UNICEF Mongolia - Teachers College Columbia University

CHAPTER 6: TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS
The 28 examined schools in this study hire for the following two reasons substute teachers:
• Shortage in parcular subjects: This applies in parcular to music teaching but also to a lesser
extent, English, primary school, biology and chemistry. Thirteen (13) of the 35 educaon
managers reported a shortage of music teachers in their division. This has to do with the fact
that pre-service teacher educaon instuons do not offer a specializaon in music educaon.
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In contrast to the significant lack of music teachers, the other shortages are negligible.
• Not enough hours to hire a teacher full-me: Schools assign teachers hours in addional
subjects so that they have a full teaching load and a full-me job. This applies especially to
single-subject teachers in fields that typically have low instruconal hours. For example, a
biology teacher in a small secondary school with one class per grade was unlikely to have a
full-me job, unless the educaon managers assign addional hours in subjects for which the
teacher did not have any training. This parcular problem would be resolved if pre-service
teacher educaon programs would only offer mul-subject teacher preparaon (e.g., prepare
teachers in biology and chemistry rather than in one subject alone). In this study, eight (8) out of
35 educaon managers idenfied the small teaching load of teachers as main reason for hiring
substute teachers.
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Strikingly, the prototype of a teacher who takes on many addional hours in other subjects only to
improve the income disappeared in the wake of the 2007 salary reform. Assigning addional hours in
addional subjects used to be, at closer examinaon, a “retenon strategy” of school administrators to
ensure that qualified and experienced teachers did not quit the job because of the low base salary.
There is, however, a need to insert a disclaimer here. We have reasons to suggest that educaon
managers underreport the number of substute teachers at their school for commonsensical reasons;
that is, they believe that an experienced teacher or a (non-specialist) teacher who has been teaching
a parcular subject for many years is as effecve in teaching as a young teacher with the “correct”
subject specializaon or license. Repeatedly, educaon managers assured us during the interviews that
experienced teachers who lack the subject specializaon are as effecve, if not more so, than young
subject specialists.
6.2. LICENSING PROCEDURES AND CRITERIA
For the first group of non-licensed teachers—recent graduates of pre-service teacher educaon—the
licensing requirements appear to be in fact more tedious than for the second group and third groups of
non-licensed teachers. The second and third groups only need to take “specializaon conversion” courses
in teacher training instuons to receive a license for teaching in the parcular subject. The universies
have a greater autonomy in the licensing of specializaon or degree converters than in licensing their
own graduates. The following may explain the discrepancies in this area of quality assurance:
42 The Arts and Culture University offers a program with dual-majors cultural studies and music teaching or conducng and teaching.
However, rarely do these graduates choose teaching as their career; they pursue the other major. Alternavely, the School/College
of Culture graduates who usually become the employees in charge of Culture Centers at soums do not go into (full-me) teaching
as they would need to enroll in the specializaon conversion courses for 1 year (and oen stay unemployed during that me).
But in soum-center schools these professionals, with a background in cultural studies, tend to work as part-me music teachers.
TEACHERS IN MONGOLIA: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON RECRUITMENT INTO TEACHING,
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AND RETENTION OF TEACHERS
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