Universal Primary Education in Africa: The Teacher Challenge

Universal Primary Education in Africa: The Teacher Challenge

The authors This publication has been drawn up by the Pôle de Dakar education sector analysis team within the UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Africa (BREDA). The editorial team comprised: Mr Jean-Pierre Jarousse, Coordinator Mr Jean-Marc Bernard, Advisor in support to countries Mr Kokou Améléwonou, Education policy analyst Ms Diane Coury, Education policy analyst Ms Céline Demagny, Intern Mr Borel Anicet Foko Tagne, Education policy analyst Mr Guillaume Husson, Education policy analyst Ms Blandine Ledoux, Education policy analyst Ms Julia Mouzon, Education policy analyst Mr André Francis Ndem, Education policy analyst Mr Nicolas Reuge, Education policy analyst Nota Bene The analysis and policy recommendations presented in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UNESCO. UNESCO-BREDA publication number ISBN 978-92-9091-099-2 Photography All photographs are by Thierry Bonnet [www.thierrybonnet.com] except: Front cover, pages 6 and 13: byreg' Page 148: Mario Bels [www.bels-mario.com] Graphic design and layout Mr Régis L Hostis, Dakar Printing La Rochette, Dakar Translation French English Ms Marjorie Leach, Montpellier Proofreading Ms Katia Vianou, Dakar

summary P15 P23 P24 P24 P25 P26 P28 P29 P31 P32 P33 P33 P34 Introduction Chapter 1 Educational demand and teacher needs 1. Factors at the source of teacher demand 1.1. Trends and status of schooling coverage 1.2. Demographic trends: a significant influence on demand yet extremely variable from one country to another 1.3. Schooling coverage and demographic growth: different situations from country to country 1.4. Impact of repetition policies 1.5. Pupil-teacher ratios 1.6. Needs related to the dynamics of the teaching force: attrition 1.7. Contribution of the private sector to the development of primary education 2. Projections and estimations of teacher needs 2.1. Model and assumptions 2.2. Results 6 Universal Primary Education in Africa: The Teacher Challenge

P43 P45 P45 P46 P47 P51 P51 P53 P57 P57 P60 P61 P63 P63 P65 P70 Chapter 2 Teacher salaries and the expansion of education: a fundamental link 1. Teacher salary level, a key parameter of educational policy 1.1. A factor that cannot be ignored due to its weight in the budget 1.2. The degree of education system coverage is closely connected to salary policy 1.3. An average salary cost resulting from a trade-off on the combination of factors that contribute to learning 2. Trends in salary and teacher recruitment 2.1. The downward trend in relative salaries of teachers 2.2. Budget austerity and large increase in status categories: explanations for the fall in real salary alongside the pace of teacher recruitment 3. Current situation and evolution of average teacher salary 3.1. High variability in average salary levels from country to country 3.2. A multitude of status categories and salary levels 3.3. A reverse trend in the recent period 4. How relevant are current salaries in making the teaching profession attractive? 4.1. Are there adequate human resources in each country to recruit the future teachers? 4.2. Attractiveness of teacher salary 5. Placing the teaching issue at the heart of educational policy trade-offs Universal Primary Education in Africa: The Teacher Challenge 7

P73 P75 P75 P78 P87 P87 P90 P96 Chapter 3 New teachers and progress in enrolments 1. Political context of the reforms in teacher recruitment 1.1. An enabling context for changes in the composition of the teaching profession 1.2. Transformation and restructuring of the teaching profession in sub-saharan Africa 2. Recruitment of new teachers in Africa: current situation and impact on enrolments 2.1. Recruitment of new teachers: current situation 2.2. General profile of teachers on the African continent: a variety of levels of recruitment and professional training 2.3. Impact of the recruitment of new teachers on enrolments P101 Chapter 4 Which teachers for what kind of learning? P103 1. Observable teacher characteristics and school learning achievements P103 P109 P112 P114 P115 P115 1.1. What is the appropriate academic level for primary school teachers in Africa? 1.2. Teachers' professional training in question 1.3. Does status make the teacher? 1.4. The role of teacher experience 1.5. Female teachers perform just as well as male teachers 1.6. Querying the teacher's role in the learning process P117 2. The teacher at the epicentre of the interactive learning process P122 3. Management issues 8 Universal Primary Education in Africa: The Teacher Challenge

P125 Chapter 5 Towards an overall vision of teacher matters P127 1. Teacher recruitment P127 1.1. Some considerations for the recruitment and selection of future teachers P131 1.2. Direct recruitment P133 2. The challenge of teacher training P133 2.1. Developing and enhancing pre-service training P135 2.2. Training untrained teachers already in posts P137 3. Improving coherence in teacher allocation to schools P138 3.1. Coherence in teacher deployment throughout the territory P146 3.2. Teacher deployment issues P150 3.3. Addressing the challenge of assigning teachers to disadvantaged areas P155 4. Teacher absenteeism P155 4.1. Empirical elements on teacher absenteeism P156 4.2. The main causes of teacher absenteeism P160 4.3. How can absenteeism and its impact on the education system be reduced? P163 5. Keeping motivated teachers in the education system P163 5.1. Teacher motivation P165 5.2. The professional development of teachers P169 6. The need for a global approach to teacher matters P173 Conclusion P181 Appendixes P182 Table A1.1: Annual growth rates in school-age population 2005-2015 and 2015-2020 P184 Table A1.2: Assumptions underlying existing models of projected teacher needs P186 Table A1.3: Annual needs for new teachers P188 Table A1.4: Teaching force P190 References Universal Primary Education in Africa: The Teacher Challenge 9

List of graphs P24 Graph 1.1. Primary school access and completion in Africa, 2006 (or closest year) P28 Graph 1.2 Average repetition (%) in primary education, 2006 (or closest year) P30 Graph 1.3 Evolution in pupil-teacher ratio according to the level of primary school completion, 2006 (or closest year) P34 Graph 1.4 Numbers of (public and private) teachers at different points in time, according to the group of countries P37 Graph 1.5 Past growth in teacher numbers compared to anticipated growth P45 Graph 2.1 Share of primary teacher payroll in current public expenditure on primary education, 2004 or nearest year (%) P51 Graph 2.2 Teacher salary in 1975 (GDP per capita) P53 Graph 2.3 Variations in average primary school teacher salary in Africa (GDP per capita) P54 Graph 2.4 Changes in average teacher salary (GDP per capita) in 15 French-speaking African countries and teacher recruitment flows P57 Graph 2.5 Average primary school teacher salary financed either totally or partially by governments in Africa (GDP per capita, 38 countries, 2004 or closest year) P59 Graph 2.6 Average salary of public primary school teachers (GDP per capita), according to the level of income per capita in their country (38 countries, 2004 or closest year) P60 Graph 2.7 Teacher salary (GDP per capita) according to status, in several French-speaking African countries (2004 or closest year) P61 Graph 2.8 Teacher salary (GDP per capita) according to qualifications, in several English-speaking African countries (2004 or closest year) P69 Graph 2.9 Salary gap between teachers in the public sector and other categories of workers, comparable in terms of professional experience and duration of schooling (Mali, 2004) P89 Graph 3.1 Progression of the proportion of non-civil servant teachers compared to the total number of teachers managed and paid by the government in 3 French-speaking African countries between 2002 and 2006 (or closest years) P96 Graph 3.2 Progress in the proportion of trained primary school teachers in Uganda (%), 2003-2006 P98 Graph 3.3 Estimation of increase in enrolments (in %) due to the recruitment of non-civil servant teachers paid by the government, for 21 African countries P108 Graph 4.1 Proportion of teachers not reaching levels 7 and 8 in SACMEQ tests P118 Graph 4.2 The influence of the different categories of factors in the learning process in 10 sub-saharan African countries P138 Graph 5.1 Relationship between the number of pupils and the number of civil servant teachers in primary schools in Burkina Faso 10 Universal Primary Education in Africa: The Teacher Challenge

List of tables P27 Table 1.1 Country situations with regard to growth in school-age population and primary school completion P29 Table 1.2 Estimation of expected savings in teacher needs according to different scenarios on repetition for the UPE horizon of 2020 P31 Table 1.3 Estimated attrition for several countries according to different sources P32 Table 1.4 Percentage of enrolments in private education according to primary completion rates P36 Table 1.5 Average annual growth in teacher numbers, by group of countries and sub-periods P37 Table 1.6 Teacher needs, by group of countries and sub-periods P39 Table 1.7 Situation per country with regard to the average effort to be made on recruitment in order to achieve UPE and pattern of this effort over the period P49 Table 2.1 Impact of salary policy choices and choices of goods and services on the pupil-teacher ratio, for a given unit cost (600 MU) P50 Table 2.2 Characteristics and cost of public primary school organisation in sub-saharan Africa (2004 or closest year) P64 Table 2.3 Estimation of the number of potential candidates (young people between the age of 25 and 34) for teaching positions in primary school and the average annual number of new teaching positions P66 Table 2.4 Average structure of employment in sub-saharan African countries (2004 or closest year) P66 Table 2.5 Annual income (GDP per capita) of individuals aged between 25 and 34 who have completed lower or upper secondary education, according to employment sector P88 Table 3.1 Distribution (in %) of primary school teachers according to status and level of salary per status in 14 African countries P89 Table 3.2 Distribution (in %) of primary school teachers between trained teachers and hardly trained or untrained teachers and salary level in 7 African countries P91 Table 3.3 Academic level of teachers in 6 Frenchspeaking countries and 8 English-speaking countries (as a %) based on samples P92 Table 3.4 Academic level of teachers according to status in 5 French-speaking countries P94 Table 3.5 Duration of initial professional training according to status on the basis of PASEC samples (in %) P95 Table 3.6 Duration of initial professional training in 10 non-french-speaking countries based on SACMEQ samples (in %) P97 Table 3.7 Estimation of annual enrolment benefit resulting from diversification of recruitment in 20 African countries P107 Table 4.1 Percentage of teachers per level of skills in English P120 Table 4.2 Results of studies on class-effects in the USA and France Universal Primary Education in Africa: The Teacher Challenge 11

List of tables P134 Table 5.1 Some characteristics of the pre-service training system for teachers in some English-speaking countries P136 Table 5.2 Characteristics of training for untrained teachers (distance and work-based learning) P140 Table 5.3 Share of primary teacher allocation not attributable to the number of pupils (1-R 2 ) in 15 African countries (years between 2002 and 2007) P142 Table 5.4 Variation in pupil-teacher ratios at provincial level for some sub-saharan African countries P143 Table 5.5 Average pupil-teacher ratio by province and coherence of teacher allocation within provinces in Burkina Faso P157 Table 5.6 Percentage of teachers with a secondary activity in some PASEC countries P164 Table 5.7 Indication of teacher satisfaction in French-speaking Africa List of boxes and maps P35 Box 1.1 Assumptions made for the model P48 Box 2.1 Breakdown of public unit cost P68 Box 2.2 Progress in the salary of teachers during their career in four countries P81 Box 3.1 The example of Senegal: a pioneer in the reform of the recruitment of primary school teachers P86 Box 3.2 Conclusions of the Bamako Conference on non-civil servant teachers, November 2004 P145 Box 5.1 Specificities of rural areas P141 Map 5.1 Pupil-teacher ratios (PTR) with and without community teachers in Benin, 2005-2006 12 Universal Primary Education in Africa: The Teacher Challenge

Universal Primary Education in Africa: The Teacher Challenge 13