Brain drain….or gain?Teacher attrition and mobility, focus on Africa

NGO-forum: September 2008,

Ellen Carm LUI/LINS

Brain Drain:

• Brain drain or human capital flight is the emigration of trained and skilled individuals ("human capital") to other countries, nations or jurisdictions.

• In this context, it refers to the emigration of teachers or education personnel in search of greener pastures.

• ‘Brain Drain’, is therefore a potentially serious barrier to economic growth, development and poverty reduction.

Qualified teachers contribute to quality teaching and learning.

• The World Education Forum (2000) recognised the crucial role of trained teachers in the achievement of the EFA targets.

• One of the strategies to achieve the EFA goals, as given in The Dakar Framework (2000), was to “identify, train and retain good teachers…”

• In their joint publication on teachers, UNESCO and the OECD(2001), argue that “a better trained teaching force is an important factor in educational quality… teachers’ subject matter expertise must be complemented by pedagogical competence”.

• The World Bank acknowledges, in its 2004 Background Paper for the Evaluation of the Bank’s Support to Primary Education, “Many studies find that teacher training is important.” The paper correctly observes that “better trained teachers are more effective in terms of cognitive achievement”(EI, 2007:16).

Education International, 2007:Investigate issues that affect the recruitment, supply

and retention of teachers, 6 countries in SSA:

Main Findings:

• The governments were not able to recruit adequate numbers of qualified teachers in most of the participating countries

• Either the country did not have enough qualified teachers, or it had failed to recruit them:

• For example, in Lesotho the survey revealed that more than 40% of the teachers are unqualified, while in Kenya and Zambia, there were 40 000 and 15 000 unemployed qualified teachers, respectively. (EI:2007)

ZNUT General Secretary:

“It is apparent that there is a critical shortage of teaching staff at various levels of our institutions of learning in general and critical subject areas in particular due to unattractive low salaries and unfavourable working conditions of service and unpredictable deployment policy dictated to conditionalities arrived at between the government of the Republic of Zambia and…international financiers such as [the] World Bank and International Monetary Fund.”

(Oslo, NETF, 2005)

Levels and causes of teacher attrition at primary school level(2004) (EI, 2007:53)

• There is no single cause of teacher attrition in the countries surveyed

• Brain drain was reported to be a problem in Zambia, particularly at sec. level.

• Most of the teachers who left for greener pastures went to Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland, Namibia and Angola.

• A small proportion of those who resigned joined the public service, while others went to teach in private schools.

Teacher supply and recruitment

• The Gambia, Lesotho, Tanzania and Uganda had a shortage of qualified teachers. For example, in 2006, 44% of the primary school teachers and 42% of the secondary school teachers in Lesotho were unqualified.

• Kenya and Zambia do not have adequate numbers of teachers in their schools (evidenced by high pupil-teacher ratios) yet they have so many qualified teachers “roaming the streets” (EI,2007:13).

• These countries have failed to significantly increase their teacher stock due to budgetary considerations and agreements reached with international financial institutions(EI,2007:13).

Teacher attrition• The average rate of teacher attrition in the six

countries is 4%, most of it attributed to retirement, resignations, death and dismissals .

• Many respondents felt that death due to AIDS related illnesses has contributed to the high rate of attrition, especially in Lesotho and Zambia.

• Brain drain has also contributed to the high level of teacher attrition in Zambia, particularly at secondary level.

• The main cause of brain-drain was cited as low salaries and poor conditions of service (EI, 2007:13).

Teacher remuneration and motivation

• The survey reveals that teachers’ salaries are generally low and below the poverty datum line, i.e. defined as a monthly budget of an average low income family (5-6 members)

• Conditions of service are poor and many schools do not have accommodation, or adequate accommodation for teachers.

• The situation is worse for unqualified teachers, earning between 40 and 60% of the salary of the lowest paid qualified teacher.

• The low salaries and poor conditions of service have contributed to the high level of brain drain in countries like Zambia and to a general decline in the status of the teaching profession.

Teacher absenteeism

• Teacher absenteeism was reported to be a problem (not a major one, though) in 3 countries: Lesotho, Tanzania and Zambia.

• The main causes were irregular pay days (e.g. in Tanzania and Zambia) and illness, probably related to HIV and AIDS.

Monitoring Global Needs for 2015 (UNESCO:2006:2)

Skilled labour and migration:

“Well-educated migrants world wide are not only a source of revenue but potential key actors in their countries’ development. Perhaps it is time to stop seeing them as a loss of investment”. (UNESCO, 2006/7)

From Brain drain to Brain gain or Brain Circulation? Internal Report to NORAD, Littr.review, May2007, E.Carm,

• Concepts and perspectives on this issue has emerged from Brain drain to Brain gain and Brain Circulation

• Controversial issue in North-South debates: from formerly, when people left in search of greener pastures, to a fierce competition among Northern companies and universities for top researchers, engineers, medical professionals and managers.

• Globalization has made temporary workflows almost commonplace,”Brain exchange” allows sending and receiving countries alike to benefit from the specialized experience of expatriate professionals, (UNESCO, 2006/7)

Pull factors• Higher wages.• Job opportunities.• Relatively good working conditions.• Freedom from political instability or oppression.• The use of selective immigration policies

designed to attract high skilled workers, while deterring others seen as less economically beneficial to receiving countries. In the case of academics, these are augmented by access to research funding and facilities and the potential to collaborate with other researchers

Push Factors include:

• A lack of life chances.• Low living standards.• Political and social instability or repression.• A lack of opportunities to utilize skills.• Natural disasters and environmental or ecological

deterioration.• African economies and societies over the last 20 years has

been the• Imposition of debt-induced structural adjustment including

dramatic cuts in government budgets, a prominent push factor in relation to the loss of academic labour from developing countries to other developing countries and from developing to developed countries.

Positive or negative impacts?

Mark Regets (Institute for the Study of Labour in Bonn):

“most of the global gains from migration – the creation and transfer of knowledge, the emergence of a skilled and educated workforce and the fostering of commercial ties – are shared to some extent by countries on both sides of the equation”. (UNESCO 2006/7)

A more complex picture: external and internal, urban and rural, elites and poor, (Skeldon, 2005).

• Skilled moving to developed countries come from the developed world, from large, middle-income developing countries, several of which actively train people with skills for the international market.

• The relatively small numbers of skilled from small, poor economies can cause a substantial loss from the total pool of the skilled in those economies.

• In both large and small labour markets in the developing world the skilled are likely to come from urban areas rather than from the poor rural sector where they may be most needed.

• Internal brain drain exists in most developing countries (often not considered) as skilled employees from the public sector are attracted to private institutions, international NGOs and the like.

Continue….• Regular interchange of qualified staff between public and private

sector is healthy for both sectors, if the flows are in both directions.• The links between skilled migration and less skilled migration and

between international and internal migration are still poorly understood .

• Internal brain drains and how these are linked, (if at all), with the transnational flows must be an essential part of any real policy-relevant discussion of the ‘brain drain’.

• How the elite groups are linked to groups further down the urban hierarchy and reaching into the poorer parts of states remains an open question.

• The distinction between the freedom of the individual to move and the collective developmental needs of the state must be maintained

Commonwealth Survey on teacher migration in UK: (CS, 2006)

Types of working arrangements for overseas teachers in the UK: 1. Teachers can be granted a work permit for five years with the

right to apply for permanent settlement after four years, demand-driven, no fixed quotas.

2. Teachers from the Commonwealth who are on extended holidays to the UK and are under 28 years old, single and have no dependants can obtain ‘working holiday’ visas. Since the work has to be ‘incidental’ to the main purpose of the visit to the UK, all employment has to be temporary in nature, which in the case of the education sector means short-term ‘supply’ teaching.

Teacher supply, UK:

• Since the late 1990 it has increased by over 50 per cent and by 2003, the demand for overseas has teachers fallen significantly

• Teacher vacancy rate of one percent in late 2003: =>recently recruited overseas teachers are facing major difficulties in finding work.

• Migration:Teachers accounted for only 7 percent of the total work permits in 2000. (e.g.health 24%, IT 16% , managers and administration 21%, and engineering and related occupations 10% ).

UK approved work permits for teachers, 2001-2003

….se handout

Issues arising for potential/migrant teachers in UK:

• Most primary school teachers do not have the necessary educational background and professional teaching qualifications to be eligible for employment in the UK

• The majority of migrants from the Caribbean and South Africa are secondary school teachers.

• Teacher migration has been largely circulatory in nature; i.e. difficult to cope with the schooling culture and general working environment.

• Most overseas teachers are also employed as unqualified teachers and have to re-qualify in order to attain ‘qualified teacher status’.

Conclusive remarks, CL` survey:

• Evidence shows that the overall impact on teacher supply has been and is likely to remain minimal for the foreseeable future.

• The large majority of overseas teachers (both on work permits and working holiday visas) are from the ‘old’ Commonwealth countries, in particular Australia and South Africa and, to a lesser extent, New Zealand and Canada.

Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol(2007):

• The protocol is supposed to protect the rights of all stakeholders in the teacher recruitment process, especially that of source countries and recruited teachers.

• The protocol will also serve as an ethical guideline for the recruitment of teachers at an international level.

• It will provideda framework for countries such as SA to develop appropriate legislation on teacher recruitment.

Other international and regional migration surveys, (Bennell, 2004)

• Teacher migration from the Caribbean to Canada and the United States has been substantial for over two decades, New York City Board of Education recruited 600 teachers from Jamaica in 2001

• Small numbers of teachers from India have also found employment in schools in the US

• European countries have not generally faced serious teacher shortages and language prevents most teachers from English speaking countries working in these countries.

• Botswana and South Africa have employed large numbers of teachers from elsewhere in the continent, especially from Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Ghana.

Migration of teachers in — Botswana, England, Jamaica and South Africa, (Appleton, Simon et al, (2006) ).

• A third of trainee teachers in Jamaica intended to migrate. • A quarter of trainee teachers in South Africa intended to migrate. • Around a half or more of all teachers in each country were

interested in working abroad.• Much of the international recruitment was a transitional response

to disequilibria in the market for native teachers.• Both Jamaica and South Africa were targeted for recruitment

because of official perceptions of surpluses of native teachers—perceptions that were not long lasting.

• Demand for foreign teachers has been falling in England• Botswana has decided not to renew the contracts of expatriates in

order to promote employment opportunities for its own nationals• International teacher mobility is driven primarily by the prospect of

income gains

Impact of international teacher recruitment on the educational systems in developing countries:

Quantitative/Qualitative: (Appleton, Simon et al, (2006) ).

• In Botswana, they clearly gained from teacher mobility, by expanding its educational system

• Migrant teachers were replaced without serious adverse educational impacts schools directly affected by international migration in Jamaica and South Africa

• Shortages of staff were attributed to administrative delays rather than a lack of suitable candidates.

• It is possible that there are ‘knock-on’ effects on more disadvantaged schools, but again we found no evidence of this

• Teachers lost to international recruitment were of above average effectiveness

Conclusion : (Appleton, Simon et al, (2006) ).

• International teacher mobility did not seem to give rise to significant harm and,

• the gains for the migrants themselves are likely to outweigh the costs.

• there are signs that the international teacher mobility may have been temporary and contextual, something of a transitory movement as the local market for teachers adjusts.

What about brain circulation and brain gain?

• Push factors: Teachers’ opportunities for self-fulfilment and personal gain

• Some migrant teachers who had returned from a period abroad, did comment about using their knowledge to develop their SA schools

• a need to encourage the return of teachers to SA to share the knowledge gained in host schools.

• Teachers who left their families in SA suffered from the feeling of loneliness

• They suffered from the poor discipline and the psychological and emotional trauma they experienced in UK classrooms

Reflections and discussions:

• What can be done to avoid harmful brain-drain, nationally and globally?

• Role of donors, NGOs, and ministries.