Teacher Job Satisfaction, Student Achievement, and the Cost of Primary Education in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa

Katharina Michaelowa ()

No 26273, Discussion Paper Series from Hamburg Institute of International Economics

Abstract: Low teacher motivation and its detrimental effect on student achievement are central problems of many education systems in Africa. Using standardized data for student achievement in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Madagascar and Senegal, this paper analyzes the empirical links between various policy measures, teacher job satisfaction and primary education outcomes. It appears that there is only very limited evidence for the effectiveness of intensively debated and costly measures such as increasing teachers salaries, reducing class size, and increasing academic qualification requirements. Other, more simple measures such as improved equipment with textbooks are both more effective and less costly. It also appears that teacher job satisfaction and education quality are not necessarily complementary objectives. Especially those measures ensuring control and incentive related working conditions for teachers, significantly increase student achievement while reducing teacher job satisfaction. In addition, teachers' academic qualification beyond the baccalaureat, while beneficial for students' learning, tends to lead to a mismatch between teachers' expectations and professional realities, and thereby reduces teachers' job satisfaction.

Keywords: Labor; and; Human; Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42
Date: 2002
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/26273/files/dp020188.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:hwwadp:26273

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.26273

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Paper Series from Hamburg Institute of International Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().