Better Teachers, Better Results? Evidence from Rural Pakistan

Abstract

Using a gain model with three different levels of fixed effects, this paper empirically estimates the impacts of teachers on students' achievement in three districts in the rural province of Punjab in Pakistan. The model-based results suggest that teachers' factors do explain students' achievement. Increasing teachers' wages could improve schooling quality along with recruiting local teachers with non-permanent contracts. Recruiting local teachers has an important positive impact on students' achievement especially for girls. It could therefore reduce gender based inequalities of academic achievement. Furthermore, our analysis suggests that policy reforms concerning training programs and rethinking wage policies should be on the agenda of future research.

Methodological lessons on measuring quality teaching in Southern contexts, with a focus on India and Pakistan

“…These have been selected as the focus as they are both contexts where studies recognise the persistence of low levels in basic competencies of literacy and numeracy and wide inequalities in learning. The existing evidence seems to confirm the potential importance of teacher quality for student achievement (Azam and Kingdon, 2015; Bau and Das, 2017; De Talancé, 2017).…”

“…However, these studies confirm that many of the standard teacher characteristics such as certification, training and experience level do not seem to matter much to pupil achievement (e.g. Bau and Das, 2017;De Talancé, 2017). As these resumé characteristics often underpin teacher compensation policies, these findings are controversial and widely debated.…”

“…In the Pakistan and Indian context, such models are becoming more widely used (see, for example, studies in Table 1: Azam and Kingdon, 2015; Bau and Das, 2017; De Talancé, 2017). The results from these kinds of model suggest that teachers vary substantially in their effectiveness.…”

“…Studies focusing on India and Pakistan have, for example, found that factors such as the social distance between the teacher and the students, teachers’ opinions, attitudes and perceptions, and indeed classroom practices, matter more for student achievement than teachers’ observed resumé characteristics (Aslam and Kingdon, 2011; Rawal and Kingdon, 2010; Rawal et al, 2013). A number of studies have found that the nature of the contract that the teacher is on and whether the teacher was locally recruited also predicts teacher quality (Atherton and Kingdon, 2010; De Talancé 2017; Goyal and Pandey, 2013; Muralidharan and Sundararaman 2011, 2013). Teachers on contracts that are more closely linked to performance appear to be more effective and, more specifically, lower paid less well-trained contract teachers appear no less effective than more qualified, better trained and higher paid civil service teachers on permanent contracts (e.g.…”

Locus of Control: Teachers’ Neglected Attribute Towards Students’ Achievement Scores in Facing Diverse Socioeconomic Status

“…States maximize their potential in improving quality of teachers. Ultimate aim is to enhance students' achievement scores (Azam & Kingdom, 2015;Bau & Das, 2017;De Talancé, 2017). Results of present study claim that parents' socioeconomic status has affected 74.70% of their students' achievement scores with the formation of significant regression equation, (F (1, 799) = 882.891, p < .05) that supports the findings of the study conducted by Li, Xu, and Xia, (2020) on the sample of 345 respondents of China and confirms that parental socioeconomic status and self-concept significantly correlate with students' achievement scores.…”