UNICEF Mongolia - Teachers College Columbia University

CHAPTER 2: THE TEACHING WORKFORCE
substute subjects only to fulfill the requirement of a full teaching load of 19 hours per week. Instead,
they are able to teach the two or three subjects for which they have received the degree or license.
Similar to other countries in the region, Mongolia embarked on a curriculum reform in 2006 that aimed
at integrang several subjects into a subject area. The new curriculum enabled students to select an
elecve and study that subject in greater depth aer having learned the fundamentals in a more broadly
defined subject area. In 2011, the reform of 2006 was revoked and single subjects (e.g., biology, chemistry
physics) were re-introduced at secondary level. A closer examinaon reveals that the integraon of
subjects only took place in urban sengs. Schools in rural areas connued with teaching single subjects
and, in effect, skipped the 2006 reform.
Even now, preferences for single over integrated subjects are divided. At one end of the spectrum are
Mongolian experts who promote mul-subject teaching in pre-service teacher educaon for all the
reasons listed above. Equally strong, however, are opponents of mul-subject training. Their argument
is related to the university entrance exam (that only tests applicants in individual subjects rather than
in subject areas) as well as the academic rigor required for being an effecve teacher. The discussion on
depth versus breath is not unique to Mongolia. It is a long-standing discussion, and educaonal systems
tend to go back and forth on the queson of how many subjects a future teacher is supposed to be able
to teach. The debate in other educaonal systems, however, is over whether future teachers should
be prepared to teach two or more than two subjects. None of the OECD countries prepare teachers
for one subject only, because there is a high likelihood of that teacher taking on teaching hours in nonspecialized
subjects, especially in smaller schools. Nevertheless, the demand for teaching one subject
only is a recurrent theme in Mongolia and in Central Asia and resurfaces every few years. To some extent,
the single-subject camp has mainly the teachers in the city and aimag-center schools in mind who are
indeed able to teach a full teaching load in their subjects only. In soum-center schools and smaller aimagcenter
schools, teachers tend to teach two or more subjects, even though they are only prepared to
teach one or two subjects.
2.5. TEACHER AVAILABILITY AND SHORTAGE
In 2010/2011, there were 26,457 full-me teaching posions needed. 15 Of those posions, 26,358 were
filled, amounng to an availability rate of 99.6 percent, or a teacher shortage of 0.4 percent, respecvely.
Stascally, teacher shortage is virtually non-existent in Mongolia. However, as numerous other UNICEF
studies on teachers have shown, 16 stascal averages mask the extent of real teacher shortage for a
variety of reasons: for example, schools cope with the shortage of qualified teachers in a given subject
by filling the posion with unqualified or under-qualified substute teachers. The stascal figure on
teacher shortage thus only captures the posts that, despite the coping strategies menoned above,
could not be filled at the beginning of the school year. In Kyrgyzstan, for example, there are ten different
coping strategies at the school level that ulmately falsely represent a lack of teacher shortage when
stascs are reported. Many of these strategies, however, have a detrimental effect on the quality of
teaching. The following coping strategies are very common in the CEECIS region (Central and Eastern
Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States) and parcularly in the Central Asian countries
(notably, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan):
1
2
3
4
5
6
TEACHERS IN MONGOLIA: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON RECRUITMENT INTO TEACHING,
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AND RETENTION OF TEACHERS
15 Stascal Abstract (2011), Table 2.16.
16 See, in parcular, UNICEF CEECIS. (2011). Teachers: A Regional Study on Recruitment, Development and Salaries of Teachers in
the CEECIS Region. Geneva: UNICEF CEECIS.
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