quality). Contract teachers can facilitate rapid expansions in school access because they are less expensive than tenured teachers and because, in some circumstances, they can be hired more quickly. In Cambodia, following the civil war and the violence of the Khmer Rouge regime, a period during which schools were largely closed, the government recruited literate volunteers, gave them a short course of in-service training, provided equivalency degrees in provincial centers, and sharply increased coverage. When teacher shortages emerged in the late 1990s, as a result of increased demand for primary schooling as well as supply-side constraints designed to guarantee teacher quality<sup>30</sup> the government reintroduced the direct appointment of contract teachers, particularly in rural areas, where teaching shortages were most acute.<sup>31</sup> Similarly, India’s goal of universal primary education, encapsulated in programs such as the District Primary Education Program, and the Education for all Campaign (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan), has employed locally appointed “para-teachers” in difficult-to-reach areas.

Some recent studies that allocated students to contract or civil service teachers on a random basis have bolstered the argument that contract teachers enhance the quality of education. Karthik Muralidharan and Venkatesh Sundararaman studied the effects of adding a contract teacher to a randomly chosen subset of primary schools in Andhra Pradesh to supplement the regular teaching staff. They found that students (especially students in first grade and students in remote areas) performed better when this contract teacher was added, although the effect was mediated, at least in part, by the reduction in class size made possible by the extra contract teacher.<sup>32</sup> Similarly, in a randomized experiment in Kenya, Duflo et al (2007) found that students assigned to contract teachers scored higher on achievement tests and were more likely to attend school than students assigned to civil service teachers.<sup>33</sup> Several studies make the argument that contract teachers are likely to provide higher quality education because they are given superior incentives. Muralidharan and Sundararman, in the experimental study cited above, found that contract teachers were significantly less likely to be absent from schools, and more likely to be engaged in teaching activity when observed during unannounced visits to schools. Duflo et al (2009) found that contract teachers were more likely to be found to be engaged in teaching activities, at the time of an inspection, than civil service teachers. The core argument, though sometimes not explicit, is that regular teachers often have little incentive to perform well as they have permanent appointments and pay is not performance related.

Other studies seem to support this general theme, even if their findings are more difficult to apply to the debate directly. Kremer et al found that contract teacher attendance in India is comparable to that of regular teachers in public schools despite being paid much

> 30 A mandatory retirement age and a requirement of 11 years of education to become a teacher

> 31 Y. Duthilleul, LESSONS LEARNT IN THE USE OF “CONTRACT” TEACHERS: SYNTHESIS REPORT (Paris, International Institute for Educational Planning, UNESCO, 2005)

> 32 Karthik Muralidharan and Venkatesh Sundararaman, “Contract Teachers: Experimental Evidence from India” Sept. 12, 2008

> 33 Esther Duflo Pascaline Dupas, and Michael Kremer; Additional Resources versus Organizational Changes in Education: Experimental Evidence from Kenya, May 9, 2009, at http://econwww.mit.edu/files/4286

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