The debate on improving the welfare of teachers is ongoing, and now a group of teachers across the country is on strike. Teachers are underpaid in Jordan; and they think the best way to redress their situation is through a teachers association, which some view as unconstitutional. But of all the necessary moves attempted in Jordan to improve its competitiveness, none touched at improving the welfare of teachers, especially in public schools where 70 per cent of our schoolchildren are enrolled. Economic research shows that improving the welfare of teachers is a boon to national competitiveness.

Before delving into research and figures let me share with you a personal experience. Being a product of public schools, I was blessed with great teachers, whose pay at the time was better than the pay of most lawyers and even engineers - some did leave teaching later to become lawyers and engineers as their pay remained stymied while other professions started to pay better.

One teacher made us love the poetry and articulation of the Arabic language; another had us do chemistry experiments and visit factories and write reports on them even though our school never had a laboratory and none of our parents had a car or driver to drive us to far flung factories; one teacher of English made the boring stories we had to read so fascinating and enabled us to respect other cultures and views; and one great teacher taught us the essence of democracy. Each teacher contributed to the making of what I and others are today and contributed significantly to our earning capacities. It was they, not the buildings, not the no-playground school, the worn-out textbooks, or rigid syllabi that enabled us to compete and earn a living from our chosen professions.

OK, enough with the past and let’s move to some of the recent research. Scholarly research by Eric A. Hanushek of Stanford University shows that an excellent teacher (one who is in the top 85 percentile among teachers) in the US versus an average teacher, increases the lifetime earnings of a student by $20,000; in a class of 20 pupils this translates into $400,000, and she or he can do it every year. On the other hand, having a teacher who is among the top 7 per cent of teachers raises the lifetime earnings of a student by $32,000; in a class of 20, this is $640,000.

Let’s take the arithmetic further; a top teacher in the US will increase the GDP by $19.2 million over a 30-year span of teaching. Given the differences between average incomes in Jordan and the US, the national gain from having an excellent teacher in a classroom of 20 students in Jordan over a span of 30 years is JD1.40 million. If we multiply this number by the number of teachers in Jordan, which is about 150,000 in basic and secondary education, the national gain over 30 years from having excellent teachers producing exceptional and highly employable students is JD210 billion, or 10 times the expected GDP for 2011. In short, it is excellent teachers, more so than anything else that will enhance the competitiveness of Jordan.

From the above one can easily understand why in Singapore and South Korea, two highly competitive economies, teachers are selected from the top 30 per cent of university graduates and are paid higher than lawyers and engineers. In Jordan, to attract top teachers into public schools, the government should start paying teachers higher salaries than engineers, around JD450 per month.

Already top private schools pay more than four times such a salary. The result is that most children who graduate from good private schools do far better in the job market in Jordan in terms of employability and earnings potential than those who graduate from public schools. The same goes for those who graduate from Western universities vs. Jordanian universities where teachers are paid dismally.

It stands to reason that teachers, a formidable force of 150,000 that is entrusted with the future of almost one fourth of the nation and its future competitiveness, should be paid more, much more. And, it would be also sensible to assert that with increased pay, the teachers will find it unnecessary to strike or ask for an association.

JordanTimes, March 22, 2011

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