STR – Policy B: STR – Actual

Opportunities for Equity, Efficiency and Quality Improvement 49 Pool of relief teachers One of the proposed strategies for providing greater flexibility in teacher deployment is to establish a pool of teachers in each district to act in a relief capacity. The extent of such a pool has not been assessed, but could be trialed in a number of selected districts, where there is an excess of teachers. As these teachers are currently drawing salaries, there would be no extra salary costs for the foreseeable future. Teacher housing Assistance with the provision of teacher housing in remote areas is mentioned in the Teacher Law and the recommendations in Section 7. At this stage, there is no quantum available. Should Government proceed to implement this policy, adequate provision will need to be made in the appropriate budgets. School Mergers It is possible that further savings could be obtained by the carefully managed merger of small schools. Where there are very small primary schools in close proximity and where a merger would not create any access or equity problems, then districts could work with school communities to effect rationalization. This has already been tried successfully in two districts with reportedly outstanding results. 32 Consideration could be given at the district level to the provision of incentives for schools that agree to mergers where such mergers result in recurrent salary savings. As the scope of the potential for mergers is not known, it is not possible to make any reasonable projections based on the sample data. Applying certain assumptions regarding the quantum, the Finance paper has attempted some cost saving projections 33 . SUMMARY The most significant resource implications will arise from the implementation of the provisions of the Teacher Law that provide for both professional and location allowances. While the impact of the professional allowance will be gradual, the impact of the location allowance should be immediate. Significant savings could be made, over time, by increasing the student-teacher ratio so that it reaches a level in line with that of other AsiaPacific countries. Not surprisingly, the impact of attrition and reduced intakes is likely to be gradual. However, over time, the savings will be significant. Given the shortage of quality inputs, the need to further expand junior secondary education, and the additional cost of implementing the Teacher Law, the increased STR is one of the few areas in which cost-effectiveness measures may be implemented. Further, with the proposed improvements in teacher welfare, the opportunity exists to negotiate some trade-off on workloads, especially with those teachers who will receive increased salaries, allowances and other benefits under the Teacher Law. 32 For a case study on school mergers, see Annex E: Examples and Case Studies 33 Ibid.