UNICEF Mongolia - Teachers College Columbia University

CHAPTER 5: TOTAL PAY OF TEACHERS AND THE BONUS SYSTEM
5.2. THE TRIPLE BONUS SYSTEMS
There are currently three types of bonuses given to teachers; some are more clearly defined than
others:
• bonus for winning at Olympiads or compeons
• bonus for outcomes-contract
• skills bonus for quarterly performance (also referred to as A, B, C bonus)
5.2.1. Bonus for Olympiads and Competitions
This parcular type of bonus is a legacy from the socialist past and existed throughout the CEECIS region.
It has become controversial among educators because it encourages teachers to focus on the bestperforming
students, rather than pay aenon and give support to each student in the class. Curiously, the
philosophy of Olympiads/compeon is diametrically opposed to promoon requirements (promoon
to methodologist, lead teacher, and advisor) as well as outcomes-contracts, in which the performance
of the enre class of students—rather than high-performing individual students—is used as a reward
criterion. Nevertheless, these Olympiads and compeons are very popular among teachers for social as
well as financial reasons. They are professional networking events for commied teachers.
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The awards for Olympiads and compeons are given twice a year to those students, as well as their
teachers, who scored among the first three ranks. In addion, teachers hold their own Olympiads and
compete against each other. Teachers receive a higher award if they themselves win than if their students
win. Olympiads exist at the district, province, and naonal level. The interviews show that teachers were
awarded prizes in the range of 5 percent to 50 percent of their monthly salaries for their performance in
Olympiads or compeons.
From the 123 teachers in this study database, forty-eight (48) teachers or 40 percent of all teachers
were awarded prizes for their performance in Olympiads or compeons. Even though the number of
teachers who win Olympiad or compeon awards is high, the rao of 40 percent is most likely not
representave of the enre teaching workforce in the country. 37
5.2.2. Bonus for Outcomes-Contract
Outcomes-contracts (Mongolian: ür düngiin geree) have been well documented in the research
literature. 38 Aer public protests of teachers in the mid-1990s, the base salary was supplemented with
qualificaon and skills bonuses to augment the salary of teachers. This parcular regulaon from 1995
was one of the predecessors of the bonus for the outcomes-contract that came into effect as of 2003. The
revitalized form, however, has more in common with the public sector management and finance reform
than with the regulaon from the mid-1990s. These contracts are not restricted to teachers but are used
for all public servants, and are an offspring of the results-based management iniave that, with seed
funding from the Asian Development Bank, made it into the public administraon sector a few years
TEACHERS IN MONGOLIA: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON RECRUITMENT INTO TEACHING,
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AND RETENTION OF TEACHERS
37 There might very well be a selecon bias in that principals or educaon managers scheduled interviews with the best-performing
teachers that represent the different age groups in the teaching staff. Our only sampling criterion for the selecon of teachers
was maximum variety with regard to age/teaching experience.
38 See Steiner-Khamsi, Gita and Stolpe, Ines (2006). “Outcomes-Based Educaon: Banking on Policy Import.” Chapter 7 of Educaonal
Import. Local Encounters with Global Forces in Mongolia. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Translated in Mongolian as
“Боловсролын бодлогын импорт: Даяар шинэчлэл ба Монголын орон нутгийн хүчин зүйлс” Улаанбаатар: Адмон.
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