The Mechanism of Performance of Para-Teachers in India: Policy for Quality Teachers

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday II)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: International contexts of teacher development

Proposal

RESEARCH BACKGROUND
The importance of quality of teachers has been proved and claimed internationally. Previous research has shown the quality aspect of teachers has influence on student learning/achievement. Also, in the international discourse on quality of education, the quality of teachers has been put emphasis on in achieving quality education from the World Conference on Education for All in 1990 up to today, the Education 2030 Incheon Declaration and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. In this study, ‘quality of teachers’ means ‘teacher performance’ which leads to student learning/achievement.
In India, two types of teachers are found in formal elementary education: regular teachers and para-teachers. The former type is in the mainstream of teaching professions and has permanent position in the country. And, the latter is a kind of contract teachers which are defined as “teachers under a fixed-term contract.” (Duthilleul, 2005). Unlike regular teachers, para-teachers generally have unstable contractual tenure (performance-based renewable) and lower status in qualifications, trainings, and salaries. However, para-teachers have long been recruited for some decades in place of regular teachers especially at government primary schools, and their duties are not so much different from the ones of regular teachers. The main reasons behind the recruitment of para-teachers in place of regular teachers are rapid increase of enrolment in elementary education and severe fiscal deficits of the state governments because of the movement of Universal Elementary Education (UEE).
The expansion of para-teachers raises several concerns including the quality aspect. One of the concerns is that para-teachers who have lower status do not perform as well as regular teachers due to the lack of teaching abilities and motivation. However, some previous studies showed that para-teachers perform equally good or even better than regular teachers in some cases (e.g., EdCIL (India) Limited, 2009; Goyal & Pandey, 2009). It has been discussed that a reason behind the reasonably good performance of para-teachers may be their accountability caused by unstable contracts, but the exact mechanism of their performance has not been clarified yet. Therefore, this study focuses on the mechanism.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND QUESTIONS
There are three objectives to conduct this study: 1) To clarify the mechanism of the performance of para-teachers for student learning/achievement, 2) To gain new knowledge on para-teachers in terms of quality and have implications on the schemes, 3) To have lessons on teacher policy in terms of quality from the case of para-teachers in India. Then, one main question and three sub-questions are posed to fulfill the objectives.

Main Question
How is the mechanism of the performance of para-teachers for student learning/achievement in India?
Sub-Questions
1. How do para-teachers differ from regular teachers in status and duty in practice?
2. What is the difference of performance for student learning/achievement between para-teachers and regular teachers perceived by the stakeholders?
3. What factors and how do they affect the performance of para-teachers for student learning/achievement?

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
To answer the questions, phenomenological approach, and qualitative methods such as semi-structured interview and observation are adopted in this study. The research targets are four types of stakeholders: 1) para-teachers, 2) regular teachers, 3) supervisors (head teachers or community leaders), and 4) parents. It is because to make a comparison between para-teachers and regular teachers and to have plural perspectives to see the performance of para-teachers. 17 persons at two government primary schools were investigated. The state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) is purposefully selected as a research site since the para-teacher scheme has been popular there. Also, some previous studies on quality of para-teachers were conducted in UP and showed para-teachers performed not worse than regular teachers in student achievement. For analysis, research framework was created based on the previous research on teachers and quality of education.

RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE
There is a movement of abolishing the para-teacher schemes in these years in India. However, the schemes would not disappear soon since India has not achieved UEE and the country is still struggling with the shortage of teachers. It is predicted that India will have to recruit about 3 million teachers to achieve universal primary education by 2030 (UNESCO eAtlas of Teachers, n.d.). Thus, having implications on the schemes by clarifying the mechanism of the performance of para-teachers is meaningful. Also, it is expected to have lessons on policy for quality teachers from the case of para-teachers in India.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
At research site, the para-teachers had unstable and lower status, but more duties compared to the regular teachers in practice. However, the performance of the para-teachers for student learning/achievement in terms of motivation was perceived as well as the regular teachers by the stakeholders. Both types of teachers come to school (‘attendance’) and teach in class (‘engagement’). The reasons behind the performance of para-teachers in motivation would be the sense of ‘mission’ to the teaching profession and the ‘accountability’ to the students, not their status such as unstable contractual tenure or salaries.

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS
The reasonably good performance of para-teachers, who have lower status than regular teachers, would be driven by their wills to teach students as teachers, not by the accountability caused by their unstable contractual tenure. Therefore, the best way to have quality teachers would be attracting well-self-motivated candidates to the teaching profession. For this, the para-teacher schemes should be reconsidered since the lower status would demotivate para-teachers in the long-term. It would negatively affect their performance, and then their students who are the future candidates for teachers. Grading up the status of para-teachers by giving appropriate rewards for their duties may be effective to gain quality teachers in India.

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE WORKS
The samples are too small to generalize the results of this study (two para-teachers). Also, there were some challenges (e.g., language barrier in English-Hindi) in the field research, and the data-collection was limited. Therefore, regarding the mechanism of the performance of para-teachers in the aspect of teaching abilities, it was not able to be examined in this study. Thus, additional fieldworks are necessary to reinforce the arguments and make a decisive conclusion.

Author

• Mio Morimoto, Waseda University