Redistributing teachers using local transfers

Abstract

In this paper we show that local redistribution of educational resources via teacher transfers between neighboring public schools can improve equity in access to teachers. Transfers from teacher surplus schools to deficit schools within a 10 km radius in Haryana, a state of India for which we have geo-coded location of schools in 2013, enables 19 percent of deficit schools to meet the minimum requirement. Using estimates from other studies, we posit that the impact of this redistribution on girl's primary completion rates (PCR) could be as high as 1.2 percentage points for those from poor households: roughly the annual growth of the PCR in the state. We also show that the donor and recipient schools are, on an average, matched in characteristics: in terms of the development of the region, its rural/urban location, connectivity and school characteristics. A comparison of transfers that follow our redistribution rule to transfers resulting from an actual transfer policy shows that while our rule removes deficits in rural areas, the actual transfers favored more developed regions.

A sustainable decision‐making framework for school consolidation policy

“…A few years’ implementation of the SSA and RMSA has seen access levels increase, and students have started to enroll. However, it is difficult to ensure high‐quality infrastructure and teaching resources in every school due to scarcity of resources (Agarwal et al, 2018). Consequently, different state governments have merged proximal schools (preferably within walking distance of each other) and combined their resources to offer better quality teaching and infrastructure.…”

“…A few years' implementation of the SSA and RMSA has seen access levels increase, and students have started to enroll. However, it is difficult to ensure highquality infrastructure and teaching resources in every school due to scarcity of resources (Agarwal et al, 2018).…”