The Management of Teachers in Primary Schools: Using Phone Calls for Oversight

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Despite improvements in school enrolment over the past 20 years, 781 million adults worldwide are still unable to read and write in any language (UNESCO 2015). In Niger, the subject of this study, less than 30% of the population is considered to be literate (IMF 2013).While a substantial body of research has focused on increasing school participation, there is still considerable debate about how to improve learning in a cost-effective way. One constraint that has consistently emerged is teacher absenteeism: In West Africa, teacher absenteeism rates range between 27-40% (TI 2013). Empirical research in economics has found that teacher monitoring can lead to improvements in teacher attendance, with mixed results on learning (Guerrero et al 2013, Duflo et al 2012, Cilliers et al 2014). The growth of mobile phone technology throughout sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to affect the relationships between teachers, communities and education service providers in remote rural areas. By allowing governments to communicate with remote areas on a regular basis, mobile phones can improve the management of teachers' attendance. Mobile phones can also allow the community to provide feedback to education providers, thereby increasing community engagement. Under a current DFID-ESRC grant, our research team is conducting a randomized control trial in Niger that provides mobile phone-based "monitoring" and pedagogical support to community teachers in the context of an NGO-implemented adult education program - whereby teachers, students and village chiefs are called on a weekly basis. A prior study showed that these simple weekly phone calls could increase adult students' reading and math skills by .12-.15 s.d. as compared with the standard adult education curriculum (Aker et al 2019). It is somewhat striking that this simple intervention led to changes in learning outcomes, especially without any financial incentives for teachers. During our current work, we learned that similar challenges confront the primary school system in Niger; limited budgets, long distances and teacher contracts often make it difficult for the Ministry and school directors to monitor and provide support to teachers. It is estimated that 49% of primary school teachers miss any school in a month, often between 1-3 days (Malam Maman 2016). This proposal seeks to explore new but related avenues in our existing research in three ways. First, we will pilot the mobile phone-based approach in a different educational context, namely primary schools. Second, we will seek to understand what types of mobile engagement - i.e., calling the teacher only, as compared with calling the teacher, school director, village chief and parents - are the most effective in reducing teacher absenteeism and increasing learning. And third, we will seek to better understand the mechanisms through which phone calls could affect teachers, students and communities by carefully measuring teacher attendance and motivation, student attendance and learning and parental involvement.This research contributes to the existing literature in several ways. First, the intervention uses a relatively low-cost technology that does not require specialized software. In addition, it expands upon existing studies on teacher performance, but without providing a financial incentive (Guerrero et al 2013, Cueto et al 2008, Glewwe et al 2010, Muralidharan and Sundararaman 2011, Duflo et al 2012, Muralidharan et al 2014, Cilliers et al 2018). Our research will also speak to the literature on community participation and learning outcomes (Jimenez and Sawada, Banerjee et al 2010, Beasley and Huillery 2016). This research will be achieved through a unique collaboration between governmental, university and research firm partners in Niger and the US.