Background

Over the last 15 years the Government of Afghanistan hasrecruited large numbers of primary school teachers andexpandedtheiraccesstotrainingopportuni1es.Despitetheseaccomplishments,thereremainsadearthofqualifiedteachersinremoteruralcommuni-esandconcernsaboutthequalityofeduca&on provided by community-based educa)on (CBE)classes.

The deficit of qualified rural teachers is a par3cular issue forCBE.Itisextremelyeffec+veatexpandingaccesstoeduca+on,andprovidersclaimthatCBE isofequalorbe-erqualitythanthatofferedinformalschools(exis3ngresearchsupportstheseclaims,Burde&Linden,20131.Yetques%onsremainaboutthequality of educa.on provided. As one staff member of aProvincialEduca.onDepartmenttoldus:

“If I amappointedas the educa2onminister, Iwill considerabalance in improving educa1on's quality throughoutAfghanistan. In the past, there was good quality but notquan%ty in the educa%on sector. Today, the process ofimprovingquality,however, isnot implemented inabalancedmanner…if I were the educa0on minister, I would have paidmoreseriousa*en,ontoeduca,on'squalityandquan,ty.”

Educa%onstakeholdersinAfghanistantendtoassumeatrade-off between teacher qualifica2ons and village-familiaritywiththeteacher.TheNGOswhoprovideCBEarguethattheremoteloca%on of many CBE villages can make it difficult to recruitqualified teachers and that parents are likely to be morecomfortablesendingtheirchildrentolearnwithteacherstheyknow.Insuchcases,theyarguethathiringateacherfromthecommunity, even if that teacher has lower qualifica6ons,willproduce be*er educa,on outcomes while learning anda"endance may suffer under teachers from outside of thecommunity. In contrast, the Ministry of Educa!on (MoE)arguesthatitisbe,ertohireateacherwhomeetsaminimumlevelofqualifica-ons,becausethequalityoftheirteachingwillbebe$er.Moreover,teacherswithouttheminimum

1Burde,D.,&Linden,L.(2013).Bringingeduca5ontoAfghangirls:Arandomizedcontrolledtrialofvillage-basedschools.AmericanEconomicJournal:AppliedEconomics,5(3),27–40.

qualifica(ons cannot be hired as civil service employees butmust be contracted on a temporary basis, possiblycompromising their mo.va.on and the longer termsustainabilityofCBEclasses.

This assumed tradeoff raises important policy ques5ons.Specifically it isunclearwhetherparentsarereluctanttosendtheirchildrentolearnwithteacherstheydonotknowanditisnot apparent that hiring teachers without the MoErequirementsactuallyleadstolowerlevelsoflearning.Aspartof its efforts to understand the bestmodels for high qualityeffec$ve and sustainable community-based educa)on, ALSEhasthereforecollectedandanalyzeddatacomparingdifferentteacherrecruitmentstrategies.

Specifically, we examined whether teacher qualifica-ons orteacher familiarity with the community affect studenta"endanceandstudentlearningoutcomes.Wealsoexaminedwhether teacherrecruitmentstrategieschangesetsof factorsthat themselves affect student a/endance and studentlearning outcomes. These include parent demand foreduca&on, sa&sfac&on with available schooling op.ons,teachercapacity,andteachermo0va0on.

Theinterven*on

ALSE examined teacher hiring prac3ces as one keyprogramma'cvaria'on.WherepossibleALSEpartnerNGOs,CARE and CRS, recruited CBE teachers from within eachtarget village who meet the current MoE qualifica5ons ofgrade 12 gradua*on. In the case of CARE villages, it waspossible tofindqualifiedteachers fromwithin thevillage inall cases. However in CRS villages where there were noaccredited teachers, one of two processes was used torecruitteachers:

Assessment of Learning Outcomes and Social Effects of Community-Based Education, Afghanistan (ALSE)

Research Brief #3: Evaluating Trade-Offs in Teacher Recruitment

A Project by Professors Dana Burde (NYU), Joel Middleton (Berkeley), and Cyrus Samii (NYU)

Research Brief ♦♦ Volume 1 ♦♦ Issue 3 ♦♦ September 2016

Capacitybuildinghasbeendoneforteacherswhowehire...Insomevillageswecannotevenfindagraduateofgrade12.Wetrytofindhighschoolgraduatesandweneedtohavetheagreementofthe[MoE]andthecommunityandwesome%meshiresomeonewhohas[informalqualifica3ons].A"erthatpersonreceivesworkshops,thatchangeshimalot.Butoverall,therearesomanychallenges.Thequalityofteachingisn’tashighasitshouldbe.(NGOofficial)

USAID FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Copyright © 2016 by Dana Burde, Joel Middleton, and Cyrus Samii

(1) Qualifica(onspriori(zed:Teacherswhopossessat leasta grade 12 educa+on were recruited from outside thecommunity (either from a nearby village, the districtcenter, or the provincial center). These teachers wereprovidedwithfinancialincen1ves(40%increaseoverthecivil servant salary scale) to encourage them to live andworkintheremotecommunity;

(2) Familiarity priori,zed: Teachers were recruited fromwithin the village based on the level of their skills andpersonalcapabili-es.

Our research then examined whether there were differenteduca&on outcomes associated with these two randomassignments.

Dataanalysisandfindings

We evaluated these assumed trade-offs in teacher hiringprac%cesusingdatacollectedfromourhouseholdandteachersurveys, focusingon their rela#ve impactonchildren’s schoola"endanceandtestscores.Overall,wefindnoevidenceofatrade-offbetweenqualifica0onsandfamiliarityand,tothe contrary, weak evidence that an emphasis onqualifica(ons improves learning outcomes. Specifically ourdatasuggests:

• Hiring a teacher from outside the village does not harmattendance. In fact, attendancewas about 1.8 percentagepoints higher in communities where qualifications wereemphasized, though this is not a significant difference.Nordoesateacherbeingfromoutsideof thevillagereducethecommunity’sacceptanceofthatteacher.

• There isweakevidencethathiringamorequalifiedteacherfrom outside of the village boosts children’s learning. Wefind that hiring teacherswho have at least a twelfth gradeeducationhasamarginallypositiveimpactonchildren’stestscores(byabout0.137standardizeddeviations),thoughthiseffect isnot statistically significant. The lackof a significantdifference may be because the two groups of teachersactually have relatively similar profiles in terms of teachercapacity (measured by four main dimensions; communitysatisfaction with a teacher’s capacity, the amount of CBEoriented training teachers received, teachers’ educationlevels,andteachers’experience)andteachermotivation(asmeasuredbyparentperceptionsofteachereffort,reportsofteacher absenteeism, turnover in teachers, teachers’ jobsatisfactionlevel,andtimelinessofpay).

Butsupposingwetakethe(nonsignificant)es1matedeffectofhiring teacherswho have studied at least through grade 12from outside at face value. Then another way to look atwhether hiring qualified teachers from outside the village isworthwhileistoexaminethecosteffec(veness.Morequalifiedteachersaremoreexpensivetohire,so is the increase intestscores jus)fied by the addi$onal $0.41 cost per child? Weexaminedcosteffec.venesswithrespecttobothtestscores

anda%endance in Table1. First consider test scores.Resultssuggestthatforevery$100expenditureonschoolswherelocalteachers are priori,zed, there is an effect on test scores of0.142 standardized devia&ons. Where creden*als areemphasized,thises-mateis0.211sd.Thissuggeststhathiringqualifiedteachersiscosteffec1veinspiteoftheincreasedcostper teacher. Per $100 spent, there is a greater test scoreincrease for schools that emphasize hiring qualified teachersfrom outside. Results for a,endance similarly suggest thathiringqualifiedteachersfromoutsideiscosteffec5ve.

Table1:costeffec.venessanalysisforteacherhiringprac.cesTestScores A"endance

Effect Costperchild Effect(se) Per$100(se) Effect(se) Per$100(se)Schooleffect,standardrecruitment

$143.08 0.264(0.075)

0.142(0.041)

0.134(0.053)

0.072(0.029)

Schooleffect,outsiderecruitment

$143.49 0.401(0.080)

0.211(0.042)

0.152(0.045)

0.08(0.024)

In sum, the es&mated effect of recrui&ng teachers fromoutside on test scores and a+endance are posi.ve but notsta$s$callysignificant.Whenwetakethees+matedeffectsatface value and conduct a cost effec/veness analysis, we findthat recrui&ng teachers from outside may be a good use ofresourcestoincreasetestscores.

Futureresearch

Future rounds of ALSE’s research will inves8gate a thirdcondi&on of teacher hiring. Namely, whether teacherqualifica(ons influence the likelihood that CBE classes aresustained in the villages following the end of NGOinvolvement. Since teachers who do not meet the MoE’sstandards are ineligible to become civil servants and areinstead hired on temporary contracts it is important todeterminewhether thispolicy influences thesustainabilityofCBE classes in cases where they are taught by less qualifiedteachers.

To examine this ques/on we have randomly assigned 63villageswithCBEclassestobetransi4onedfromNGOtoMoEadministra)on a,er three years ofNGOprogramming,whilethe restwill con-nue tobe servicedbyNGOs.By comparingtheschoolsadministeredbytheMoEtothoseadministeredbythe NGOs, we will then be able to iden-fy mechanisms toboost the longer term outcomes of schools in remote ruralareas.

Inregardstothecontractteachers…becausetheseteachersdon’tgetprepared,theydon’tfeelthemselvesalwaysliketeachersandtheysaythatIhavebeenateacherforthese7months,andthenextyearIamnotsureatallwhetherIwillbe[hiredasateacher]orIwon’t.[Idon’tknow]whereIwillbe,whatwouldGodwantmetobedoingbythen.Therearethesethingsandatthesame,me,well,peoplewilltakeadvantageofthissitua(on.DEDofficial

Copyright © 2016 by Dana Burde, Joel Middleton, and Cyrus Samii