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Teachers in Indian government schools and colleges hold the privilege of job-security. They are supported by strong teacher unions and instances of being fired are rare. They go through a pre-service training programme which does nothing to address the realities of the classroom. In-service training is infrequent and is lecture-based.
Currently, there is no formal system to evaluate teachers. They are judged on their promptness in giving data to frontline administrators and attending trainings diligently. Promotion and increase in pay are on the basis of seniority and political patronage. According to the theory of social distance, it is difficult for parents to hold teachers accountable when they are not from the community and belong to a different socio-economic background.
There are two aspects at play here. One, there is a top-down structure of command, which is weak and non-iterative. Second, it measures inputs rather than outcomes. Lant Pritchett?s conceptualisation around incoherence in accountability is useful in explaining this situation. While the goal of the system is to improve student learning, there is no information collected on the progress of students nor is any evaluation done by teachers.
Solutions for teacher accountability
A structured framework is required to improve accountability of teachers through an efficient recruitment process, continuous performance evaluation and the creation of a bottom-up accountability structure.
The first step would be evaluating teachers based on learning outcomes of their students, which in turn would determine their career progression. To do this, it is required to redefine accountability in terms of learning outcomes at all levels in the education system, specifically at the level of the frontline administrators and teachers.
A caveat to be considered is the risk of encouraging the phenomenon of ?teaching to the test?. Teachers need to be held liable for non-performance in the classroom and enforceability needs to be built into the system to?increase accountability of the teachers.
The second step would be building a competent recruitment process. Pritchett, in his research, argues that teachers are selected on the basis of ?thin? qualifications and eligibility tests, which are weak indicators of performance. In his words, teaching is a ?thick? activity which is transaction intensive. It involves making contextualised decisions on a daily basis. The skills required for such activity is impossible to identify through a test.
Further to this analysis, experts urge for the hiring of local teachers on an apprenticeship basis. This can be for a period of three to five years, giving ample time to observe performance and gauge effectiveness of a candidate. Post this period, only those who demonstrate effective teaching outcomes will be selected. The hiring of local teachers would also mean reducing the social distance between teachers and parents, thereby promoting non-hierarchical accountability.
Inefficient government initiatives?
To empower parents in holding teachers accountable, the Right to Education Act (RTE) mandated the setting up of a School Management Committee (SMC) for each school. The SMC comprises of parents, teachers and local leaders. This was an attempt to use a bottom-up accountability approach. It was thought that SMC’s could help in reducing teacher absenteeism, provide more time for individual teacher duties and eventually improve student learning.
In reality, SMC’s have been ineffective in achieving the goal of increased teacher accountability. The theorisation of the bottom-up accountability framework stresses the importance of changing power structures. Parents are unaware of their power and responsibilities as SMC members. The existing power structures make it impossible to hold teachers accountable, as they are supported by strong teacher unions and often local politicians as well.
Parents can play a big role
Parent-influence networks need to be strengthened. In some areas, the involvement of civil society organisations has increased the SMC’s effectiveness. In other regions, awareness of parents and the engagement of local leaders in the SMC’s has led to positive results.
The failure of many government driven initiatives is indicative of the need to dismantle existing power structures. The government needs to make a conscious effort to augment these bottom-up approaches by strengthening the influence networks of parents. In this context, promoting accountability driven by the poor and the oppressed should be part of a broader effort to drive social change and remove inequality.
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