Getting the Right Teachers into the Right Schools: Managing India's Teacher Workforce

by Vimala Ramachandran, Tara Béteille, Toby Linden, Sangeeta Dey, Sangeeta Goyal

Overview

India's landmark Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (2009) guarantees education to all children aged 6-14 years. The Act mandates specific student-teacher ratios and emphasizes teacher quality. Writing this into legislation took seven years, but the seven years since has proven that ensuring effective teachers are recruited and placed in all schools in a time-bound manner is considerably more challenging. This report takes a detailed look at the complexity of the teacher management landscape in elementary and secondary schools in nine Indian states. On a daily basis, the administrative machinery of these states has to manage between 19,000 to nearly a million teachers in different types of schools and employment contracts, and cope with recruiting thousands more and distributing them equitably across schools. This report examines the following issues: official requirements for becoming a schoolteacher in India; policies and processes for teacher recruitment, deployment and transfers; salaries and benefits of teachers; professional growth of teachers; and grievance redressal mechanisms for teachers. For the first time in India, this report compares and contrasts stated policy with actual practice in teacher management in the country, using a combination of primary and secondary data. In so doing, the report reveals the hidden challenges and the nature of problems faced by administrators in attempting to build an effective teacher workforce which serves the needs of all of India's 200 million school children. The report examines states with varying characteristics, thus generating knowledge and evidence likely to be of interest to policy makers and practitioners in a wide range of contexts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781464809880
Publisher:	World Bank Publications
Publication date:	12/04/2017
Series:	World Bank Studies
Sold by:	INDEPENDENT PUB GROUP - EPUB - EBKS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	290
File size:	20 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

Table of Contents

Foreword xiii

Acknowledgments xv

About the Authors xvii

Executive Summary xix

Abbreviations xxxix

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

Background 1

The Scope 3

What We Did Not Set Out to Do 6

Methodology 7

Structure of the Book 9

Notes 10

Chapter 2 School Teachers in India: A Descriptive Analysis 11

Introduction 11

Teaching Workforce: The Current Scenario 12

Elementary Teacher Workforce: Trends in Size and Growth 17

Elementary Teachers, by Type of Management 18

Secondary Teachers: Government versus Aided Schools 21

Elementary Teachers, by Type of Employment 22

Inclusiveness 23

Pupil-Teacher Ratio: Trends 27

Educational Qualifications 36

Data Gaps 36

Conclusion 39

Annex 2A: Data and Methodology 39

Notes 40

Chapter 3 Who Can Become a Teacher? 43

Introduction 43

National-Level Regulations 43

State-Level Regulations and Policies for Teacher Recruitment in the Nine States 48

Reservation Policies for Recruitment 53

Language Requirement 55

Criteria for Merit list Preparation 55

Conclusion 57

Notes 57

Chapter 4 Teacher Recruitment 59

Introduction 59

Teacher Recruitment: Direct and Indirect 59

Minimum Standards for Becoming a Teacher 63

Terms of Recruitment: Regular and Contract Teachers 67

Reversal of the Trend of Hiring Contract Teachers 69

Recruitment Process 71

Description of the Karnataka Recruitment Process 73

Summing Up 81

Notes 82

Chapter 5 Teacher Deployment and Transfers 85

Introduction 85

Initial Deployment 88

Transfer Policy and Practice 89

Who Initiates Transfers? 90

Who Can Be Transferred, Why, and by Whom? 91

Deputation, Another Form of Transfer 95

Good Practices That Could Show the Way 95

Summing Up 104

Notes 105

Chapter 6 Salaries and Benefits 107

Expenditure on Elementary Education in India: A Brief Snapshot 107

Comparison of Salaries across States 108

Other Monetary and Nonmonetary Benefits 113

Conclusion 118

Notes 119

Chapter 7 Teachers in School 121

Roles and Responsibilities: Day-to-Day Management 121

Roles and Responsibilities of Teachers 121

Non-Teaching Functions 123

Support, Feedback, or Inspection? 125

Accountability 126

Induction and Orientation 127

Challenges Faced in Discharging Roles and Responsibilities 128

Roles of Contract/Para Teachers 133

Roles and Challenges of School Leaders 133

Summing Up 135

Notes 136

Chapter 8 Professional Growth of Teachers 137

Introduction 137

Promotions 137

Professional Development and In-Service Training 142

Evaluation of Teacher Performance 147

Conclusion 151

Notes 151

Chapter 9 Grievance Redressal Mechanisms 153

Introduction 153

Teacher Grievance Redressal Mechanisms Established by State Education Departments 154

Grievance Redressal through the Courts 159

The Way Forward 167

Annex 9A Data Sources and Their Limitations 170

Notes 171

Chapter 10 Unanswered Questions 173

Overview 173

Intent and Outcome 174

What Constitutes Policy? 176

Enabling Circumstances for Clear Policy and Transparent Processes 177

Role of Teachers' Unions in Influencing Policy 179

Roots of Administrative Inefficiencies 179

Performance Appraisal versus Assured Career Progression 180

What Role Do Teachers' Associations and Unions Play? 181

Downstream and Upstream Impact of the Teacher Eligibility Tests 182

Equity, Inclusion, and Gender 182

Pre-Service Training 183

Do Teacher Policies Result in More Effective Teachers? 183

Conclusion 185

Notes 185

Chapter 11 Some Ideas to Take Forward 187

Overarching Message 187

Streamlined and Transparent Recruitment and Deployment 188

Easy Access to Support Structures for Teachers 188

Incentives for Effort and Performance 190

Accountability and Feedback on Performance 190

Robust Teacher Information System 191

Appendix A Political Economy of Teacher Reforms in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu 193

Appendix B Teacher Transfer Technology in Karnataka 229

Bibliography 241

Boxes

1.1 Areas, Issues, and Questions Explored 5

4.1 High Court Decision on Vidyarthi Mitra in Rajasthan 68

5.1 Glimpses of Teacher Transfers in Nine States 92

Figures

2.1 Year-on-Year Growth of Elementary Schools, Teachers, and Students, All-India 17

2.2 Year-on-Year Growth in Number of Elementary Teachers, by Management, All-India 20

2.3 Year-on-Year Growth in Number of Elementary Schools, by Management, All-India 20

2.4 Percentage of Aided and Government Secondary Schools Operating above Capacity 21

2.5 Percentage or Aided and Government Secondary Schools with Six Basic Infrastructure Components 22

2.6 Percentage of Elementary Teaching Workforce Comprising Para/Contract Teachers, All Elementary Schools 23

2.7 Number and Percentage of Women Teachers, All-India, Elementary 24

2.8 Percentage of Women Teachers, States, All Elementary Schools 24

2.9 Percentage of SC and ST Teachers, All-India, All Elementary Schools 25

2.10 Percentage of SC Teachers in 2010-11 and 2011-12, All Elementary Schools, Compared with the Percentage of SC Population as per Census 2011 26

2.11 Percentage of ST Teachers in 2010-11 and 2011-12, All Elementary Schools, Compared with the Percentage of ST Population as per Census 2011 26