people and planet

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As information on occupations is not collected in
the same way everywhere, it may not be possible to
establish a consistent definition of a comparison group
of ‘other professionals’ across countries. In addition,
self-employed professionals often do not declare all their
income, resulting in underestimation of the earnings gap
between them and teachers, who are more likely to be on
civil service contracts.
Nevertheless, such an approach is likely to give a more
consistent view of the relative pay of teachers and its
evolution over time than what is currently available.
Adopting this approach will require improved coordination
and the establishment of an inter-agency mechanism with
the support of the International Labour Organization.
ATTRITION
Teachers may leave the profession for many reasons,
from retirement or dismissal to illness or death, as well
as voluntarily. While some level of voluntary attrition
in the first years is desirable (when teachers discover
they have no vocation for teaching), excessive attrition
represents a waste of resources on teacher training and
recruitment. Higher turnover and attrition may disrupt
students’ classroom and learning experiences, especially
in disadvantaged areas where teaching is viewed as a less
attractive profession and where replacing teachers may
be difficult and time-consuming.
The degree to which teachers quit the profession
voluntarily to search for other work can serve as
a potential indicator of low motivation among
teaching professionals.
While few countries regularly report overall annual
teacher attrition rates, what rates are available vary
widely between and within countries. In sub-Saharan
Africa, the most recent annual attrition rates among
public primary teachers range from 1% in Mauritania to
15% in Togo. Among 14 OECD countries with comparable
data, attrition rates for public school teachers were
below 3% in three countries, between 3% and 6% in six
and above 6% in five (OECD, 2005c). Attrition rates also
change within countries over time. In the United States,
attrition rose by 41% between 1988/89 and 2008/09,
from 6.4% to 9% (Ingersoll et al., 2014).
the list in a survey of anglophone sub-Saharan African
countries (Mulkeen, 2010). In high income countries,
attrition rates are highest among new teachers
for reasons such as lack of support and broader
disillusionment with working conditions and pay. Higher
rates of teacher attrition are observed in disadvantaged
areas and schools for children with special education
needs. Teachers in such schools are also more likely
to transfer to more affluent schools (Borman and
Dowling, 2008; Boe et al., 2008; Ingersoll et al., 2014;
OECD, 2005c).
Working conditions can play a major role in influencing
turnover. In Punjab province, Pakistan, 24% of public
schools reported that a teacher had left in the previous
year, compared with 71% of private ones (Andrabi et
al., 2008), which had lower pay and less job protection.
In Mexico, the attrition rate of community teachers in
remote areas was higher than in other schools but fell
from 22% to 17% after the introduction of a monthly
stipend incentive (IADB, 2014). In Uganda, teacher
attrition fell by 24% from 2005 to 2006 following a 33%
pay rise (Mulkeen, 2010).
Data collection methods are inconsistent. They may not
clearly distinguish between teaching and non-teaching
staff, or whether attrition refers only to teachers
leaving the profession altogether or includes teachers
moving between schools. Commonly, attrition rates
are gathered through an annual survey conducted at
school level. But this leaves considerable margin for error.
More appropriate data collection would be through a
centralized human resources database that records both
attrition and transfers between schools. An alternative
approach would be a survey that collects information
directly from teachers. For example, in the United States,
the National Center for Education Statistics carries out
the Schools and Staffing Survey about every four years
and then revisits a sample of teachers a year later as part
of the Teacher Follow-up Survey (NCES, 2014).
Where surveys capture the reasons for attrition,
resignation, rather than retirement, is often the most
significant cause. Voluntary resignation was top of
2016 • GLOBAL EDUCATION MONITORING REPORT 339