Teacher and Parental Perceptions of Performance Pay in Education: Evidence from Tanzania

This paper presents evidence on teacher opinions regarding performance pay from a large experimental evaluation that included three interventions: a school grant program, a teacher performance pay program and a combination of both programs. The experimental evaluation was conducted in a nationally representative sample of 350 public primary schools across 10 districts in Tanzania. We report four sets of results. First, approximately 96% of teachers support the idea of teacher performance pay, while 61% favour at least some performance-linked element in a future salary increase. Further, 80% of head teachers support performance pay. Second, we find that exposure to a performance pay program has a limited positive impact on teacher support for performance pay. Third, contrary to arguments from performance pay critics that such programs adversely affect the work environment in schools, we find that teachers in all the experimental arms report higher satisfaction with the work environment and job support. Fourth, we find that a majority of parents (55%) prefer performance pay over school grants, but exposure to the experimental programs does not change this preference.

Chinese teachers’ attitudes toward performance pay: the cases of three schools

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate Chinese teachers’ attitudes toward performance pay. Specifically, this study examined the extent to which Chinese teachers supported performance-pay programs. The study also examined the effects of these programs on teachers, particularly on their levels of collaboration, work motivation, and job stress. Design/methodology/approach – This research was conducted in a northeastern city of China. Criteria sampling and maximum variation sampling techniques were used to select three schools, representing different characteristics of teacher performance pay (TPP) programs. In all, 150 questionnaires were administered to each of the three schools. The questionnaire contained three parts. Part 1 asked about respondents’ overall attitude toward pay-for-performance in general. Part 2 was composed of 20 closed-ended items asking respondents to rate their levels of agreement with various aspects of implementation of performance pay. Part 3 of the questionnaire comprised open-ended items. Findings – Approximately 48.5 percent of the teachers supported the teacher-performance-pay programs. This indicated a low support of Chinese teachers in comparison to that in some countries. Regarding how teachers’ attitudes toward performance pay are related to teacher characteristics (e.g. teaching experience, professional ranking), the ANOVAs results showed no significant differences in any of the factors. This quantitative result was different from the qualitative result of this study (e.g. veteran teachers complained about the implementation of performance pay). In spite of the differences between quantitative and qualitative findings, some findings from the current study are consistent with those found in western countries. Research limitations/implications – One limitation of this study was the small sample size for quantitative analyses. Future research should consider a larger sample size to conduct more advanced statistical analyses such as structural equation modeling to examine further the relations among, for example, how much the incentive pay should be, and what proportion of teachers should receive it, the level of teacher stress, their work enthusiasm, and peer relationships. Another limitation of this study was that the qualitative data were collected through open-ended questions of the questionnaire. Future research should interview teachers and principals to obtain richer voices from the teachers. Originality/value – Very few articles published in Chinese journals surveyed the implementation of TPP. In addition, these few articles were not well-designed from an empirical sense. So far research of teacher opinions about performance pay was a missing area in China’s educational discourse. The present study provides information to non-Chinese readers who are interested in Chinese teachers’ attitudes toward TPP. It is hoped the present study adds knowledge to the literature of TPP from the perspective of Chinese teachers.