Is teacher migration a ‘brain drain’ or a positive move?

The rise in organised mass recruitment of overseas teachers has put pressure on developing country education sectors. It is argued that developed countries offering much higher salaries benefit from ‘poaching’ teachers who have enjoyed subsidised training in their home countries. What is the impact of teacher migration on a sample of four Commonwealth countries?

While the international migration of teachers has been in operation in the Commonwealth for many years, organised recruitment of teachers from south to north began in the late 1990s and peaked in the early 2000s. In the UK, the main recruiting country in the Commonwealth, organised international recruitment developed in response to a crisis in teacher recruitment. This move increased pressure on developing country governments already wrestling with the need to improve their own education and health services.

A study commissioned by the UK Department for International Development analyses the experiences of four Commonwealth countries – two ‘receiving’ countries, the United Kingdom and Botswana, and two ‘sending’ countries, Jamaica and South Africa – in teacher recruitment and retention. It aimed to identify the extent of international migration of teachers, the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors for migration and the consequences for developing countries.

It found that teacher recruitment and mobility have had a largely positive effect – despite some negative aspects for sending countries – on poverty and international development, mainly due to teachers sending money home and returning home with savings. The study’s wide range of findings includes the following:

• In Jamaica, where the state subsidises teacher training by about two-thirds, the loss of qualified, experienced teachers was a serious problem. In South Africa, teachers recruited overseas were rated as above average in effectiveness.
• Professional development and better salaries were the main reasons given for the migration of Jamaican and South African teachers. Jamaican teachers earned three times more in England and South African teachers three to four times more.
• Expatriate teachers in Botswana have made a major contribution to the development of the education system, especially the rapid expansion of secondary schooling.
• In the UK, more than half of secondary schools surveyed had staff shortages. Meanwhile, about 46 percent of UK teachers – 53 percent of secondary teachers – were interested in migrating.

International recruitment of teachers does present challenges to sending countries. However, it is not the main reason for teacher shortages in some developing countries. Primarily, other internal issues need to be addressed. The report makes the following policy recommendations:

• Governments need to manage teacher shortages. They could reconsider teacher salaries, introduce special incentives, and improve manpower planning and allow training institutions to expand according to demand.
• While compensation is not recommended, receiving countries could provide assistance to sending countries via their aid budget, for instance by funding teacher exchanges. 
• Sending and receiving countries could develop a formal agreement to manage the process of teacher migration. This could include migrant teacher induction and further training, or a two-way teacher exchange programme.
• Sending country governments could allow teachers to take unpaid leave to teach abroad.
• Governments that subsidise teacher training could consider increasing cost sharing or making subsidies conditional on teachers working in a state school for a set period.

 

Source(s):
‘Teacher Mobility, ‘Brain Drain’, Labour Markets and Educational Resources in the Commonwealth’, Education Researching the Issues Series 66,UK Department for International Development, by W. John Morgan, Amanda Sives and Simon Appleton, 2006 (forthcoming) Full document.
Further details about this research project on the DFID Research for Development website Full document.
'The impact of international teacher recruitment on developing countries'

Funded by: UK Department for International Development ED 2003/01

id21 Research Highlight: 25 May 2007

Further Information:
John Morgan
UNESCO Centre for Comparative Education Research
The School of Education
The Dearing Building
University of Nottingham
Nottingham NG8 1BB
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)115 9513717
Fax: +44 (0)115 9514397
Contact the contributor: John.Morgan@nottingham.ac.uk

UNESCO Centre for Comparative Education Research, University of Nottingham, UK

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