Moving Teachers to Malawi's Remote Communities : A Data-Driven Approach to Teacher Deployment
There are severe geographical disparities in pupil-teacher ratios (PTR) across Malawi, with most teachers concentrated near commercial centers and in rural schools with better amenities. Most of the variation in PTR is concentrated in small sub-dis...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/286131511361864175/Moving-teachers-to-Malawis-remote-communities-a-data-driven-approach-to-teacher-deployment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28914 |
| Summary: | There are severe geographical
disparities in pupil-teacher ratios (PTR) across Malawi,
with most teachers concentrated near commercial centers and
in rural schools with better amenities. Most of the
variation in PTR is concentrated in small sub-district
areas, suggesting a central role for micro-geographic
factors in teacher distribution. Employing administrative
data from several government sources, regression analysis
reveals that school-level factors identified by teachers as
desirable are closely associated with PTR, including access
to roads, electricity, and water, and distance to the
nearest trading center, suggesting a central role for
teachers' interests in PTR variation. Political economy
network mapping reveals that teachers leverage informal
networks and political patronage to resist placement in
remote schools, while administrative officials are unable to
stand up to these formal and informal pressures, in part
because of a lack of reliable databases and objective
criteria for the allocation of teachers. This study curates
a systematic database of the physical placement of all
teachers in Malawi and links it with data on school
facilities and geo-spatial coordinates of commercial
centers. The study develops a consistent and objective
measure of school remoteness, which can be applied to
develop policies to create rules for equitable deployments
and targeting of incentives. Growing awareness of
disparities in PTRs among district education officials is
already showing promising improvements in targeting of new
teachers. Simulation results of planned policy applications
show significant potential impacts of fiscally-neutral
approaches to targeted deployments of new cohorts, as well
as retention of teachers through data-calibrated incentives. |
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