74155 Making Better Use of Teachers: Strengthening Teacher Management to Improve the Efficiency and Equity of Public Spending Policy Brief November 2012 BEC TF BASIC EDUCATION CAPACITY-TRUST FUND KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN DAN KEBUDAYAAN REPUBLIK INDONESIA THE WORLD BANK Indonesia has seen remarkable progress in education over the last Figure 1: Student-teacher ratios have declined since 2001 and are 10 years. Access to primary education is near universal and participa- low by international standards tion in secondary education, particularly for the poorest students, has Student-teacher ratios in primary and junior secondary schools in Indonesia, grown rapidly. Despite these achievements, significant challenges re- 1995-2010 main – access to ECED and post-basic education remains limited and international learning assessments show that the quality of educa- 28 Lower middle income primary average (2008) tion is low. 26 student teacher ratio 24 22 Lower middle income secondary school Improving education quality and expanding access to post-basic average (2008) 20 education will require a better use of the existing resources de- 18 voted to education. Since 2001, public investment in education 16 has more than doubled in real terms as a result of a commitment to 14 spend 20% of the national budget on education. Further increases 12 10 in government education spending are likely to be limited and the 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 necessary improvements in access and education quality will need to be largely financed from savings made from the existing budget. Primary Junior Secondary Note: Figures do not include madrasahs Teacher management is central to improving public Source: Ministry of Education and Culture teacher and enrolment data, UNESCO Global Monitoring Report 2011 spending efficiency Figure 2: The relationship between learning outcomes and student-teacher ratios is weak In the last decade, student-teacher ratios in Indonesia have fallen Student-teacher ratios and average Grade 5 mathematics score for a sample to levels that are low by international standards because the size of primary schools, 2010 of the teacher workforce has grown more rapidly than student enrol- ment (Figure 1). Existing ratios are below international benchmarks 60 Average Grade 5 mathematics score (%) associated with good education quality and recent evidence in In- 50 donesia shows that, at these levels, the relationship with learning outcomes is weak (Figure 2). Put another way, analysis suggests that 40 increasing student-teacher ratios from these low levels would not ad- 30 versely affect student learning outcomes. 20 The impact on the education budget of increased teacher hiring 10 has been compounded by the ongoing teacher certification pro- gram. Recent increases in public education spending have largely 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 been absorbed by increased teacher hiring as well as improved pay Primary school student teacher ratio for existing teachers. The ongoing certification program, which aims to certify all teachers by 2015, guarantees certified teachers a pro- Note: The weak relationship between student-teacher ratios and learning out- comes is confirmed by regression analysis controlling for school characteristics, fessional allowance equivalent to their basic pay. While a recent im- principal and teacher education and experience and district fixed effects pact evaluation found little effect of certification on raising student Source: School based management survey (World Bank, 2010) and Education learning, the program is having a significant impact on the budget. Public Expenditure Review (World Bank, 2012) 1 The impact of staffing standards on the size and distribution of the teaching force In recognition of the importance of teacher management, the gov- ernment has issued a number of different regulations to set stan- dards for staffing levels at schools. The latest regulation was issued in late 2011 to provide guidelines to provinces and districts to man- age government employed teachers, to exert some control over civil service teacher recruitment and to improve the current distribution of teachers. The regulation, the joint decree, was issued by the five ministries1 collectively responsible for setting out guidelines on the management of government teachers. However, existing staffing standards do not adequately address teacher overstaffing issues in primary and junior secondary Photo: World Bank schools. Based on the latest school level information on teachers and In 2012, 35% of teachers were certified and the professional allow- students, it is possible to assess the impact the standards contained ance accounted for 9% of total public education spending. Projec- in the latest joint decree would have if fully implemented. This analy- tions from the recent Education Public Expenditure Review suggest sis reveals that full implementation of existing standards would not that as more teachers become certified, the burden on the education change the overall need for significantly (See Box 1, Figure 3). For budget will be enormous and potentially crowd out other important example, at the primary level, teacher requirements under current education investments. standards would reduce the number of teachers required from exist- ing levels by approximately 65 thousand (4% of the current teaching Reversing the downward trend in student-teacher ratios will be force). Furthermore, student-teacher ratios would remain low; full necessary if the resources needed to expand educational oppor- compliance with national standards would raise national student- tunity and raise education quality are to be realized. With limited teacher ratios by one student at the primary level and two students scope for significant further increases in public education budgets, at the junior secondary level. existing resources will need to be used more effectively if the govern- ment’s ambitious goals for improving educational opportunities and Figure 3: The overall size of the teaching force is similar to the raising quality are to be achieved. Raising student-teacher ratios to requirements of national staffing standards outlined in the joint levels that would not endanger student learning outcomes has the decree potential to realize significant resources. Simple estimates suggest Actual numbers of teachers in 2010 compared with requirements under the that raising the student-teacher ratio in primary and junior second- staffing standards in the joint decree ary schools by 5 students, a level Indonesia was at in 2001, would realize savings of approximately 22% in the salary bill. Raising the 1,600,000 student-teacher ratio to 28 students, a level similar to other lower- 1,400,000 Number of teachers middle income countries, would reduce the overall salary bill by 31% 1,200,000 equivalent to the total amount currently being spent by government 1,000,000 on university education. 800,000 600,000 The unequal distribution of teachers gives rise to further ineffi- 400,000 ciency and reinforces other patterns of disadvantage. The distribu- 200,000 tion of teachers across schools can be very unequal. It is common 0 for rural and remote schools to have teacher shortages while urban teachers estimated needs teachers estimated needs 2010 2010 2010 2010 schools have more teachers than national staffing standards dictate. primary junior secondary Moreover, more qualified and experienced teachers are frequently concentrated in wealthier urban areas. For example, over half of all Civil service (PNS) primary and junior secondary school teachers in urban areas have a School hired (non-PNS) four year university degree compared to only 20% of teachers in rural Local government (non-PNS) remote locations. Making the distribution of teachers more equitable by ensuring that poor and remote schools have an equal share of Note: See box 1 for a description of how the estimates were calculated. qualified and experienced teachers is also likely to raise overall levels Madrasahs are not included in these estimates. of learning and narrow learning disparities. Source: NUPTK and MoEC school level data, 2010 Ministry of Education and Culture, Ministry for Government Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reforms (MenPAN), Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Religious Affairs 1 2 Box 1: Estimating teacher requirements based on the joint decree Estimated teacher needs are based on the standards outlined in the technical guidelines of the joint decree and the interpretation of these guidelines by MoEC. A summary of the key aspects of the technical guidelines: Primary school teacher requirements Junior secondary school teacher requirements One teacher per taught group In schools with more than 96 students: minimum of 32 (SSN) and maximum of 36 (MSS) students per taught group In schools with more than 168 students: minimum of 28 In small schools (<96 students) minimum of 1 teacher per (SSN - national standards) and maximum of 32 (MSS - subject minimum service standards) students per taught group In small schools (<168 students): minimum of 6 class Each teacher teaches a minimum of 24 hours per week teachers per school All schools have one sport and one religious teacher If a teacher’s teaching load exceeds 40 hours per week, an additional teacher is required All schools have a minimum of 1 teacher per subject No data is available at the school level on the number of students in each taught group. Therefore, the estimates of teacher needs use the student-teacher ratio as a proxy for the number of students per taught group. This is not ideal as it assumes students are distributed evenly across classes and grades. This is likely to mean that in some schools the teacher requirements may lead to class sizes that fall outside of the MSS maximum and national standard minimum. Teachers hired by schools make up a significant part of the exist- approximately 37 thousand teachers could transfer from districts ing teaching force particularly at the primary level. In 2010, school in one province to fill deficits in other provinces to further improve hired teachers represented 30% and 36% of the total number of pri- teacher redistribution. mary and junior secondary school teachers respectively. These teach- ers have not gone through formal hiring procedures and are not Figure 4: A large number of teachers need to be transferred to always hired on the basis of school staffing standards. Furthermore, achieve a more equitable distribution of teachers central and local government estimates of teacher need frequently Scale of redistribution necessary to comply with current staffing standards in exclude school hired teachers and result in many districts reporting primary and junior secondary schools, all teachers, 2010 overall civil service teacher deficits. 180,000 180,000 While estimates show that the overall teaching force is too large 160,000 160,000 Number of teachers Number of teachers there are teacher deficits in some subjects. For example, at the pri- 140,000 140,000 120,000 120,000 mary level there is a surplus of class based teachers but a deficit of 100,000 100,000 sports teachers. In junior secondary schools there are a large num- 80,000 80,000 ber of surplus Bahasa Indonesia and religion teachers and a deficit 60,000 60,000 of computer and local content teachers. Teachers are also not evenly 40,000 40,000 20,000 20,000 distributed with some schools facing teacher shortages while others 0 0 have significant numbers of surplus teachers. primary junior secondary The scale of teacher redistribution necessary to allocate teachers no. of existing teachers to move within districts no. of existing teachers to move between districts more equally is considerable. If local governments redistributed no. of existing teachers to move across districts existing teachers to fulfill the latest standards, approximately 340 thousand primary and junior secondary school teachers or 17% of the total workforce would need to be transferred. Most of this redis- Note: The estimates show the number of teachers currently in schools with ex- tribution would involve moving teachers within the same districts. cess teachers (according to the staffing standards outlined in the joint decree) that could be transferred to take up teaching in schools with deficits in their staff- However, approximately 70 thousand teachers would need to be ing levels. The estimates include both PNS and non-PNS teachers. Madrasahs are moved from districts with excess teachers to deficit districts in the not included in these estimates. same province (Figure 4). After transfers within and across districts, Source: MoEC school data (2010) and NUPTK (2010) 3 The proportion of civil service teachers (PNS) that would need to ly low student-teacher ratios. For example, 39% of primary schools be redistributed is similar to the overall teaching force. The central in East Java have fewer than 120 students despite being densely government only has influence over the redistribution of civil service populated (i.e. population density of 828 people per square kilo- teachers and it is therefore instructive to look at the levels of trans- meter). Given that 14% of teachers and 21% of all primary school fer required for these teachers alone. It turns out that a significant, students are located in East Java, raising teacher efficiency by in- if somewhat smaller proportion of civil-service teachers would need creasing school enrolments in this province could realize significant to be transferred to comply with national standards. Approximately, savings. 11% of all civil-service primary school teachers and 27% of junior secondary school teachers would be required to move to improve As Indonesia continues to urbanize, strategies to address small teacher distribution in accordance with the recent joint decree. schools will become increasingly important. Estimates suggest that by 2025 approximately two-thirds of the Indonesian population will live in urban areas, up from 50% in 2005. The implications for school- Strengthening teacher management ing will be enormous as demand for schooling shifts from rural areas to urban areas. In rural areas, school enrolments are likely to shrink The analysis of the staffing standards associated with the joint de- and strategies to adjust school provision will be necessary. Other cree shows that current approaches to tackling overstaffing and countries (e.g. China and countries in Eastern Europe) have faced sim- distribution inequalities do not go far enough. It highlights the ilar challenges and one approach has been to merge nearby schools. risk that student-teacher ratios will remain too low and geographi- While geographical barriers, distance and community resistance can cal disparities in teaching quality too wide even if existing staffing limit the potential for school mergers, some districts have already standards are successfully implemented. So what can be done to had some success (see Box 2). strengthen current reform efforts? Additional efforts to address staffing issues in small schools are Introducing a consistent set of national staffing norms that are needed. Multi-grade teaching has been used successfully in other easy to understand and implement is important. Currently, there countries to tackle staffing issues in small schools. In Indonesia, are at least three sets of national regulations that outline different multi-grade teaching is already practiced in a small number of pri- staffing norms. This creates confusion amongst local governments mary schools and training for teachers in the approach is available. about which regulations they should adhere to making it more dif- However, these pilot programs have not been successfully expanded. ficult to hold them accountable for teacher distribution. A single set At the junior secondary level, dual or subject-based teaching also has of staffing standards set at the national level that are easy to under- the potential to improve the efficiency of staffing in small schools. In- stand, consistent with other regulations (e.g. 24-hour rule) and im- formally, dual subject teaching takes place but reforms to pre-service prove the efficiency of teacher distribution are required. training courses and permitting certification in more than one sub- ject are needed to exploit the increased flexibility it brings. Addressing staffing inefficiencies in small schools Table 3: Primary and Junior Secondary School Size, 2010 Staffing standards for small schools are a key contributor to Junior the low student-teacher ratios in primary and junior secondary Primary Secondary schools. At the primary level, approximately a third of schools have less than 120 students (Table 3). These schools commonly have one Average student enrolment per school 173 261 learning group, or class, for each grade and under current staffing norms would require a total of eight teachers: six class-based and a % of schools with less than 150 students 48 40 sports and religious teacher. Staffing levels of this kind results in low Average students per learning group 16 25 student-teacher ratios. For example, nearly a fifth of primary schools have student-teacher ratios of 10. Student-teacher Ratio 9 9 The large number of small schools is commonly explained by the % of schools with fewer than 120 students 34 33 low population density of many areas in Indonesia. Where areas are Average students per learning group 13 23 sparsely populated, the size of schools can be limited because the Student-teacher Ratio 10 10 number of potential students in any school’s catchment area can be small. For example, 64% of all primary schools have fewer than 120 students in East Kalimantan where population density is very low (64 % of schools with fewer than 90 students 19 25 people per square kilometer). Average students per learning group 10 20 Student-teacher Ratio 12 11 However, it is also the case that some of the most densely popu- lated provinces have large numbers of small schools and relative- Source: MoEC school data, 2010 4 Box 2: Successful merging of schools in Bantul In 2000, the local district education office in Bantul, Yogyakarta realized that many of its schools had very few students. In some schools it was not uncommon to have only 5 students in each class. Faced with growing budget pressures and the high cost of maintaining a large number of small schools the district began to explore ways in which the number of schools could be reduced. It set a number of criteria for identifying primary schools that could potentially be merged: 1. Enrolment levels below 150 students 2. Distance between schools to be merged to be less than 1.5 kilometers 3. No geographical obstacles such as rivers, railway lines, highways, or mountains separating the schools The success of the school merging program can be ascribed to the local government’s responsiveness to the concerns of all stakeholders. For example, teachers and school principals of merged schools were concerned about being transferred to schools far away from their homes. The local government ensured that teachers were transferred to schools close to their homes and promoted well-performing principals to school supervisors. The local government also worked with affected communities to socialize the importance of the proposed merger. It also supported the conversion of old school buildings for other uses. For example, in many communities old school buildings were converted into training centers of pre-schools. The program of merging schools has been successful. According to district records the number of primary schools has fallen from 578 in 2002/03 to 356 today. The primary student-teacher ratio in Bantul was 20 in 2010, well within levels of teacher provision necessary for quality education.2 And despite the merging of schools, Bantul continues to perform well on the annual UN examination. Improving the equity of teacher distribution the schooling of their own children, availability of suitable accom- modation and challenges of living in unfamiliar areas. The result is Improved teacher distribution requires the strengthening of exist- that poor remote areas frequently have fewer teachers than they ing mechanisms that govern redeployment. Transfers across dis- need and have teachers that are less well qualified than those in ur- tricts and provinces tend to be done on an ad hoc basis and rely on ban areas. individual teachers identifying openings and schools initially agree- ing a transfer. When transfers are agreed the budget for the salaries of The government introduced a remote area allowance in 2007 to transferring teachers are moved to the receiving district or province. encourage teachers to teach in remote areas and improve their It seems unlikely that districts and provinces would be willing to lose motivation. In 2012, approximately 53,000 teachers were in receipt a teacher and the associated resources to effect a transfer. These rela- of the allowance. This is a relatively small number compared to what tively informal mechanisms for redistribution therefore are unlikely is needed and teachers that are currently receiving the allowance to be sufficient to realize the large redistribution required to achieve were already working in remote areas. Despite the limited coverage a more equitable distribution of teachers. of incentives of this kind they have the potential to improve teacher performance. In a study conducted in Papua in 20113, absenteeism While it may be difficult to move existing teachers it is possible that rates for teachers receiving incentives for teaching in remote areas the distribution can be improved over time by allocating newly were lower compared with other teachers. However, the study also qualified teachers to schools with the greatest need. A successful noted that the coverage and targeting of the remote area allowance program was introduced in Gorantalo district in 2006. The local gov- were weak and this resulted in many teachers not receiving the sup- ernment introduced a policy to only employ teachers who agreed to port they needed to teach in remote areas. These results suggest that be posted to schools that required their particular skill set. Teachers incentives of this kind need to be strengthened to maximize their im- also agreed to an 8 year contract with the local government to be pact on the distribution of teachers. redeployed inline with the changing staffing needs of schools within the district. This allowed new teachers to be deployed to schools with Exploiting opportunities to reshape the teaching force greatest need as well as gave the local education office the flexibility to move teachers according to changing need. Government plans for further expansion of ECED services and sec- ondary education present opportunities for redeployment. The An underlying cause of unequal teacher distribution is teachers’ natural expansion of the education system due to population growth concerns about teaching in poor and remote communities. This un- as well as government plans for further expansion will mean that willingness is driven by a number of concerns teachers have around more teachers will be required in some areas. This provides an oppor- 2 3 The student teacher ratio only includes class based teachers. UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS and UNICEF. 2012. We like to be taught: a study on teacher absenteeism in Papua and West Papua. 5 tunity to improve the distribution of teachers by redeploying existing Conclusion teachers rather than hiring new teachers. It is important to recognize that improvements to the current dis- Reductions in the teaching force resulting from retirement also tribution of teachers will take time to implement. Many of the re- present opportunities to improve efficiency. In the next five years, forms require changes to the way teachers are trained and deployed. approximately 10% (150,000 primary and 30,000 junior secondary In order to do this, the necessary training opportunities and revised school teachers) of the teaching force will reach retirement age. regulations on how teaching is organized need to be developed. This represents a large opportunity to adjust the size of the teach- ing force without having to resort to the reassignment of teachers Education is central to Indonesia’s ambitious plans to acceler- across levels. ate economic growth and reduce poverty. If these plans are to be achieved, the education system needs to provide broader access to Breaking the link between central government education opportunities and improve the quality of existing provi- transfers and teacher hiring sion. The government has signaled its commitment to achieving these goals by earmarking 20% of the national budget to education The current system for hiring civil-service teachers creates strong However, significant inefficiencies exist which left unchecked will incentives for local governments to continue to increase the size severely constrain future improvements in education quality and of their teaching forces. For example, intergovernmental resource access. Teacher oversupply and the low student-teacher ratios that transfers are partly determined by the size of a local government’s result are a key determinant of existing inefficiency. Tackling these pay roll. Breaking the link between the size of intergovernmental inefficiencies through improved teacher management is vital if na- transfers and the civil service would potentially limit the incentive for tional goals for education and accelerated economic growth are to local governments to hire teachers beyond those required. be realized. Recommendations 1. Introduce a single set of staffing standards that are consistent with other regulations and raise student teacher ratios in small schools through the introduction of dual-subject and multi-grade teaching. 2. Explore opportunities to merge neighbouring schools with low levels of enrolment 3. Improve teacher hiring and deployment: • Expand incentives for better deployment of new teachers • Break the link between teacher hiring and the size of intergovernmental transfers Researched and prepared by Samer Al-Samarrai, Daim Syukriyah and Imam Setiawan, World Bank. Preparation of this document received partial funding from the Government of the Netherlands under the supervision of the World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government of Indonesia or the Government of the Netherlands. For more information, please contact Mae Chu Chang, mchang@worldbank.org or Megha Kapoor, mkapoor1@worldbank.org. Human Development Sector World Bank Office Indonesia Stock Exchange Building Tower 2, 12th Floor Jl. Jenderal Sudirman Kav. 52 - 53 Phone: (021) 5299 3000 Fax: (021) 5299 3111 Website: www.worldbank.org/id/education Printed on recycled paper