Higher pay for Teachers

The 3rd of February 2022 marked a historic day for the Maldives education sector - specifically for teachers. Delivering his inaugural address at the opening session of the Parliament, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih shared promising developments in the field of education with 11 key pledges. One of the pledges was a salary increment of 56 percent for teachers by May 2022. Essentially, this meant a pay raise from MVR12,628 to MVR19,740 per month, excluding overtime.

As promised, in May 2022, Government increased the teachers’ salaries. On the same day President Solih announced the salary increment, Teachers' Association of Maldives (TAM) released a press statement, welcoming the proposal, one which TAM described as a change they have been eagerly waiting for. In the statement, TAM said that it gave them ‘an immense hope for the future’ and that ‘a country prospers when all workers are considered and are valued equally with a dignified living wage’.

TAM is the largest NGO representing the teachers of the Maldives. TAM has been advocating for the rights of teachers for several years now, and a frequent issue that TAM has raised concerns about is the pay of teachers. They have been advocating for better pay even with the hashtag #MinimumWageAvaskurey. On Labour Day of 2021, TAM expressed concern that teachers are not paid overtime and that teachers have to pay for school supplies out of pocket.

Revised Salaries

As pledged, with the salary of May, school educators saw their revised salaries. Speaking in a video message on the 2nd of May 2022, President expressed hope for a positive change due to the new framework for principals, teachers, and other employees of the education sector.  President further said that ‘teachers have been paid far less than they deserve for their work’ and hoped that teachers will welcome the changes brought within the government’s capacity.

In concluding his remark, President was confident that the increment marks a ‘new chapter in nation building’ with aspirations of high demand for the jobs in the education sector. This revision will result in spending MVR 488 million from the state budget on the salaries of the education sector.

Benefits of an Increment

In 2012 UNESCO stated that for every US$1 spent on education, as much as US$10 to US$15 can be generated in economic growth. Some of the expected benefits of this salary increment are reviewed below.

1.     Positive impacts on student performance: An article published in the Review of Economics and Statistics (Volume 82, Issue 3) in August 2000 examined the link between teacher wages and student outcomes. According to this study, a 10 percent increase in teacher pay was estimated to have produced a 5 to 10 percent increase in student performance.

In addition to this, the long-term benefits for students were also discussed. Although the main reason for this correlation is clear, it is hypothesized that high pay increases professionalism or induces higher effort through a sense of reciprocity, thus resulting in better student performance.

2.     Strengthening the pipeline: A 2010 study conducted by TIME magazine in the US showed that 76 percent of respondents agreed that many people do not go into teaching because it does not pay enough. Therefore, increasing teacher pay will likely lead to strengthening the talent pipeline. Raising pay will make teaching a more appealing career overall, as in the case of Singapore, Finland, and Korea where many graduates at the top of the class choose the teaching profession.

3.     Staffing non-urban areas: A higher pay also means better chances of staffing non-urban areas, such as islands away from the greater Male’ region. It is a fact that local teachers from many atolls migrate to the Male’ region in search of better-paying jobs. Therefore, the higher salary makes working in one’s home island more appealing in many aspects.

4.     Fewer teachers working second jobs: To augment the generally lower-income of teachers, many teachers work second jobs. In the case of Maldives, providing private tuition has been a lucrative business for many years. A 2016 US-based study on this same issue found that raising teacher pay meant that teachers did not have to work a second job, which in turn boosted teacher morale and helped them stay focused in their classrooms.

Therefore, it would be interesting to see whether Maldivian teachers dependent on a second job will decide to move forward with it or not. Focusing on one job would also mean a better work-life balance for teachers.  

5.     Happier teachers: In early 2000, the Indonesian government increased teachers’ pay over a period of 10 years. It was noted that this increment saw that teachers were happier with the money they earned, faced less financial stress, and saw lower absenteeism.

How strong is the impact?

In 2019, the findings from a study conducted by José María Cabrera (Universidad de Montevideo, Uruguay) and Dinand Webbink (Erasmus School of Economics, Rotterdam, Tinbergen Institute, IZA) were published. Their study focused on the question of whether higher salaries yield better teachers and better student outcomes.

They found large effects on the teaching staff in the targeted schools as teachers are sensitive to variation in pay. However, despite this the impact on student performance was small. Consequently, the researchers recommended that increases in teacher pay may only improve student outcomes if it increases those teacher characteristics that actually improve student outcomes.

A similar finding was reported in the 2018 published study in The Quarterly Journal of Economics (Volume 133, Issue 2) titled ‘Double for Nothing? Experimental Evidence on an Unconditional Teacher Salary Increase in Indonesia’. The new Indonesian constitution (2000-2002) substantially increased government spending on education by 20 percent.

Teachers’ salary increment was phased in over the course of 10 years (2006-2015). Upon exploring the impacts of this rise, it was learned that there were no impact on student tests in the language, mathematics, or science, raising questions about the impacts on student performance.

Phys.org, a UK-based science, research and technology news aggregator in 2019 also reported findings in Uruguay which showed that increasing teacher salaries by about 25 percent for teachers working in poor neighborhoods had little to no impact on student learning. Similar studies show the same for programs in African countries, like the Gambia and Zambia.

Moving Forward

Research on teachers demonstrates that teachers’ only problem is not a lower pay package. Globally, issues from the teaching profession that has come to light include a lack of time and resources, an increase in workload, and a lack of confidence in the protection of their rights. In the case of Maldives, as TAM has reported, in addition to the pay, other issues need urgent addressing. This includes issues related to promotions, overtime, and workload.

Moving forward, it will be equally important to properly study and assess the impact and changes to the teaching profession, teacher performance, and student outcomes, from the salary increment. After all, an article published on Mihaaru on 18th June 2022, citing local Colleges and Universities,  reports that despite that increment, there has been no increase in demand for teaching degrees offered.