CGS 1 - Creating Great Teachers - 2
As I read yesterday's DNA of education, I was disappointed by the lack of rigour from journalists and the 'experts' they quote. The issue of teacher effectiveness is a complex one with no silver bullet.
Any attempt to solve the problem necessitates a deep understanding and a step by step delayering of the apparent causes. Saying things like 'change the B.Ed curriculum' or 'increase the salaries' ignore the interlinkages involved in the issue.
Let's look at how did we get here.
In 1954, my father was in the merit list in Punjab state in the 10th grade. He was a topper in Intermediate and then graduation. He could have prepared for Civil Services but chose to be a teacher. And was he good! Over 36 years, he was instrumental in shaping the lives of thousand of students.
When he was graduating, teaching was a profession that was looked upon with respect. There was dignity and regard for teachers. People looked up to them. Most jobs were in Government or Government aided schools. Private schools were a small drop in the ocean. The income disparity between teachers and other professions existed but it wasn't as wide as it is today.
The general climate in the country was of idealism. People were fired up to do great work and change the world.
These are broad brush narratives but they illustrate the point. People choose their future to avoid what they did not like in their past and this choice gets created in a broader cultural context of what is admired and what is ridiculed. Social admiration is a very important currency.
The current reality is that economic prosperity is the shortest route to social admiration. And the teaching professions does not offer it.
The ideal situation is not for every 'bright young folk' to become a teacher once we fix the social admiration issue. Different people are intrinsically interested in different things (even without the distorting effects of social admiration). But can we create conditions where children who are intrinsically interested in the creative and inter-personal areas, pursue a career in teaching?
When the problem is articulated as above, the obvious solution is to increase teacher salaries. And this can, of course, be part of the solution. But executing it is tricky, as we'll see below.
Economic prosperity has no material limit. Greed often overtakes need and quite quickly. But as long as teachers are in the top tertile of the income bracket, I assume the profession would attract students who are intrinsically inclined and who want economic prosperity. It is my assertion that for teaching to be able to attract talent, the profession should offer the potential to earn 35,000 - 50,000 per month (indexed to cost of living of the place).
This leads to the deeper question of - From where will the money for these salaries come?
For Government schools, the government just does not have the money! Here's why:
India's GDP is $1.8 trillion. Our spend on education is 3.3% of GDP which translates to $61 billion or INR 3650 billion. Almost 60% of this spend goes on teacher salaries (rest goes on admin, teaching aids, activities etc) which means the money available for teacher salaries is INR 2190 billion. India needs close to 12 million teachers to service its 360 million school going population (a student: teacher ratio of 30:1 which is on the higher side. Good school systems have a ratio close to 20:1). This means we, as a country can afford only INR 15,000 per month as teacher salaries (2190 billion / 12 million /12 months). This includes all benefits, retirals etc. So unless, we increase our GDP ahead of population growth and increase our spend on education (6% of GDP instead of 3.3%), we do not have the money to make teaching an attractive destination for talent!
For private schools, teacher salaries are paid from the student fee. For teacher salaries to be at 35,000 - 50,000 level and the schools to make a decent 15% return, the fees would need to be at least in the range of INR 3000 - 3500 per month. How many parents afford this? No wonder, most private schools are offering education factories with 50 children in a classroom and teachers who are paid between INR 5000-8000 per month!
Net, the economic model underlying schools does not currently permit teacher salaries to be at a level where they are attractive to talent at scale. So the few parents who can pay get access to schools where teachers are paid well and the rest make do with poor private schools or worse, government schools.
The solution to this issue needs to be created in a broader framework where our school system needs to be re-imagined. But before we get there, let's get a couple of issues out of our way.
The above discourse rests on the assumption that if you attract talent to teaching (and you have the budget to pay all those teachers 35,000 - 50,000 per month!), learning for all students will automatically take place. That assumption is faulty.
Creating great teachers not only needs talent to come in, but also needs 2 more things to be firmly in place:
1. A great teacher education program that is continuous
2. A system of accountability that fosters performance
Will cover these in detail in my next post.
Post script:
Any solution to improve the social admiration attached to the teaching profession would be incomplete if it rests only on increasing the economic incentive from teaching. The solution needs to include social structures that celebrate teachers and teaching. In the list of Top 100 Indian celebrities why are there no teachers? Why are there no role model teachers who are national heroes? Why are educators, education and learning not sexy enough to occupy headline news and trending topics on social media? There needs to be a concerted effort to put teaching, learning and teachers back on a platform that captures public imagination. This will encourage youngsters to take up teaching by offering another way to get social admiration.
As I read yesterday's DNA of education, I was disappointed by the lack of rigour from journalists and the 'experts' they quote. The issue of teacher effectiveness is a complex one with no silver bullet.
Any attempt to solve the problem necessitates a deep understanding and a step by step delayering of the apparent causes. Saying things like 'change the B.Ed curriculum' or 'increase the salaries' ignore the interlinkages involved in the issue.
Let's look at how did we get here.
In 1954, my father was in the merit list in Punjab state in the 10th grade. He was a topper in Intermediate and then graduation. He could have prepared for Civil Services but chose to be a teacher. And was he good! Over 36 years, he was instrumental in shaping the lives of thousand of students.
When he was graduating, teaching was a profession that was looked upon with respect. There was dignity and regard for teachers. People looked up to them. Most jobs were in Government or Government aided schools. Private schools were a small drop in the ocean. The income disparity between teachers and other professions existed but it wasn't as wide as it is today.
The general climate in the country was of idealism. People were fired up to do great work and change the world.
These are broad brush narratives but they illustrate the point. People choose their future to avoid what they did not like in their past and this choice gets created in a broader cultural context of what is admired and what is ridiculed. Social admiration is a very important currency.
The current reality is that economic prosperity is the shortest route to social admiration. And the teaching professions does not offer it.
The ideal situation is not for every 'bright young folk' to become a teacher once we fix the social admiration issue. Different people are intrinsically interested in different things (even without the distorting effects of social admiration). But can we create conditions where children who are intrinsically interested in the creative and inter-personal areas, pursue a career in teaching?
When the problem is articulated as above, the obvious solution is to increase teacher salaries. And this can, of course, be part of the solution. But executing it is tricky, as we'll see below.
Economic prosperity has no material limit. Greed often overtakes need and quite quickly. But as long as teachers are in the top tertile of the income bracket, I assume the profession would attract students who are intrinsically inclined and who want economic prosperity. It is my assertion that for teaching to be able to attract talent, the profession should offer the potential to earn 35,000 - 50,000 per month (indexed to cost of living of the place).
This leads to the deeper question of - From where will the money for these salaries come?
For Government schools, the government just does not have the money! Here's why:
India's GDP is $1.8 trillion. Our spend on education is 3.3% of GDP which translates to $61 billion or INR 3650 billion. Almost 60% of this spend goes on teacher salaries (rest goes on admin, teaching aids, activities etc) which means the money available for teacher salaries is INR 2190 billion. India needs close to 12 million teachers to service its 360 million school going population (a student: teacher ratio of 30:1 which is on the higher side. Good school systems have a ratio close to 20:1). This means we, as a country can afford only INR 15,000 per month as teacher salaries (2190 billion / 12 million /12 months). This includes all benefits, retirals etc. So unless, we increase our GDP ahead of population growth and increase our spend on education (6% of GDP instead of 3.3%), we do not have the money to make teaching an attractive destination for talent!
For private schools, teacher salaries are paid from the student fee. For teacher salaries to be at 35,000 - 50,000 level and the schools to make a decent 15% return, the fees would need to be at least in the range of INR 3000 - 3500 per month. How many parents afford this? No wonder, most private schools are offering education factories with 50 children in a classroom and teachers who are paid between INR 5000-8000 per month!
Net, the economic model underlying schools does not currently permit teacher salaries to be at a level where they are attractive to talent at scale. So the few parents who can pay get access to schools where teachers are paid well and the rest make do with poor private schools or worse, government schools.
The solution to this issue needs to be created in a broader framework where our school system needs to be re-imagined. But before we get there, let's get a couple of issues out of our way.
The above discourse rests on the assumption that if you attract talent to teaching (and you have the budget to pay all those teachers 35,000 - 50,000 per month!), learning for all students will automatically take place. That assumption is faulty.
Creating great teachers not only needs talent to come in, but also needs 2 more things to be firmly in place:
1. A great teacher education program that is continuous
2. A system of accountability that fosters performance
Will cover these in detail in my next post.
Post script:
Any solution to improve the social admiration attached to the teaching profession would be incomplete if it rests only on increasing the economic incentive from teaching. The solution needs to include social structures that celebrate teachers and teaching. In the list of Top 100 Indian celebrities why are there no teachers? Why are there no role model teachers who are national heroes? Why are educators, education and learning not sexy enough to occupy headline news and trending topics on social media? There needs to be a concerted effort to put teaching, learning and teachers back on a platform that captures public imagination. This will encourage youngsters to take up teaching by offering another way to get social admiration.
