40 Most teachers are not provided with housing. This is the major complaint of
teachers in the large majority of LICs. A fortunate minority of mainly secondary teachers in African countries has been housed at mission and
other faith-based schools. However, there is a growing recognition of the importance of teacher’s housing. For example, 15 per cent of the classroom
construction budget has been allocated to teacher’s housing in Uganda and a housing allowance of 15 per cent was introduced in the late 1990s in Malawi.
Teacher unions are also introducing housing loan and credit schemes for example in Rwanda and Zambia.
7.6 SECONDARY INCOME Earning secondary income is central to the coping strategies adopted by
teachers to meet minimum household subsistence needs. Secondary employment can be both teaching and non-teaching related. Private tutoring
is the dominant activity in many countries. In some countries, this is school- based, for example, Academic Production Units in secondary schools in
Zambia and after-school extension classes in primary schools in Sierra Leone. In Vietnam, primary schools offer only two-three hours of publicly
funded lessons each day after which pupils are expected to pay. The norm, however, is for teachers to give either individual or group tuition to pupils
outside of school. Private tuition amounts to a ‘shadow’ education system in many countries with very large proportions of pupils involved.
Other very widespread education-related activities include teachers selling summaries of textbooks as ‘pamphlets’. Each subject pamphlet sells for
Le.10,000 US3.50 in urban secondary schools in Sierra School. Teachers also sell food and drinks to pupils at their schools during break times.
Common non-education activities include farming in rural areas and trading in urban areas.
It has been suggested that secondary employment activities encourages opportunistic behaviour among teachers, which can undermine service
delivery in government-funded schools. In particular, teachers can pressure their pupils to pay for private tutoring by not teaching the entire curriculum
during regular classes and restricting progression to the next grade. 7.7 TEACHER UNIONS AND INDUSTRIAL ACTION
The extent of strikes and other industrial action among teachers in LICs is not fully recognised. Time series data is not available, but it appears that there
has been a considerable increase in strike activity among teachers in Africa in recent years. The strength of teacher trade unions varies considerably from
one country to another, but teacher unions are generally quite strong in South Asia. Multiple teacher trade unions are common in LICs. More research is
needed on the key factors that shape the influence of teacher unions in determining the level and structure of teacher remuneration as well as staffing
policies and practices.
41 Strike action has been precipitated by the failure of governments to implement
agreements with teacher trade unions for example in Burundi and Kenya. Contract teachers are also negotiating hard for ‘equal pay for equal work’,
especially in West Africa.
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8. COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AND DECENTRALISATION
