductions in pupil–qualified teacher ratios as a result of the new teachers. The findings show that schools that moved from having more than 90 pupils per qualified teacher to a lower ratio experienced reductions in lower primary school repetition rates of 2–3 percentage points. However, similar impacts on dropout are not observed.
Authors
Asim, Salman, Gera, Ravinder Casley, Moreno, Martin, Wong, Kerry
- Citation
- “ Asim, Salman ; Gera, Ravinder Casley ; Moreno, Martin ; Wong, Kerry . 2024 . Can Targeted Allocation of Teachers Improve Student Learning Outcomes? Evidence from Malawi . Policy Research Working Paper; 10844 . © Washington, DC: World Bank . http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41879 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO . ”
- Collection(s)
- Policy Research Working Papers
- DOI
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-10844
- Identifier externaldocumentum
- 34362915
- Identifier internaldocumentum
- 34362915
- Pages
- 30
- Published in
- United States of America
- Region country
- Malawi
- RelationisPartofseries
- Policy Research Working Paper; 10844
- Report
- WPS10844
- Rights
- CC BY 3.0 IGO
- Rights Holder
- World Bank
- Rights URI
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/
- UNIT
- Education AFR 1 (HAEE1)
- URI
- https://hdl.handle.net/10986/41879
- date disclosure
- 2024-07-16
- region administrative
- Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE)
- theme
- Disaster Risk Management,Disaster Response and Recovery,Disability,Gender,Human Development and Gender,Education Facilities,Social Protection,Social Development and Protection,Access to Education,Education Financing,Urban and Rural Development,Teachers,Education Governance, School-Based Management,Education
Files
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction 5
- 2. Rules-based targeting of new teachers to schools 7
- Maximizing the efficiency of allocation rules 8
- T1: One teacher per grade 8
- T2: Allocation to schools with high PTRs 8
- Estimating need under the revised rules 9
- 3. How well did teacher allocation match the modified rules? 12
- Total deployment at the national level 12
- Allocation of teachers to districts 12
- Allocation of teachers to schools 13
- Share of need met at the school level 15
- 4. Impact of teacher allocation on school staffing 16
- Teacher headcounts 16
- PTR change 17
- 5. Impact of improved staffing on student outcomes 18
- Repetition 20
- Dropout 22
- Robustness checks 23
- 6. Conclusion 23
- 7. References 25
- 8. Tables 27
