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

尽管过去20年来入学率有所提高，但全球仍有7.81亿成年人无法用任何语言进行读写（联合国教科文组织，2015年）。在本研究的主题尼日尔，只有不到30%的人口被认为是识字的（IMF 2013），虽然大量研究集中在提高学校参与率，但对于如何以具有成本效益的方式改善学习仍有相当多的争论。不断出现的一个制约因素是教师缺勤：在西非，教师缺勤率在27-40%之间（透明国际，2013年）。经济学的实证研究发现，教师监督可以提高教师出勤率，但对学习的影响好坏参半（格雷罗等人，2013年; Duflo等人，2012年; Cilliers等人，2014年）。整个撒哈拉以南非洲地区移动的电话技术的发展有可能影响偏远农村地区教师、社区和教育服务提供者之间的关系。通过允许政府定期与偏远地区沟通，移动的电话可以改善教师出勤的管理。移动的电话还可以让社区向教育提供者提供反馈，从而提高社区参与度。根据目前国际发展部-教育与社会研究中心的一项赠款，我们的研究小组正在尼日尔进行一项随机对照试验，在非政府组织实施的成人教育方案的背景下，向社区教师提供基于移动的“监测”和教学支持-每周给教师、学生和村长打电话。先前的一项研究表明，这些简单的每周一次的电话可以提高成年学生的阅读和数学技能0.12 - 0.15标准差。与标准成人教育课程相比（Aker et al 2019）。令人惊讶的是，这种简单的干预导致了学习成果的变化，特别是在没有对教师进行任何经济激励的情况下。在我们目前的工作中，我们了解到，尼日尔的小学系统也面临着类似的挑战;预算有限、路途遥远和教师合同往往使教育部和学校校长难以监测和向教师提供支持。据估计，49%的小学教师在一个月内错过任何学校，通常在1-3天之间（Malam Maman 2016）。这项建议旨在从三个方面探索我们现有研究中新的但相关的途径。首先，我们会在不同的教育环境，即小学，试行以移动的电话为本的教学方法。其次，我们将努力了解什么类型的移动的参与-即，只打电话给老师，而不是打电话给老师、校长、村长和家长，是减少教师缺勤和增加学习的最有效办法。第三，我们将通过仔细测量教师出勤率和动机、学生出勤率和学习以及家长参与来更好地理解电话可能影响教师、学生和社区的机制。首先，干预使用相对低成本的技术，不需要专门的软件。此外，它扩展了现有的教师绩效研究，但没有提供经济激励（格雷罗等人2013，Cueto等人2008，Glewwe等人2010，Muralidharan和Sundararaman 2011，Duflo等人2012，Muralidharan等人2014，Cilliers等人2018）。我们的研究还将涉及社区参与和学习成果的文献（Jimenez and Sawada，Banerjee et al 2010，比斯利and Huillery 2016）。这项研究将通过尼日尔和美国的政府、大学和研究公司合作伙伴之间的独特合作来实现。

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.