REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON TEACHER DEPLOYMENT: EXPERIENCE SHARING FOR MORE EFFECTIVE TEACHER MANAGEMENT IN BASIC EDUCATION IN AFRICA - WORKSHOP REPORT ...
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WORKSHOP REPORT
REGIONAL WORKSHOP
ON TEACHER DEPLOYMENT:
EXPERIENCE SHARING FOR MORE
EFFECTIVE TEACHER MANAGEMENT
IN BASIC EDUCATION IN AFRICA
NAIROBI, 17-19 MAY 2017
IIEP Pôle de Dakar
1Table of Contents
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 3
Workshop Agenda ............................................................................................................................ 4
Acronyms and Abbreviations ........................................................................................................... 6
Goals, Dimensions and Challenges ................................................................................................... 7
Section 1: Presentations ............................................................................................................... 9
Session 1: General Presentation of the Teacher Allocation Issue .................................................... 9
Session 2: Country Experiences in Teacher Deployment: Challenges, Lessons Learned and/or
Promising Experiences.................................................................................................................... 13
Session 3: Tools to Support the Management of Teacher Deployment ........................................ 18
Session 4: Perspectives for the Improved Management of Teacher Allocations ........................... 20
Session 5: ........................................................................................................................................ 21
Group Work .................................................................................................................................... 21
Section 2: Challenges, Practices and Tools .................................................................................. 25
Challenges ...................................................................................................................................... 25
Practices and Solutions................................................................................................................... 27
Tools and Success Models .............................................................................................................. 29
Section 3: Perspectives............................................................................................................... 32
Annex: List of Participants .............................................................................................................. 35
International Institute for Educational Planning/Pôle de Dakar (IIEP - UNESCO)
The IIEP/Pôle de Dakar is a platform of expertise in education sector policy analysis. Founded in 2001, it has been providing expertise to
African governments for over 15 years. The Pôle de Dakar’s activities contribute to UNESCO’s support for the development of effective,
feasible, equitable and endogenous education policies in Africa.
The ideas and opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect the points of view of UNESCO or
IIEP.
2Introduction
The Regional Workshop on Teacher Deployment held in Nairobi in May 2017 is the second of its kind
to be organized by UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning, in the context of its
mandate and mission to support effective education policy development in African countries. It built
on the success of the previous workshop, held in Dakar in July 2016, focused on teacher allocation and
management practices in West Africa.
The countries of Central, Eastern and Southern Africa were invited to this workshop. In all, sixteen GPE
member countries were able to attend: (i) 8 francophone countries: Burundi, CAR, Chad, the Comoros,
Djibouti, DRC, Madagascar and Senegal; (ii) 7 anglophone countries: Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda,
Somalia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe; and (iii) 1 lusophone country: Sao Tome and Principe.
Several donors and development partners provided financial support for countries’ participation,
and/or participated directly in the workshop:
- Donors who sponsored the workshop and attended: GPE, who financed country participations
through its partners, such as UNICEF (Burundi, Madagascar, CAR, Sao Tome and Principe),
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC - Chad) and Norwegian Agency for
Development Cooperation (NORAD - Malawi)
- Donors who sponsored the workshop without attending: GIZ/Back Up (Comoros, Rwanda,
Tanzania), UNICEF Djibouti, UNESCO DRC, UNICEF Zimbabwe and UNICEF Chad
- Participating development partners: GPE, French Cooperation Agency, UNICEF ESARO, African
Union, International Education.
- UNESCO, through its Regional Office for Eastern Africa in Nairobi, its Asia and Pacific Regional
Bureau for Education in Bangkok, as well as its House for a Culture of Peace in Bujumbura.
- Of note, Lesotho covered the cost of its participation wholly and directly.
Proceedings
The following African countries made or were covered by plenary presentations: Kenya, Madagascar,
Rwanda and Senegal; Sao Tome and Principe was also spontaneously given the floor. A presentation
of practices in Asia further covered Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos PDR, South Korea and Japan.
Following the panelists presentations, sometime was provided by moderators for participants to ask
questions or discuss the themes covered, on the basis of their own accounts, exchanges and the
comparison of country experiences.
Note. Both the Dakar and Nairobi workshops were based on the findings of the same preliminary
working paper, Teacher Deployment and Utilization in Africa, published by the IIEP/Pôle de Dakar in
May 2016, and in both instances the countries invited to participate were offered the earlier
opportunity to reflect on and share their experiences by completing the same survey. The
organization, approach and agenda of the Nairobi workshop also mirrored that of Dakar.
There is naturally a high level of convergence between the presentations given, issues raised and
debates that took place as a result, which is in turn reflected in the two mirroring workshop reports.
3Workshop Agenda
This agenda reflects the effective sequence of activities, according to the adjustments made
throughout the workshop, which took place in English, French and Portuguese.
Wednesday 17 May 2017
09h00 – 09h30 Opening Ceremony, with the Speeches of:
- Gry ULVERUD – Education Specialist, UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern
Africa
- Jean-Marc BERNARD – Deputy Chief Technical Officer, GPE
- Guillaume HUSSON – Coordinator, UNESCO/IIEP/Pôle de Dakar
- Simon KAVISI – Cabinet Secretary representing the Minister, MINEDUC Kenya
09h30 – 10h00 Presentation of the Workshop Background, Rationale and Objectives, and Adoption
of the Agenda
(Beifith KOUAK-TIYAB – Deputy Coordinator, UNESCO/IIEP/Pôle de Dakar)
10h30 – 13h00 SESSION 1: Overview of the Teacher Allocation Issue in Sub-Saharan Africa
(Moderator: Mamadou NDOYE, Consultant)
- Presentation of the Working Paper (Patrick NKENGNE – Education Policy
Analyst, UNESCO/IIEP/Pôle de Dakar)
- Presentation of the key findings of the analysis of the country questionnaires
(Koffi SEGNIAGBETO – Education Policy Analyst, UNESCO/IIEP/Pôle de Dakar)
- Sharing and discussions
- GPE and the Teacher Deployment Issue (Talia de CHAISEMARTIN and Jean-
Marc BERNARD – GPE)
- Teacher Development in Agenda 2063 and CESA 16-25 (Beatrice NJENGA –
Department of Human Resources, Science and Technology, AU Commission)
- Sharing and discussions
14h00 – 17h30 SESSION 2: Country Experiences in Teacher Deployment: Challenges, Lessons
Learned and/or Promising Experiences
(Moderator: Jean-Marc BERNARD – Deputy Chief Technical Officer, GPE)
- Madagascar’s Experience in Teacher Deployment (Sandrot RABEANDALANA
– HR Director, Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale)
- Teacher Management in Kenya (Mary Rotich - Director of Teacher
Management at Teacher Service Commission )
- Questions and Sharing
Thursday 18 May 2017
09h00 – 11h00 SESSION 2: Country Experiences (Continued)
- Practices in the Asia-Pacific Region on Efficient Teacher Allocation (Akemi
ASHIDA – Programme Officer for Inclusive Quality Education,
UNESCO/Bangkok)
- Decision-Maker Experiences in Recruitment, Deployment and Utilization of
Teachers: Example of Education Volunteer Project in Senegal (Mamadou
NDOYE – Consultant and Former Minister of Basic Education and the
Promotion of Local Languages in Senegal)
- Questions and Sharing
4Thursday 18 May 2017 (Continued)
11h30 – 15h00 SESSION 3: Tools to Support the Management of Teacher Deployment
(Moderator: Gry ULVERUD – Education Specialist, UNESCO/Nairobi)
- Teacher Management Information System - TMIS Rwanda (Claudien
NZITABAKUZE – Deputy Director General, Ministry of Education)
- Integrated Management of Resources Based on Rational Allocations -
MIRADOR in Senegal (Mamadou SONKO - MIRADOR Administrator,
DRH/Ministère de l’éducation nationale)
- Questions and Sharing
15h00 – 16h00 SESSION 4: Perspectives on Teacher Allocation for Better Management
(Moderator: Virgilio JUVANE – Senior Programme Coordinator, UNESCO/IICBA)
- Teacher Deployment and Utilization in Education Planning and Management:
Challenges and Perspectives (Mamadou NDOYE – Consultant and Former
Minister of Basic Education and the Promotion of Local Languages in
Senegal)
- Questions and Sharing
16h00 – 16h30 SESSION 5: Organization of Group Work
(Beifith KOUAK-TIYAB – Deputy Coordinator, IIEP/Pôle de Dakar)
- Distribution of participants into two groups
- Presentation of the theme for each group
- Group 1: Information Systems to Support the Management of Teacher
Allocations
- Group 2: Governance Mechanisms and Transparency in the Teacher
Allocation Process
- Explanation of the instructions and guidelines
Friday 19 May 2017
9h00 – 12h00 SESSION 5 (Continued): Group Work
- Retreat of the groups to carry out the group work
- Finalization of the restitution by the groups’ rapporteurs and presidents
13h30 – 14h30 SESSION 5 (Continued): Restitution of Group Work
(Moderator: Lynne SERGEANT, IIEP-Paris)
- Restitution of each group’s work by the rapporteurs
- Sharing and discussions
14h30 – 16h00 Proposals, recommendations and outlooks for the monitoring of the improvement
of Teacher Deployment
- Workshop Summary (Léonie MARIN, IIPE and Barnaby ROOKE, Consultant)
- Final thoughts (Lucy NJURA BARIMBUI, Education International)
- GPE Perspectives (Talia De CHAISEMARTIN and Jean-Marc BERNARD, GPE)
- IIPE Perspectives (Guillaume HUSSON, IIPE)
- Further thoughts (Beatrice NJENGA, AU Commission)
- Closing remarks (Dinah MWAITA, Teacher Service Commission Kenya)
5Acronyms and Abbreviations
ADEA Association for the Development of Education in Africa
AFD Agence Française de Développement
ANP Assembleia Nacional Popular
AU African Union
CESA Continental Education Strategy for Africa
CAR Central African Republic
CONFEMEN Conférence des ministres de l'Éducation des États et gouvernements de la Francophonie
CSH Centrale Syndicale Humanisme
CSR Country status report
DDC Direction du développement et de la coopération
DPP Direction de la prospective et de la planification
DRC Democratic Republic of Congo
DRH Direction des ressources humaines
EFA Education for All
EMIS Education management and information system
ENI École nationale d’instituteurs
GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit
GMR Global Monitoring Report
GPE Global Partnership for Education
GPI Gender parity index
ICT Information and communication technology
IIEP International Institute for Educational Planning
MEN Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale
MINEDUC Ministry of Education
MOE Ministry of Education
PACTED Pan African Conference on Teacher Education and Development
PASEC Programme d'Analyse des Systèmes Éducatifs de la CONFEMEN
PTR Pupil-teacher ratio
REB Rwanda Education Board
SACMEQ South African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality
SDG Sustainable Development Goals
SSA Sub-Saharan Africa
TMIS Teacher Management Information System
TTI Teacher Training Institute
UIS UNESCO Institute for Statistics
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
UPE Universal primary education
6Goals, Dimensions and Challenges
The Main Goals of the Workshop
- Inform about the need and relevance of paying particular attention to the teacher allocation
issue (beyond the usual aspects of recruitment and training), with a view to improving equity
and efficiency in teacher management;
- Share country experiences and question teacher deployment/allocation systems/
mechanisms, highlighting strengths and weaknesses;
- Exchange and capitalize on good practices and innovative tools for a better management of
teacher allocations, considering national contexts; and
- Disseminate innovative practices and tools to contribute to the development and enrichment
of common “public goods.”
Key Dimensions Covered
The workshop focused mainly on the deployment of teachers; however, the teacher issue being
central to education in general and to the quality of learning in particular, discussions broadened to
encompass several issues in order to reach interrelated perspectives of a set of processes and
parameters related to the topic. In this context, the following dimensions were covered in the course
of the presentations, exchanges and discussions:
- The projection of teacher needs, and the identification of staff gaps to fill
- Recruitment and training
- Deployment and transfers
- Teacher utilization
- Pedagogical management
- Monitoring of attendance and performance
- Intrinsic and external motivation, and the revalorization of the profession
- Professional development and remuneration
- Deontology
- Attrition
Challenges Identified
A number of sector challenges related to the broader teacher issue were highlighted:
- Equity. This dimension is two-faced, as on the one hand teaching must be provided to all
children in comparable conditions, and on the other, all teachers, regardless of their personal
characteristics, must be allowed to work in reasonable conditions. This implies a trade-off.
- Quality. The multidimensional factors impacting learning quality include most of the
dimensions mentioned above, from the learning environment (class size), to teacher profiles
(training), as well as motivation, attendance, etc.
- Efficiency in public spending. In Africa as elsewhere, teacher salaries represent the lion’s share
of education spending. In a context where enrollment numbers are exploding and many
7countries are setting their goals in terms of universal basic education, the sustainability of
salary spending necessarily implies an improvement in the use of teachers.
- Credibility. The mid/long term process of education system planning, whose financing and
implementation rely on multilateral partnerships, requires an unequivocal demonstration that
optimal solutions are sought out in terms of teachers that represent the greatest expense
item. Due to unavoidable budgetary trade-offs, the achievement of SDG4 and other
international commitments are at stake.
- Transparency. Transparency in the management of teachers is a challenge not only in terms
of internal efficiency and outward credibility, but also in terms of teachers themselves, being
a basic mechanism to combat demobilization and demotivation.
In the light of these objectives, dimensions and challenges, this report’s goal is to account for the
workshop’s activities, and the wealth of exchanges and discussions that took place. It may be used as
an aide-mémoire by participants, not to find all the detail required for the technical and political
management of teacher allocation processes, but to make available to them a thought-provoking
document that constitutes a starting point towards a body of resources, documentary and human,
that are relevant to the initiatives and experiences of the region.
8Section 1: Presentations
Session 1: General Presentation of the Teacher Allocation Issue
Moderator: Mamadou NDOYE, Consultant
Presentation of the Workshop Working Paper: Teacher Deployment and Utilization in Africa, May
2016, IIEP/Pôle de Dakar
Patrick NKENGNE – Education Policy Analyst, IIEP/Pôle de Dakar
Several sector diagnoses highlight a common reality: an apparent shortage of teachers in some areas
or subjects, and their inequitable allocation. The presentation reviewed the analyses carried out by
the Pôle de Dakar, and common findings.
The analyses carried out are based mainly on the following indicators, according to the cycle:
- Primary, characterized by the one teacher-one pedagogical group binomial: the PTR, the
degree of randomness in teacher allocation, the relationship between the two, or between
the number of teachers and the number of pedagogical groups at the school level.
- Secondary, characterized by a situation of several teachers, one per subject-several
pedagogical groups: the ratio between theoretical and effective teaching times, and the
availability of teachers per subject.
These indicators, that reflect countries’ policy choices, enable an appraisal of the sufficiency of overall
teacher numbers, national capacities to achieve set goals, disparities among countries, regions or
schools, and some of the difficulties encountered.
They also raise certain questions about the relevance of measurement tools, the criteria for the
creation of a pedagogical group or its minimal size, about the definition of what constitutes a
reasonable allocation, or about the criteria used to appraise the equity of deployment.
Indeed, such indicators do not reflect the fact that some schools or areas are over or under-endowed
in teachers, which is not equitable or efficient in terms of the use of public education expenditure,
and will have an impact on quality, in particular in those schools that are under-endowed.
Considering this reality, the term “shortage” should be used with care, as in fact it refers to localized
situations of under-endowment, resulting from inefficient teacher deployment, with the exception of
some secondary subjects that are particularly difficult to recruit for.
9Presentation of the Key Lessons in Teacher Allocation Practices in Central, Eastern and Southern
Africa Learned from Country Responses to a Survey
Koffi SEGNIAGBETO – Education Policy Analyst, IIEP/Pôle de Dakar
A questionnaire on institutional/statutory frameworks and teacher allocation practices containing 28
questions was sent to 14 Central, Eastern and Southern African countries. The responses of 12
countries were compiled to extract key findings.
The findings are that: (i) recruitment is highly centralized; (ii) the determination of needs is carried out
mainly at the local level (schools) by school directors; (iii) almost all countries have standards for class
size; (iv) commissions’ posting decisions are fragile, vulnerable and poorly respected, which appears
to be related to the reality that few countries practice a post-based recruitment policy and to the
absence of decision-making tools in a majority of countries; and (v) the uses of teachers reflect very
diverse practices, in particular with respect to teachers’ workloads and pupils’ study times.
The majority of countries would appreciate technical assistance in micro-planning (school catchment
areas) and the implementation of software and online tools, and agree on the need to involve all
players, political and legislative, civil, technical and financial in the allocation process.
Exchanges and Discussions
Participants’ contributions raised the following issues:
The variable country situations outlined may be partly explained on the basis of demographics and
economic trends that should be taken into account in education policy and planning. Regional
variations in terms of teacher usage can be substantial within a given country, with some areas (or
islands, as in the case of the Comoros that raised this issue) generously beating goals. Equity in teacher
selection is central to quality.
This first plenary was also the opportunity for several countries to highlight some specific aspects of
their national experience:
- Zimbabwe has a strict public service commission, ensuring all teachers are budgeted for. It
also ensures that all primary teachers meet the key skills requirement, including in science
and sport subjects.
- Kenya lacks a guiding policy on staff, although there is a staffing norm for primary (provision
for one extra teacher for every eight classes), secondary (curriculum-based establishments)
and tertiary.
- Rwanda identifies teacher needs centrally, and then apportions staff among districts.
- DRC has a policy of competence-based school-level recruitment.
Note: it was recognized that regional-level teacher deployment and gender equity are two areas
where data is generally scarce, and clarified that the presentation of the key results of the survey will
be updated in due course in the light of the late contributions of Zimbabwe, Djibouti and Malawi.
10GPE Presentation on the Teacher Deployment Issue
Talia de Chaisemartin and Jean-Marc Bernard – Global Partnership for Education
An overview of the partnership and its strategic outlook and functioning provided the context for a
detailed explanation of the indicator used by GPE to measure progress towards the goal of equitable
teacher allocation, and a reminder of the nature of the support offered to member countries.
The presentation first offered an overview of the GPE, the meaning of the partnership, the role of the
secretariat and the high-level goals and strategic objectives. These reflect the GPE’s theory of change,
that has identified four essential levels to ensure quality in education: (i) a sufficient number of
teachers; (ii) their appropriate distribution; (iii) their presence in class; and (iv) the nature of the
teaching offered. The learning environment is conditioned just as much by equity as by efficiency in
the public spend.
The 2016-20 strategic plan’s results framework includes 3 goals and 5 strategic objectives, that are
monitored through 37 indicators. Indicator 11 relates specifically to teacher deployment: “Equitable
allocation of teachers, as measured by the correlation between the number of teachers and the
number of pupils per school in each developing country partner (DCP).” This is measured by the
proportion of countries where the R2 is deemed to reflect equitable allocation. Somewhat arbitrarily
this level is set at 0,80 or above. In 2015, only 21/61 countries had this data, and just 6/21 met the
target. The target is to reach 38% by 2018 and 48% by 2020.
To achieve this goal, GPE support will focus on improving data availability, sharing good practices
among countries, encouraging a comprehensive approach to teacher issues including teacher
allocation, and raising political awareness around allocation.
Teacher Development in Agenda 2063 and CESA 16-25
Beatrice NJENGA – Department of Human Resources, Science and Technology, AU Commission
A detailed review of the African Union Commission’s ambitious long-term vision for the continent
(“Agenda 2063: The Africa we want”) was provided, of integration, peace, prosperity and citizenship.
The focus of the 2016-25 Continental Education Strategy for Africa on teachers was then underlined.
CESA has 12 strategic objectives. Due to the identified gaps in the quality, numbers and status of
teachers, and the level of demand for qualified teachers at all levels to improve access, equity and the
quality of learning a teacher study was commissioned by heads of state. It reached the following
recommendations:
- Overall: (i) to develop a teacher mobility protocol, managed by the AU, to move towards a
‘teachers without borders’ workforce; and that (ii) member states take responsibility for
teacher quality in all learning centers, including private schools.
- Specific, in terms of teacher training and living and working conditions, including to: (iii)
establish continental professional standards for teachers; and the (iv) systematic and regular
review of TTI curriculum contents.
- Implementation: the creation of a framework including a Teacher Development Cluster, with
participation of ADEA, IICBA and PACTED.
11Exchanges and Discussions
The key point of discussion by participants was that of the GPE indicator of teacher deployment that
was raised from several perspectives:
- Again, the regional dimension, with significant variations often concealed, that yet require
better understanding than is provided by statistical measures.
- The difficulty of measuring adequate deployment where the relationship between numbers
of pupils and teachers is not linear, such as with subject specializations. In Tanzania, teachers’
workload is used to determine effective usage.
- As with other indicators, the lack of consideration of the private sector often implies that the
basis for decision-making is skewed. Some advocacy for national data to be shared with UIS
was made.
- Concern that the achievement of a minimum R2 level is limiting in terms of analysis. For
instance, where publicly-funded community teachers are included, the quantitative rating
might be favorable, but fail to consider quality and equity issues. Also, the R2 interpretation
would differ if it applies to the number of teachers by pedagogical group, or by classroom. The
R2 can further be an inadequate measurement of effective teacher allocation in certain
country contexts, in particular of a geographic nature. In Mauritania for instance, that covers
a vast and scantly populated area, many zones are likely to have very low PTRs, which would
deteriorate the R2 indicator, while not reflecting poor allocation decisions. Subtler issues of
teachers’ professional development and perspectives are more difficult to monitor, but
nevertheless important.
- More specifically, countries voiced wishes related to their national context. Tanzania for
instance is interested in an indicator to appraise teacher deployment based on a variable
weekly workloads.
- GPE clarified that the minimum level is not absolute, will not apply to all countries alike, nor
simultaneously, and may lead to different strategies on the basis of background research.
This underlined the fact that the GPE results framework is oft perceived as being highly technical, and
as such counter-productive in terms of one of the stated goals, to strengthen country-level capacities.
The secretariat’s view of this point is that it is natural that countries require external technical
expertise in the short-term, which GPE recognizes by making resources available, while encouraging
such expertise to focus on capacity building and be accompanied by policy dialogue, to overcome the
technical gap that may exist. Most countries are facing situations of greater resource constraints,
giving all the more importance to those resources mobilized through the strengthening or creation of
partnerships.
Concerns were also raised about the risk of a growing gap between countries, as financing is
conditioned to the existence of a credible sector plan, which in turn requires reliable data and sound
indicators, that are particularly difficult to harness in fragile/vulnerable countries. This situation could
provoke a downward spiral for the weakest education systems. A reminder was issued that the GPE
has foreseen this risk and planned accordingly, with both funds and technical assistance that are
earmarked for vulnerable states.
12The need for values and life-skills to be taught to improve quality was suggested. It was further
underlined that values’ education does not necessarily impose a greater workload on teachers. This
can be achieved by redesigning the curricula of ongoing subjects.
The moderator’s summary conclusions to Session 1 focused on:
- The growing divide between increasingly high aspirations (AU Agenda 2063) and ambitions
(2030 Agenda for Education), and increasingly scarce resources.
- The resource issue being all the more acute in relation to teachers, that represent the main
expenditure item in education, requiring greater focus on efficiency.
- At stake therefore, is improving efficiency, effectiveness and equity, and quality, on which
teaching time has a direct impact.
- This raises challenges in terms of policy, information systems, analysis and planning tools,
legal frameworks and tools for management.
Session 2: Country Experiences in Teacher Deployment: Challenges,
Lessons Learned and/or Promising Experiences
Moderator : Jean-Marc BERNARD – Global Partnership for Education
Madagascar’s Experience in Teacher Deployment
Sandrot RABEANDALANA – Director, DRH, Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale
Madagascar’s four-part presentation focused on the procedures for teacher deployment in a general
context of weak management, low staff qualifications and a poorly developed civil service, as well as
the challenges raised and lessons learned.
The Madagascar teacher context is characterized by poor motivation, as career and salary prospects
are unrelated to performance; weak management, due to regulatory measures, excessive
centralization, a lack of predictive management and inadequate information systems to appraise
school-level needs; low staff qualification levels, as upwards of 70% of basic education teachers lack
the required qualifications or pedagogical training; and a high proportion of community teachers.
Existing teacher management approaches are:
- Needs are identified in bottom-up fashion, with schools/communities formulating requests to
local education authorities, that the ministry consolidates, to compare to the school map and
set quotas.
- Recruitment procedures vary by status: (i) TTI graduates are selected according to subject-
quotas set, on a first-qualified first-served basis, accounting therefore for seniority.
Candidates may be no older than 45 years; (ii) Community teachers are recruited locally by
parents. The Ministry of Education can therefore not intervene. Selection criteria include
seniority, qualifications and age, but no age limit is set.
- Deployment is to regions, each of which then uses school maps, pupil teacher, class and
pedagogical group ratio bands as well as subject workloads for secondary, to post teachers at
13the local level. The compliance level is of 80%, helped by contractual commitments by
teachers, and the monitoring of placements through un-notified visits by instructors on
motorbikes.
The main challenges are the effective prevision of teacher needs, covering the costs of redeployment,
obstacles to compliance with posting decisions, such as spouse proximity, and the insecurity and
unattractiveness of certain rural areas.
To address these, the need for a detailed pre-reform study has been identified, to be carried out by
the Ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and that of Civil Service, to determine
requirements in terms of: i) the legal framework, the status of government agents (civil servants and
contract teachers), texts on the assignment and redeployment of official MoE staff; ii) approaches to
and tools for the predictive management of the workforce according to positions and skills needed;
iii) decentralization of the management of teachers and education staff; iv) incentives and strategies
to encourage and protect rural and remote postings; and v) M&E systems to manage staff.
Teacher Management in Kenya
Mary Rotich - Director of Teacher Management at Teacher Service Commission
Kenya’s recent experience in teacher management highlights some good practices, in terms of the
creation of a teacher service commission and its attributes, and the development of a teacher
management information system.
The Teacher Service Commission was created in 2010 with central and decentralized agencies, at the
national, county, sub-county and zone levels, for the registration, recruitment, employment,
promotion/career development, transfer and discipline/separation of teachers. All teachers must be
registered, public or private, to allow the TSC to monitor and regulate standards. Registration hinges
on minimum entry qualifications, in terms of title and grade.
Recruitment is demand-driven, considering the budget. The steps taken are: i) identification of vacant
posts thanks to TMIS data; ii) advertisement of posts at county and central levels; iii) short-listing and
interviewing; iv) vetting, appointment and posting.
The challenges noted include: recruitment has not kept pace with growth; teacher shortages in
specialized subjects; lack of post-TTI capacity-building; teacher absenteeism; teacher laxity, poor
performance and low accountability; retention; decentralization of teacher management services to
the county and sub-county level; and data management.
TSC service automation online has however helped reduce teacher visits to administrative centers;
and TSC has rolled-out performance contracting and a teacher appraisal and development program
and enhanced supervision. Retention has been reinforced by post-based advertising and a minimum
5-year service requirement. A teacher management information system has also been created.
14First Round of Exchanges and Discussions
The interventions and debates focused mainly on the following points:
- The status of community/contract teachers, the existence of state subsidies for them, and
their consideration within deployment plans and indicators
- The privatization of secondary education management
- The issue of temporary teachers
- The operating procedures of teacher deployment commissions, their understanding and
effectiveness (issue faced by Djibouti). Related to this, questions about how such commissions
can bring about relevant change for more reliable teacher deployment.
- Sao Tomé and Principe shared its teacher recruitment experience as an archipelago state with
160,000 inhabitants, underlining the importance of establishing clear status for teachers, and
strengthening the recognition of the profession.
- The difficulty of dealing with school closures related to teacher shortages (Chad)
- Country approaches to fulfilling specific teacher needs (a concern in Sao Tomé and Principe)
Practices in the Asia-Pacific Region on Efficient Teacher Allocation
Akemi ASHIDA – Programme Officer for Inclusive Quality Education, UNESCO/Bangkok
An overview of teacher practices in Asia Pacific provided some contrast with African approaches,
based on UNESCO regional and country studies, focusing on Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos PDR, South
Korea and Japan.
The 2013/14 GMR identified four key strategies to achieve quality for all through teaching and
learning, in particular that of “Getting teachers where they are most needed.” This relies on the
effective planning of deployment needs, incentives to rebalance uneven allocations and local
recruitment.
A review of national PTRs underlined their comparatively low level in the Asia-Pacific region, where
Cambodia has the highest, 50:1 and the majority are under 30:1. The effective management of
deployment is based on: i) teacher policy reforms, including salary reforms and incentives; ii) the
placement of new graduates to understaffed areas, thanks to targeted recruitments responding to
bottom-up needs appraisals (School-District-Province-Ministry); iii) a rotation/transfer system,
showing a commitment to equity but with mixed results by country; iv) positive discrimination towards
hard-to-staff areas in terms of budget allocations; v) additional allowances and incentives, that have
been particularly effective in Vietnam, including higher salary, bonuses for completion of contract,
water allowance, etc. and vi) policies to encourage gender balance in school management.
Local recruitment has been effective to ensure the equitable allocation of teachers, particularly in
Cambodia and Vietnam. This can take several forms, including giving priority to candidates from
disadvantaged areas (Cambodia), or subsidies for teacher training to local residents from difficult
areas (Vietnam). Contract teachers, although not deemed sustainable, have been used to fill short-
term teacher shortages in certain areas, and help reduce double-shifting.
15Second Round of Questions and Sharing
A number of questions were raised by participants, including on the following topics:
- The financial impact of incentive measures in Vietnam, and whether this had been modelized
and budgeted for.
- The impact of demographic growth on teacher deployment.
- The potential to use local resident retired teachers in difficult areas
- The issue of balancing the supply of teachers with the quality of teaching/pedagogy,
particularly where young temporary and untrained contract teachers are concerned
- The role of the ministry of home affairs in Vietnam, that is involved in needs assessments,
macro-deployment decisions, teacher training
- The criteria retained for the definition of disadvantaged areas: geographical environment,
availability of services
- The trade-off between teacher post stability in difficult areas (close to family) and motivation
(quality)
- The policy trade-off between teacher salary and class-size, as illustrated by the case of
Cambodia, the only country in SE Asia where the PTR is significantly above 40:1.
Decision-Maker Experiences in Recruitment, Deployment and Utilization of Teachers: Example of
Education Volunteer Project in Senegal
Mamadou NDOYE – Consultant and Former Minister of Basic Education and the Promotion of Local
Languages in Senegal (1995-98)
This personal testimony provided the point of view of a politician rather than that of a technician. It
detailed the volunteer teacher initiative undertaken by a minister upon assuming office to respond to
a severe teacher shortage in a context of structural and economic crisis.
In the early 1990s context of economic stagnation and structural adjustment policies, all recruitment
in the civil service was frozen and many volunteers were leaving. Multigrade and double-shift classes
represented 30% of the total, and over 1,500 classes had to be closed for lack of teachers. The GER
was declining, PTRs increasing, regional and urban/rural disparities deepening and the GPI stagnating.
The volunteer teacher project was launched in 1995, with the goal of reducing teacher needs, regional
and gender disparities, improving quality and creating community classrooms. With a requirement of
1,500 volunteers, 32000 applications for a 4-year civic service were received. Indeed, it was perceived
as the opportunity to learn the job, receive a stipend and access health coverage. Management was
the responsibility of regional inspectorates, in terms of needs identification, recruitment, training and
payment.
The issues faced included cronyism in teacher management and different kinds of influence-peddling,
at the administrative, political, family and union levels, leading to counterproductive decisions and
action: biased recruitment, preferential postings or transfers, unnecessary dismissals, unfounded
promotion, the illegal removal of legal disciplinary action... These outcomes were encouraged by
secretive management practices at the political level, weak institutional and technical management
capacities, a lack of transparency and accountability in procedures, the absence of rational rules and
known criteria, and the neglect of existing rules.
16Such practices were minimized through prevention including alert tools; compulsory supervised
volunteer competitions; dialogue and consensus among all parties on the objectives, strategies,
criteria, rules and procedures; public and strategic communication; and participative management
through a relevant information system and annual survey/assessments. The outcome was particularly
favorable in terms of access to school, the GER gaining three points from the very first year.
The key lessons learned and shared evolved around approaches to making poor management
impossible. The scope for discretionary political management can be eliminated by the adoption of
strict, transparent and broadly-shared tools and procedures. Allowing the voicing of all grievances and
particular interests, through open and ongoing dialogue, helps to reveal issues and resolve them.
Teacher management should include implementation and M&E mechanisms that enable the
identification of issues, as well as prevention and flexible responses. Participatory supervision
guarantees transparency and mutual commitment.
Third Round of Questions and Sharing
The last round of questions and sharing focused on the following points:
- The importance of broad stakeholder involvement in all reform to avoid later problems and
issues;
- The importance of analysis of the local context;
- One of the project’s critical success factors was the clear absence of entitlement. The initial 2-
year volunteer arrangement could be renewed once, subject to negotiation, then converted
into a temporary contract, subject to the favorable opinion of the volunteer service, and finally
converted into a civil servant post, subject to qualifications and training conditions being met;
- The contentious involvement of unions, that initially refused to enter into any dialogue about
the project. Sao Tomé and Principe advocated for greater understanding of the relationship
between governments and unions in each country, and for unions to be involved in the
elaboration of career development frameworks;
- The human dimension of teacher management, which must always be considered if effective
and sustainable solutions are to be found;
- Governance and transparency should be thought-out on the basis of countries’ social and
political organization.
17Session 3: Tools to Support the Management of Teacher Deployment
Moderator: Gry ULVERUD – UNESCO/Nairobi
Teacher Management Information System TMIS Rwanda
Claudien NZITABAKUZE – Deputy Director General in charge of Teacher Management and
Professionalization, Ministry of Education
TMIS is a central teacher database, hosted by the Rwanda Education Board, with a plethora of
different functions and user interfaces, currently being rolled-out after a three-year pilot in two rural
districts, that streamlines many of the administrative tasks involved in ongoing teacher management.
The functions of the tool include (See Box 1 in Section 2 for a more detailed review):
- Teacher registration (unique number, for public/private, nursery/primary/secondary)
- Initial teacher licensing, as well as license renewal, upgrade and suspension
- Management of placements and internal/external transfers, based on school post demands
and school structure, at the regional level
- Reporting and generation of indicators
- Identification of teacher training needs
- Monitoring of teacher turnover
It therefore provides valuable uses and information to/for Teacher Development and Management,
Rwanda Education Board, MINEDUC, all teachers and education districts.
Integrated Management of Resources Based on Rational Allocations (MIRADOR) in Senegal
Mamadou SONKO - MIRADOR Administrator, DRH/Ministère de l’éducation nationale
MIRADOR addresses the need to manage increased teacher flows following the explosion of
enrollment and efforts to achieve UPE, while reinforcing equity and transparency, according to a real
strategy of rationalization.
This modular system for the post-based management of human resources includes the following
functions, among others (See Box 2 in Section 2 for a more detailed review, including its strengths):
- The recruitment and posting of teachers according to needs, by region and subject;
- Teacher training and career management;
- The management of personnel transfers and redeployment thanks to dynamic school
organization charts and an online request form;
- The forecasting of retirement departures, thanks to a dynamic age pyramid; and
- A warning system for temporary departures (for training for instance).
18Comments, Questions and Concerns
The comments by participants highlighted concerns about:
- Database harmonization and system integration;
- The timing, frequency and responsibility for database updates: one advantage of such systems
such as TMIS is that they are maintenance-free in this respect, as the database is updated by
each user, at each use;
- Access for teachers in rural or remote locations. In the case of MIRADOR, a smartphone-
friendly web-platform has been designed, to enable nationwide access;
- Balancing teacher posting requirements with teachers’ human needs/concerns: MIRADOR
incorporates a points system with credits for remoteness, by distance and duration, that can
be used for later promotion or transfers;
- The comprehensiveness of teacher data, where not all teachers are covered by the system
(MIRADOR only includes civil servants and government-subsidized contract teachers), possibly
skewing macro-level planning and decision-making;
- The scope for such tools to consider the teaching force from a qualitative perspective;
- The reliability and security of data; and
- Resource mobilization for system development and maintenance.
They also pointed at the future potential for such systems to evolve to include functions to monitor
teacher efficiency and performance. This would provide scope to promote ethics/morality in the
teaching service, through both meritocratic and disciplinary measures (failing to comply with
minimum post requirements could entail a commission decision to bar an individual from applying to
positions of higher responsibility for instance), having a knock-on effect on quality and equity.
Some consensus emerged that such tools provide valuable information on different areas of teacher
management, but that ultimately posting decisions should continue to be determined by human
mechanisms. Tools will never achieve the level of balance between systemic requirements and human
considerations that are provided for instance by a transfer commission that includes central and
decentralized HR managers and unions (Sao Tomé), or be able to effectively address the inequity of
systems where teachers are offered their preferred positions according to their TTI graduate ranking,
leading to the best teachers consistently remaining in main urban centers (Madagascar).
It was suggested that user guides should be elaborated for all such technical teacher management
tools, to understand how they make posting proposals (in the case of MIRADOR, what factors do the
algorithms take into account), and to facilitate implementation.
19Session 4: Perspectives for the Improved Management of Teacher
Allocations
Moderator: Virgilio JUVANE – Senior Programme Coordinator, UNESCO/IICBA
Teacher Deployment and Utilization in Education Planning and Management: Challenges and
Perspectives
Mamadou NDOYE – Consultant and Former Minister of Basic Education and the Promotion of Local
Languages in Senegal (1995-98)
Considering the current context and underlying ambitions in SSA, a number of uncomfortable
questions are raised, that point to the issue of efficiency. Rather than offering prescriptive solutions,
a number of questions aiming to guide country-level reflections on how to improve it are offered, in
terms of planning and management.
In the current SSA context, ambitions and needs appear to be oversized in the light of resources. It is
estimated that 6.2 million teachers will need recruiting by 2030. So a first question is raised: how to
achieve more, with less?
A brief overview of the education results achieved by countries of similar resource levels, based on
recent education sector analysis reports, point to significant disparities. The same reports underline
the prevalence of inconsistent and inequitable allocations, as well as qualitative imbalances:
- High degree of randomness in teacher deployment within countries
- Geographic disparities in terms of teacher shortages
- Inequitable allocations in terms of qualified/trained teachers, or by gender
- Insufficient teacher utilization rates, high absenteeism
These findings all suggest that scarce resources are being wasted, with a logical impact on the ability
to fulfill the demand for education, and raise several questions: How to efficiently convert resources
into outcomes? How to capitalize education systems’ primary investment, in teachers? How to collect
relevant, accurate, complete and current data, and where from? How to correlate teacher deployment
and utilization with efficiency and equity? What are the factors that explain disparities? On a
management level, how to contain these factors of disruption and reduce the constraints?
Some of the guiding questions countries may wish to reflect on in terms of planning cover the research
of solutions to context-specific issues and their integration into education sector development
planning; appropriate policy options and strategic goals; the use of simulation models in action plans;
the choice of steering mechanisms and monitoring indicators; and the transfer of macro recruitment,
deployment and utilization planning to the meso and micro levels.
At the management level, the questions offered focus on the appropriate management model,
quantitative and qualitative trade-off strategies, management guidelines for the rational recruitment,
deployment and utilization of teachers, and the tools and mechanisms to guarantee transparency and
the respect of procedures.
20Questions and Concerns
Participants’ interventions touched on the following issues:
- The importance of the working environment;
- The need for appropriate incentives, while simultaneously ensuring these are time-bound
(that a teacher allocated a bonus for a remote posting ceases to receive it upon returning to
the city), and coherent with those offered in other sectors. This highlights the need to reflect
on management mechanisms before policies are determined;
- The need to strengthen teachers’ vocational commitment, not least to reduce the need to
provide expensive incentives. Health workers for instance do often not get the same
incentives, due to the comparative weakness of their unions, but are more willing to endure
hardship;
- The weight of teacher unions in negotiations;
- The need for transversal measures to compensate teacher shortages, addressing demographic
trends as well as the supply of labor; and
- The tendency to promote the best teachers to management positions.
Session 5:
Group Work
Moderator: Lynne SERGEANT, IIEP-Paris
In order to further reflections on the rationalization of teacher use and deployment, participants
retreated into two groups, respectively mandated to focus on one of the following themes:
- Information systems and tools; and
- Governance, transparency and social dialogue.
Group 1: Information Systems and Tools to Help Improve Teacher Allocations
President: George BOADE (UIS Nairobi)
Rapporteurs: Joseph CHIMOMBO (MoEST Malawi) and Talia de CHAISEMARTIN (GPE)
Group 1 provided a detailed and structured presentation of their exchanges and debates around the
proposed theme, according to four key questions:
1. What information do countries need to properly identify teaching post needs and to improve
teacher allocations?
The group identified two dimensions to the question: (i) how do systems determine schools’ needs;
and (ii) how do systems make decisions to fill those needs. Eight countries shared their experience of
how teachers are allocated to schools (Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi,
Tanzania and Zimbabwe), highlighting the fact that countries have different practices.
21Many countries identify needs at the decentralized school level. Head teachers/school directors send
their needs to intermediate levels, which then relay them to centralized levels for
allocation/recruitment decisions. This can raise a problem of false information being given by schools,
meaning that a validation procedure is needed. In this scenario, different approaches by education
level are common: at the primary level, needs are based on there being a teacher for each class; for
secondary or above, teaching workloads by subject are taken into account.
Some countries use the pupil-teacher ratio and national and provincial averages to prioritize districts
in greatest need (Burundi, Comoros). Where needs are high, recruitment processes may be launched,
or teachers may be asked to teach additional hours (Djibouti). Countries also use different
mechanisms to verify teacher postings (Tanzania uses the payroll, whereas Kenya uses inspections).
2. Does your country have an information system to manage teachers?
All countries have a system to manage teacher allocation, but it is automated in Burundi, Chad, Kenya,
Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
3. What are the challenges faced in ensuring that existing teacher management systems meet overall
governance expectations, for teachers and the education system?
Three categories of challenges were identified:
- All systems: lack of compliance with norms and standards; need for strengthened inspections
or validation systems; need to enhance connectivity and integration of databases and tools to
achieve coherent information systems (modules are rarely linked at the moment); lack of
financial resources to create efficient systems; and lack of financial resources to fully cover
school needs.
- Manual systems: risk of them leading to an imbalanced distribution of teachers; hard to track
teacher placements and transfers (Lesotho in particular); and school and district-level
procedures to report on needs are time-consuming, especially to reach central levels where
allocation decisions are made.
- Automated systems: systems can be slow if many users connected simultaneously; internet
connectivity can be problematic, in remote/rural areas in particular; computer literacy can
represent an obstacle to effective use, and create a further burden in terms of system use
training; delays in uploading data; and issues with collection of personnel data.
4. In your country, how are the existing national education-related databases connected to each
other (EMIS, TMIS, Examinations, student assessments, public sector teachers’ payroll, etc.)?
The interconnection of different systems/databases is a big challenge, that can be complicated where
systems are housed in different ministries. In Rwanda for example, there are four different systems
that are not interlinked - EMIS, TMIS, school data management systems and the integrated personnel
information system.
The group recommends that: (i) EMIS unique school code be used in all databases to facilitate the
interlinkage; (ii) simple solutions be sought out, assuming there is willingness among technocrats to
22get the systems in place, and provide information to users; and (iii) establish the critical link between
payroll and human resources.
In Madagascar, connecting some of the databases by using teacher codes facilitated the clean-up of
the payroll, where it was found that 8% of salaries where being paid to inactive teachers. The efficiency
gain realized can be used to recruit more teachers or provide volunteers with stipends.
Further reflections focused on the opportunity/need to do some things differently. For instance,
instead of identifying needs at the school level and recruiting at the central level, perhaps a change in
the past 15 years of practice is ripe and the opposite should be tested, identifying needs at central
level and recruiting at local levels?
Given that needs for teachers are systematically greater than the number that can be recruited, more
thought should be given to how allocation decisions are being made, to tend towards the management
of a systemic shortage. It is necessary to consider whether the capacity, skills and knowledge of those
responsible for making allocation decisions are adequate.
Group 2: Governance and Transparency in the Teacher Allocation Process
Moderator: Lucy NJURA BARIMBUI (Education International)
Rapporteur: Fundikira EKEREGE (MoEST Tanzania) and Evans ATIS (UNICEF CAR)
Group 2 organized its brainstorming around the following three questions:
1. What mechanisms do countries need to implement to ensure teacher allocation procedures are
popularized and transparent?
There must be:
- A legal framework that is clear and understood by all stakeholders, such as a Teacher
Allocation Act, with rules and regulations to guide all issues related to teacher recruitment,
deployment and utilization;
- A policy framework with service ratio norms emphasizing equity in teacher allocation and
utilization;
- An independent body for the registration of teachers;
- The use of mass media to advertise vacant posts for teachers in order to recruit and appoint
teachers in accordance with the established needs;
- Incentives for teachers posted to underserved (emergency) areas in order to retain them;
- A database of qualified teachers for easy management;
- A teacher management information system for managing recruitment, appointment and
allocation, with the functionality for teachers or other actors to flag bugs;
- Mainstreamed norms, rules and regulations for education curricula, shared with education
authorities at all levels of education delivery;
- (If procedures are not in place) a transparent process of consultation to develop them, based
on countries’ contexts and existing needs, and involving all key actors; and
- (If procedures are not in place) Legislation to guarantee participation of all key actors in the
consultation (teacher representatives, ministry of finance, ministry of education, parent-
teacher associations, other central and local-level key actors), particularly where the context
is hostile to unions, to ensure ownership, popularization and transparency;
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