Focusing on teacher quality in

Pakistan: urgency for reform

(draws from various recent pieces of work)
Monazza Aslam
Senior Research Associate ASER
Pakistan

Introduction
This talk will focus on the importance of
teachers and an examination into their
effectiveness in producing valuable
student outcomes.

Why? to underpin equity, efficiency and

effectiveness in the delivery of teacher
services in the country.

Current status of teacher quality in South Asia.

What does teacher quality encompass?

What does it mean when we talk about teacher
quality?
Why is it important?
How does Pakistan fare in comparison to other SAR
countries?

Dig deeper

Look specifically at the teacher labour market;

Deployment;
teacher salaries;
accountability.

What makes an effective teacher?

teacher competence
Measuring competence;
SchoolTELLS-Pakistan
Look into teacher competence linked to effective inservice and pre-service training needs for Pakistan.

The Why of teacher quality

Universally recognised that variations in teacher effectiveness
are important determinants of differences in school quality
(Hanushek and Woessmann, 2011).
Poor quality schooling is one of the key factors documented to
lie behind educational failures in the South Asia region stems from a combination of factors but substandard teaching
cited as the foremost reason contributing to poor schooling
quality across the developing world.
This is especially worrying because poor instruction and
ineffective teaching reduces the demand for education which
in turn reduces the pool of qualified teachers creating a
vicious circle of poor quality schooling.
Research now confirms that improving weak teaching may be
the most effective means of raising school quality across the
developing world (Glewwe and Kremer, 2006, p. 995).

What makes a quality teacher?

Quality encompasses a range of competencies and skills.
Teacher quality in the very narrow sense of the term can be defined
as a teachers ability to produce growth in student achievement
(Eide et al. 2004).
Despite initial research to the contrary, it is now recognized that
schools do make a difference in determining student outcomes and
a growing body of research acknowledges that teacher quality is
probably the most important institutional influence on
student outcomes (Goldhaber 1999, Hanushek 2002, Slater
2009).
But research on teacher observables has also shown mixed results.
Measuring teacher quality is problematic achievement
production functions linking observable T characteristics to student
outcomes or fixed effects measuring teacher quality (US studies
mostly).

Evidence from South Asia

Very few quality studies to date in the SA region that measure
teacher quality and effectiveness.
Ones that do (Kingdon and Teal 2008, Aslam and Kingdon 2012)
find that standard resum characteristics of teachers on which
recruitment and pay policies of a large number of teachers
(especially in government schools) are based, do not matter to
student learning.
Study by Aslam and Kingdon (2012) finds evidence that the
teaching process and teaching styles such as lesson planning and
interactive teaching matter substantially for student learning in
Pakistan.
These considerations suggest that current criteria for recruitment
and remuneration in South Asia and elsewhere that rely on
certification characteristics of teachers are inefficient as they do not
identify or reward the most effective teachers.

Pakistan in comparison with other

countries in SAR
Are more experienced/aged teachers a drain on
public funds? Or do they represent an
experienced workforce?
Is Pakistan facing a shortage of female teachers?
Is ineffective deployment an issue?

Pakistan is reported as a country with shortage of

Countries
with
% of female Countries with
% of female
female teachers
Source:
UNESCOof
2005, cited as Tableteachers
1 in Managing Teachers:
The Centrality
a
shortage
a shortage
of of Teacherteachers
Management to Quality Education. Lessons from Developing Countries, (CfBT, 2008).
female teachers
male teachers

Chad

11

Sri Lanka

79

Togo

12

Botswana

80

Benin

19

Guyana

85

Guinea Bissau

20

Philippines

87

Afghanistan

24

Mongolia

93

Nepal

29

Kyrgyzstan

97

Pakistan

36

Kazakhstan

98

Pakistan Pupil Teacher Ratios from all public schools in 2008-2009

Poor Teacher Deployment: Striking intra-country differences KP vs
Punjab
(Source: Academy of Educational Planning and Management)

Pakistan fares reasonably well in terms of

% of trained teachers in the SAR region
Percentage of
trained
teachers:

Nepal1

Banglades
h1

Bhutan1

Primary

66

54

91

90

97

63*

Lower
secondary

52

57

90

91

98

63*

Secondary

58

50

83

89

98

63*

Upper
secondary

64

42

72

93

86

63*

Note 1: 2008 UIS Data

Note 2: Authors calculations from Statistics on School Education 2007-08
Note 3: Authors calculations from Pakistan Education Statistics 2008-09
Note 4: 2007 UIS data
*Average for all levels.

India2 Pakistan3 Srilanka4

But inequity exists in the distribution of

trained teachers by region and gender
Urban

Rural

Total

Professional
Qualification

Male
%

Female
%

Male
%

Female
%

Male
%

Female
%

P.T.C.

41.3

58.7

62.3

37.7

57.8

42.

C.T.

45.2

54.8

64.0

36.0

58.7

41.3

B.Ed.

49.0

51.0

65.7

34.3

60.7

39.3

M.Ed.
Any other training
Untrained
Not reported

56.8
63.9
57.6
64.7

43.2
36.1
42.4
35.3

71.6
73.5
63.1
82.8

28.4
26.5
36.9
17.2

65.9
71.3
62.2
79.4

34.1
28.7
37.8
20.6

Total

48.2

51.8

65.2

34.8

60.8

39.2

ource: Academy of Educational Planning and Management; Figures for 2008-2009.

Note: This includes schools at all levels from primary to higher secondary. It also includes teachers
at mosque schools. PTC is Primary Teaching Certificate; CT is Certificate of Training; B.Ed. is
Bachelors in Education; M.Ed. is Masters in Education.

What do we know about teacher

effort in SA?
Teacher effort exerted while in school in many
countries of the SAR region is at a pitiably low level,
as measured by very high teacher absence rates.
The problem therefore is not even one of low quality
teaching but one of no teaching at all, for a
significant part of the time (World Bank, 2004).
Teacher absence has been linked with low student
outcomes in a diverse group of countries (Miller et
al. 2007, Clotfelter, Ladd and Vigdor, 2006).

Introducing the SchoolTELLS-Pakistan

data
Undertaken in April- May 2011 with World Bank funding.
Covered 3 districts of Faisalabad, Mianwali & Rahim Yar Khan,
from the province of Punjab. The project covered twenty villages
in each of the three districts and two schools were selected from
each village, comprising a total sample of 120 schools.
The main purpose of this research study was to get reliable indepth data to comprehensively understand the relationship
between student learning levels and factors that can influence
them, such as teachers background, childrens background &
ability, classroom environment and school environments.
Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) or the centre for education and
consciousness was the collaborating entity in Pakistan which also
houses the secretariat for the South Asia Forum for Education
Development (SAFED) that has undertaken the pioneering
initiative of the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)
Pakistan in 2008 and 2010.

Assessing competencies
Learning levels of students from classes 3 and 5 were tested using
student tests, while the student ability or IQ was tested using the Ravens
Progressive Test.
Student background information was collected using a student
questionnaire.
Learning levels of teachers were also measured using a teachers test.
The test was designed in such a way that it tested three main competencies:
1. teachers understanding of the subject-matter from the primary curriculum,
2. their ability to spot student mistakes and
3. their ability to explain content in an effective manner.
Unknown to the teachers and students, some of the questions in the
mathematics and language tests were common for the two groups.
Additional background information was also collected on issues such as
teacher experience, education, affiliation etc. as well as information on
political economy issues (such as union membership) and measures of
teacher effort (time on task, absence etc.).

 Rich information has been gathered on more

than 1500 students and more than 300 teachers
across the 120 schools in Punjab.
One caveat of note is that these data are not
representative of Pakistan as a whole and the
findings from this research are meant to be
informative.

SchoolTELLS: Teacher absence is

high and mainly unexplained
Poor motivation and a lack of accountability
(through credible sanctions and punishment) are said to
be the main reasons for the high rates of absenteeism
observed among teachers in developing countries.
Data from SchoolTELLS-Pakistan from rural Punjab
reveals that on the day of the visit, 11 per cent of the
teachers were reportedly absent. The majority of this
absence was unexplained rather than attributable to
official non-teaching duties. Illness accounted for most of
the explained absences.
The teacher absence rate in private schools, where there
tend to be stricter accountability policies, is 7%. This is
lower than the absence rate of 12% found in Government
schools.

Teacher competence in rural Punjab

Teachers in rural Punjab are substantially
competent? This is unlike similar data that was
collected in India showing worryingly low levels of
teacher competence in these same three aspects of
competence (see Kingdon and Banerjee, 2009).
For example, the average score of all teachers in
Pakistan in the language test was 69.5% while in
mathematics the score was 73.9%.
Another way of looking at this: teachers did not have
100% knowledge of the very content they are
supposed to be teaching their students!

High teacher competency is also not

reflected in higher student learning

Multigrade teaching
Multi-grade teaching has become a common strategy to meet MDG
goals and to deal with issues of teacher shortages and absences
particularly in remote rural areas in several developing countries.
Research on the effects of Multigrade teaching on student learning
to date has shown mixed results (Little 2008).
Several studies report a disadvantage associated with multigrade
teaching (example Kochar (2007) found that students in multigrade settings in Andhra Pradesh in India performed at a lower level
than their counterparts in monograde settings. Rowley (1992) found
that monograde schools in Pakistan showed cognitive differences in
favour of children in monograde schools. Suzukis (2006)
observation of multi-grade settings in Nepal found that one major
negative impact was that for some proportion of the day there was a
group of children who were neglected/ignored with no teacher
taking responsibility for their learning or directing them towards
self-learning during this time.)

SchoolTELLS data reveals

inconsistencies in grade groupings
In the one visit randomly made during the SchoolTELLS survey, data reveal
that 43 percent of the children in primary school were sitting in a monograde
environment.
However, it was also found that in 8 percent of the cases, all five primary
grades were sitting together.
These findings suggest considerable instability in grade-grouping
configurations within the same school year, making it difficult for the teacher
to prepare teaching for a given mix of classes.
This provides one potential explanation for why despite having competent
teachers; students in rural Pakistan have such low levels of learning. Much of
this may stem from frequent teacher absence (as mentioned previously) which
results in ad-hoc-ism about classroom organisation. T
Persistence of multigrade settings in developing countries needs to be
reflected in teaching training courses in order to prepare teachers for this
eventuality.

Teacher Remuneration
The provision of high-quality schooling requires
an adequate supply of competent teachers.
Among the factors that influence this supply,
perhaps the most important are: the salary
offered to teachers, relative earnings offered in
alternative careers and varying non-pecuniary
conditions of work (work load, job stress, status
and satisfaction etc.).

Benchmarking teacher salaries

A. Compare teacher salaries to per capita GDP
how well off is the teacher in comparison to the
average person in a country?
B. Compare teacher salaries to salaries of
(comparable) persons in non teaching jobs;

Furnishing a measure of economic and

social distance
One of the means of benchmarking teacher
wages is to compute the ratio of teacher salaries
as a proportion of GDP per capita/per capita
income in a country.
This ratio tells us how affluent the teacher is,
with respect to the average person in the
country.
Thus, it furnishes a measure of the economic
and social distance between the teacher and the
taught.

Pakistan - Ratio of teacher salary to per capita income (Rupees), by province

Province

Punjab
Sindh
NWFP
Balochistan
Pakistan

Average
monthly
household
income
(2004-2005),
rupees/month*

Average
household
size (1998
Census)x

(a)
9488
10413
9395
8849
9685

(b)
7
6.1
8
6.8
6.9

Estimated
monthly Annual per
per capita
capita
income
income

(c)
1355
1707
1174
1301
1404

(d)
16265
20485
14093
15616
16844

Annual
Teacher
teacher
Annual
salary
salaries in per capita
as
2008+ income in multiple
2008
of per
prices**
capita
income
in 2008

(e)
115172
128624
106572
127070
119480

(f)
22283
28064
19307
21394
23076

(g)
5.2
4.6
5.5
5.9
5.2

Source: * Pakistan Statistical Yearbook (2007), Government of Pakistan, Statistics Division, Federal Bureau of Statistics; x Pakistan Statistical
Yearbook (2007); + We identified teachers using the occupation codes in Pakistan Labour Force Survey (2008). The reported salaries are for
all teachers in government and private school jobs teaching at all levels. ** Column (f) shows column (d) figures inflated to 2008 prices using
the Wholesale Price Index for Pakistan reported in Pakistan Statistical Yearbook (2007).

How does Pakistan compare with India? Select states.

State

Andhra Pradesh
Assam
Bihar
Jharkhand
Gujarat
Jammu and Kashmir
Madhya Pradesh
Chhattisgarh
Maharashtra
Punjab
Rajasthan
Uttar Pradesh
West Bengal
Simple means for states

2008 per capita net

domestic product at
factor cost
(base=1999-2000)*

2008 per capita

net domestic
product in
current (2008)
prices

(a)
27362
16272
10206
16294
19521
33198
19708
12481
24720
23642

(b)
42958
25547
16023
25582
30648
52121
30942
19595
38810
37119

Annual
teacher
salaries in
2008+

(c)
89876
127853
187685
124290
123862
103415
157147
124383
107886
149073
166609
103396
108534
119540

Teacher
salary as
multiple of
per capita
income
in 2008

(d)
2.1
5.0
11.7
4.9
4.1
2.9
5.4
5.3
2.8
4.2

Kingdon (2010)
estimates of teacher
salary/per capita
income 2004**
(e)
2.8
12.4
2.8
3.8
4.5
3.1
4.6
7.3
4.8
5.1

Teacher Pay relative to other occupations

(Source: Authors calculations from Pakistan Labour Force Survey 2000 and 2008)

Pakistan

Teachers
Legislators
Professionals
Associate
Professional
Clerks
Service
workers/shops
Skilled Agriculture
Crafts
Plant/Machine
operators
Elementary
All non-teachers
(weighted average)

2000
Mean Monthly
Ratio of
Salary (in 2005
Teacher
US$) Salary/Salary in
other
occupation
230
351
0.7
314
0.7
253
0.9

2008
Mean Monthly
Ratio of
Salary (in 2005
Teacher
PPP US$) Salary/Salary in
other
occupation
303
384
0.8
360
0.8
303
1.0

239
221

1.0
1.0

300
239

1.0
1.3

170
215
251

1.4
1.1
0.9

234
242
227

1.3
1.3
1.3

172

1.3

179

1.7

257

0.9

277

1.1

SchoolTELLS evidence reaffirms this

SchoolTELLS Pakistan data reveals that the average monthly salary
of a primary school teacher in rural Punjab is Rs. 17,000 as
compared to Rs. 3800 earned by their private school counterparts.
The salary of government schools teachers is roughly more than 6
times as much as the per capita monthly income of the average
person in Punjab. This is likely to be an underestimate of the
multiple as the latter figure includes the earnings of urban workers.
This furnishes a measure of the economic and social distance
between the teacher and the taught as it is believed that the greater
the distance is, the more detrimental it can be to student learning
(see Kingdon and Rawal, 2010).
Salary increases are intended to improve the quality of public
services delivered to citizens. The pay-rises are premised on higher
salaries attracting better individuals into teaching and also on the
idea that higher salaries motivate higher effort while in service, as
per efficiency wage theory.

 However, Kingdon (2010) argues that salary

increases unrelated to performance are not
necessarily efficiency enhancing. This is true in a
system where salaries are linked to a national pay
scale as is the case for teachers as well as the
bureaucracy and military etc. in Pakistan. Even
more importantly, Aslam and Kingdon (2012) also
show that teacher salaries in Lahore are not related
to higher student learning suggesting that simply
raising teachers salaries will not necessarily lead to
an improvement in student achievement.

Aslam and Kingdon (2012)

Estimate education production functions linking student
achievement (1880 + 8th grade students across 65
government and private schools in Lahore), to student,
school and teacher characteristics;
This paper develops the idea that teachers classroom
practices and the teaching process may matter more to
student learning than teachers observed rsum
characteristics (such as certification, qualification and
experience).
There may also be important differences in teacher
characteristics across government and private schools
which may help explain the large documented publicprivate achievement differences often found in studies.

 This paper delves into the black-box representing teaching to

uncover the teacher characteristics and teaching practices that
matter most to pupil achievement. T
The data allow exploitation of an identification strategy that permits
the matching of students test scores in language and mathematics
to the characteristics of teachers that teach those subjects.
Findings reveal that the standard rsum characteristics of
teachers do not significantly matter to pupil achievement.
Perversely, however, teachers are found to be rewarded for
possessing these characteristics highlighting the highly inefficient
nature of teacher pay schedules. Our findings also show that
teaching process variables matter significantly to student
achievement.
There are important differences across school-types teachers in
private schools are seen to adopt practices that enhance pupil
learning.

Conclusions
There is a need to address issues pertaining to all
three aspects equity, efficiency and effectiveness
in the delivery of teaching services in the country.
Have seen inequity in the distribution of trained
teachers and ineffective deployment across the
country.
Have also seen the need to develop teacher
competence through effective training.
Multi-grade settings prevail especially in rural
settings and there is a need to acknowledge and
build this reality into teacher training curricula.

Address teacher remuneration issues

The key policy implication is also that teacher
remuneration and tenure should be linked to teacher
performance and effort to increase efficiency within
the schooling system rather than being simply linked
to a mechanical pay scale in a system where jobs for
life are guaranteed without linkages to effort.
This is critical also for rewarding better-performing
teachers who work in extremely difficult conditions
without the most basic materials and infrastructure
and whose work beyond the call of duty engenders a
love for learning and knowledge in the most arduous
situations.