UNICEF Mongolia - Teachers College Columbia University

CHAPTER 3: RECRUITMENT INTO TEACHING
When we compare the findings from Mongolia with those for the league leader Singapore, two structural
weaknesses become apparent:
• Low stakes for admission. The test scores and the review criteria for admission into teacher
educaon have become more exclusive over the past three years, but they sll are not sufficiently
selecve. In Mongolia, fewer but beer and more highly movated students should be admied
to teacher educaon studies. There is a risk that students enroll in teacher educaon as their
second or third choice because they were not admied into more selecve degree programs.
• Very low university-to-work transion rates. It appears that teacher educaon studies
represent for many students a generalist degree that equips them for all kinds of professions and
not necessarily for the teaching profession. Only 23.4 percent to 36 percent of graduates ever
become teachers. The low university-to-work transion rate is endemic to teacher educaon
studies not only in Mongolia but also in OECD countries. Typically, the transion rate is higher
for primary school teachers than for secondary teachers, if for no other reason than the fact
that secondary school teachers have greater opportunies as subject specialists who can work
in a wide array of professions. Nevertheless, the low transion rate represents a huge waste
of human capital as well as government resources. An alignment of the pre-service teacher
educaon curriculum with pedagogical rather than generalist skills and knowledge would help
teacher educaon students idenfy more strongly with the teaching profession and would most
likely improve the transion rates.
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3.6. Summary and Recommendations
This chapter examined the effecveness of pre-service teacher educaon in Mongolia based on the data
that were made available by the Mongolian State University of Educaon (MSUE). The main findings are
summarized in the following:
(1) Oversupply of teachers. Every seventh bachelor’s degree student in Mongolia, or 13.8
percent of all undergraduate students, is enrolled in teacher training and educaonal studies.
In 2010/2011, 20,989 students were enrolled in the four-year degree program. In the same
year, however, only 1,171 teachers were newly hired. Clearly, there is an oversupply of qualified
teachers who are not absorbed by the labor market.
(2) The case study of MSUE. Approximately 53 percent of teacher educaon students study at
MSUE. This study therefore focused on an analysis of MSUE data and selected three departments
that, according to the senior management of MSUE, are very different from each other: the
Department of Primary Teacher Educaon, the Department of Foreign Languages, and the
Department of Mongolian Language and Literature.
(3) Recruitment into teaching indicators. This study was able to use four of the five indicators for
effecve teacher educaon that are commonly used in teacher educaon research: admission
rate and criteria, enrollment rate, compleon rate, and transion rate. There were no data
available on the fih indicator, the retenon of newly qualified teachers in the profession two
to five years aer their employment as teachers.
TEACHERS IN MONGOLIA: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON RECRUITMENT INTO TEACHING,
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AND RETENTION OF TEACHERS
(4) Admission and enrollment rates. The required test scores have been raised over the past
few years, making it more difficult to get accepted into teacher educaon. The average test
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