The Impact of Sending Top College Graduates to Rural Primary Schools

Abstract

Teacher quality is crucial to deliver good education. However, improving teacher quality in developing countries can be a tough problem. This paper investigates the impact of a teacher placement program that sends college graduates with a strong academic track record to teach in rural primary schools in Indonesia on student test scores. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find that exposure to program teachers for a semester is associated with a 0.16 standard deviation increase in their students' average mathematics scores. The weakest students benefited more, with an increase in score by 0.20 standard deviation. Students receiving direct instructions from program teachers during scheduled classroom periods benefited even more. Attracting better talents to teach in rural schools could be an important pathway to improve the academic achievements of the weakest students at rural schools. mathematics higher The weakest students appear to benefit more from Indonesia Mengajar teachers’ Indone sian and science classes than the mathematics classes. The estimated effects are 0.74 and 1.04 points for Indonesian and science classes, respectively. These results suggest that the students benefited both from the use of mathematics concepts in science lessons and from more intensive use of the national language. Although school examinations are written in the Indonesian language, most of the population speak local languages at home. Thus, comprehension problems may underlie the students’ poor mathematics scores, and instructions that improve comprehension can boost performance.