Students Today, Teachers Tomorrow: Identifying Constraints on the Provision of Education

Khwaja, Asim; Andrabi, Tahir; Das, Jishnu (2013)

Citation

Khwaja, Asim, Tahir Andrabi, and Jishnu Das. 2013. “Students Today, Teachers Tomorrow: Identifying Constraints On The Provision Of Education”. Journal Of Public Economics 100 (1): 1-14.
Abstract
With an estimated one hundred and fifteen million children not attending primary school in the developing world, increasing access to education is critical. This pap er highlights a supply-side factor - the availability of low-cost teachers - and the resulting ability of the market to affordable education. We first show that private schools are three times more likely to emerge in villages with government girls' secondary schools (GSSs). Identication is obtained by using official school construction guidelines as an instrument for the presence of GSSs. In contrast, private school presence shows little or no relationship with girls' primary or boys' primary and secondary government schools. In support of a supply-channel, we then show that, villages which received a GSS have over twice as many educated women, and private school teachers' wages are 27 percent lower in these villages. In an environment with low female education and mobility, GSSs substantially increase the lo cal supply of skilled women lowering wages locally and allowing the market to oer affordable education. These findings highlight the prominent role of women as teachers in facilitating educational access and resonate with similar historical evidence from develop ed economies. The students of to day are the teachers of tomorrow