Is Spending Money The Solution For Improving Education?

Question

A recent World Bank survey found that 25% of government primary school teachers in India are absent from work. And out of those who turn up, only 50% teachers are actually engaged in the act of teaching while at work. This shows that increasing the budget for education will not alone solve the problem. The Government needs to see to it that the money is used efficiently. But Only 1 in 3,000 head teachers had ever fired a teacher for repeated absence (Source – World Bank). What do you feel is the reason behind such worrying statistics?

Answer 1

Human behavior is a delightfully, complex phenomenon that, if unexamined, can result in interventions (to supposedly correct "things") to actually exacerbate the original problem.  Absenteeism is one of those "things" that, across the globe, is misunderstood -and too frequently diagnosed as a "problem with the employee."

For my response, I'm removing the "primary school teachers in India" from the assumption, and considering human behavior in general relative to absenteeism.

All of human behavior operates within a content of some system, from the most personal and private -typically the family system- to the most proximate (beyond the family), the community, and then outward (like ripples in a pond) to the global and universal systems.  To better understand human behavior, it's critically important to review and analyze that behavior relative to the system engaging it.

Absenteeism is not -generally- a personality disorder or, as too many like to believe, "laziness," or "uncooperative," or "indifference."  And it's certainly not individualized when a department or entire organization is suffering from massive and consistent absenteeism (as you noted in your question).  As such, if any REAL attempts at uncovering and rectifying the problem are desired, then the focus must be on the "system" and not the "individual."

For starters, in America at least, educational systems are politicized.  That, in itself is problematic and, at a minimum, counterintuitive to the basic tenets of education.  However, that fact -political intervention on educational systems- is almost always ignored when discussions about improving the educational system arise.  To ignore the most egregious influence on a problem simply means (in my view) that there truly is no interest in resolving the problem ... but there will be plenty of rhetoric and wasted movement around the problem.  In my quite biased opinion, Americans have perfected that particular song-and-dance.

Generally, it's been noted -and extensively researched- there are three basic components that must be present to ensure employee productivity:

(1) The employee clearly has been told and understands the GOALS of her/his position relative to the overarching Goal of the organization

(2) The employee have available all the necessary RESOURCES to to successfully achieve the stated goals.

(3) The employee receives regular (not yearly or bi-annually) FEEDBACK  that is focused on improvement.

Most educational systems fail miserably in all three accounts and, as such, human behavior (not some management guru, or Superintendent, or Secretary of Education) mandates that without those three critical components available to the employee -the system will fail ... not the employee.

As such, my answer is NO ... spending money is not the solution for improving education.

Answer 2

I believe that the problem with education is the start that children get. When I was a kid, we came into kindergarten and first grade already knowing our alphabet and counting etc. We watched shows like Sesame Street and could even speak Spanish before we started school. As a second grade teacher, I have students that don't even know basic kindergarten 'stuff'. So, if the parents aren't going to prepare their kids, then we need more preschools.

Answer 3

A job dissatisfaction might trigger teachers to do that. The salaries might not be enough and they feel they should spend some other times on doing some work to earn more money. I believe firing them is not the only solution, rather the government should do survays and see if there are other shortcomins in its educational system.

Answer 4

The main reason behind this startling statistics is leniency of the authorities. Teachers too have got a habit of working only in fear of surprise visits. The interest from within to teach is missing in most cases. On many occasions the students do not turn up. Other reasons include bad working conditions. The infrastructure is not up to the mark in many places. Delayed salary payment also aggravates in discouraging teachers to work properly.

Now in this situation what can a Government do? Inadequate education in India is not just a funding problem. The working conditions needs to be improved, there should be frequent checks for absent teachers and strong action should be taken to improve attendance and effective teaching at work.

Providing Universal Education is one of the major goals of UN's end poverty by 2015 campaign. It also has a community http://www.orkut.co.in/Community.aspx?cm... Help in this noble cause of ending poverty.