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The myth of teacher shortage in India
19 October 2021, 12:30 pm–1:30 pm
In this webinar, Professor Geeta Kingdon will discuss major economic efficiencies that can result from an evidence-based approach to teacher recruitment and deployment policies.
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
Caine Rolleston
This event will examine the widespread perception in India that the country has an acute teacher shortage in public elementary schools, a view repeated in India’s National Education Policy 2020.
Using official District Information System for Education (DISE) data, we argue that there is hardly any net teacher deficit in the country since there is roughly the same number of surplus teachers as the number of teacher vacancies.
We will show that measuring teacher requirements after removing the estimated fake students from enrolment data, there is a great reduction of the required number of teachers and an increase in the number of surplus teachers. We will also show that by removing fake enrolment and making a change to the teacher allocation rule to adjust for the phenomenon of emptying public schools, we get an estimated net teacher surplus.
We will highlight that if government does fresh recruitment to fill the supposed nearly one-million vacancies as promised in the National Education Policy 2020, the already modest national mean pupil teacher-ratio would fall at a permanent fiscal cost of nearly Rupees 480 billion (USD 6.6 billion) per year in 2017-18 prices - higher than the individual GDPs of 56 countries in that year.
Although this event is free and open to everyone, it will be particularly useful for academics and students interested in Education and International Development.
Related links
Image: courtesy of TESS India (CC BY 2.0)
About the Speaker
Professor Geeta Gandhi Kingdon
at UCL Institute of Education (IOE)
Geeta Gandhi Kingdon is Professor (part time) at the UCL Institute of Education, where she holds the Chair of Education and International Development. Her research interests are in economics of education in developing countries, particularly in South Asia and Africa. She has investigated school effectiveness, gender in education, labour market outcomes of education, and the political economy of education. Apart from publishing research and opinion editorials, and serving on the editorial boards of academic journals, she advises governments and donor agencies on education related matters. In 2013, Professor Kingdon was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Kingston University London for “her outstanding contributions to education and development". Professor Kingdon also works as President of a non-profit registered society school in India.