Teachers’ Remuneration SystemsThe educational policy context

Péter RadóDirector

Center for Educational Policy Analysis, Hungary

OPEK

Skeleton of the presentation

1. Teacher policy• Underlying assumptions• The key areas of Human Resource Management in education

2. Teacher salary systems and the managamenet and allocation of financial resources in education• Who pays the teachers?• Salary scales: basic questions to be considered

3. Performance related pay systems• Possible objectives and claimed benefits• Types of performance related pay• Possible disadvantages• The basis for differentiation

Hungary: context, the past and future plans

Teacher policy: a few underlying assumptionsAs goals are changing in education the required teacher

competences are changing, too – there are huge expectations toward teachers

Only the self-development efforts of the schools can improve the effectiveness of education – this requires empowerment based policies. (School autonomy)

Key competences are emphasized (not subject knowledge) – the whole schools are in the center of development and

not individual teachers – co-operation among teachers and organisational competences are more and more in the

center (school as a learning organisation)Whole schools should be hold accountable, ensuring teachers’

accountability is a managerial task in schools.Incentives, mandates (standards and other regulations) and

external support is more and more tailored in this way.

Teacher policy: human resource management in education

Basic areas of HRM (Other components of the „package”):

• The rules and content of work

• The flow of human resources

• Performance management

• Compensation, incentives

• Capacity building, development

Major types of HRM systems in education (The context):

• Continental (career-based) systems (France, Germany) – changes are more easily implemented, rigid system

• Anglo-Saxon (position-based) systems (Hungary, Scandinavian countries) – implementation of any change is difficult, flexible system

Management, allocation of financial resources and teacher remuneration systems

Who is in charge? (The level of decentralisation):• Employment• Organisational goals, tasks to be performed• The way and criteria of performance evaluation• Compensation• Professional developmentSalary scales:• The difference between minimum and maximum (high at the

beginning: fosters recruitment, high at the end: rewards expertise)

• What is paid for: basic salary for contact ours plus compensation for other tasks – basic salary on the basis of broad definition of work (all working hours per week)

The allocation of financial resources: Germany

The allocation of financial resources: Bulgaria

The allocation of financial resources: England

The allocation of financial resources: Hungary

Performance related pay systems: objectives

General objectives: to recruit, retain and motivate teachers.

• Evidences for each objectives

Possible specific objectives (those are relevant in education):

• Making managers responsible

• Getting better value for money

• Changing the culture of the school

• Encouraging greater accountability

• Strengthening the relationship between individual and organisational goals

• Enhancing job satisfaction

Types of performance related pay

1. Proceeding more quickly up an incremental scale (salary scale is rigid = no space between minimum and real salaries)

2. Employers are paid between 80% and 120% of a midpoint (salary scale determines the mass of resources for remuneration and the individual midpoints)

3. A performance related increase to the whole teaching staff in addition to the basic salary (salary scale is rigid and sets the minimum individual payment)

4. 0-20% salary increase only for individual performance at the discretion of the director (salary scale sets the minimum payment)

5. Combinations

Disadvantages of performance related pay

• Neglect of unrewarded tasks (the complexity of teaching)

• Disagreement about goals

• Lack of opennes

• Costs

• Demotivation of the unrewarded

• Competition instead of co-operation

The basis for differentiation

Teachers’ performance: assessment or evaluation• Are there measurable outcomes?• The basis for differentiation – the performance of the school or

the individual teacher?• Instruments of performance evaluation of teachers – best practicesAlternatives to performance related pay: • Salary supplements for additional organisational tasks performed (mid-layer of school management: form masters, heads of subject teacher groups, etc.)• Salary supplements for additional pedagogical tasks performed

(integrated teaching, teaching disadvantaged teachers or in priority area schools, etc.)

• Promotion on the basis of further qualifications or as a reward

Warning: the Hungarian context is different!• The Hungarian allocation system finances tasks performed in

schools, the Bulgarian system finances the operation of schools (It’s harder to connect performance and funding)

• The institutional autonomy in Hungary combines professional, organisational and financial management.

• In Hungary there is no institutionalised inspection, external evaluation and self-evaluation are separated, there is no external inspection of the performance of teachers.

• Assessment and external evaluation are aiming to hold the entire school accountable, not the individual teachers.

• The performance of the teacher is not considered measurable, but performance evaluation instruments are more and more widely used.

• The salary scale does not contain fixed salary figures (multipliers), the compensation of teachers is a three layer system: basic salary, task related supplements, space for differentiation.

Hungary so far

• 1985: school autonomy and the abolishment of state inspection

• 1990: Schools are taken over by self-governments, emerging private sector in education

• 1997: A failing attempt to create space for differentiation

• 2000: The new students’ performance assessment system and the introduction of quality management in schools.

• 2002: 50% salary increase, as a consequence financial space for differentiation disappears and the introduction of

promotion ladder for teachers drops out from the policy agenda.

• Since 2002: increasing public financing crisis due to the declining cost-effectiveness of education

Hungary: plans for the future• Reduction of specific costs of education (i.e. reducing the labor

need of services + promoting the mobility of teachers)

• The development of performance management system in Education: formative and summative assessment, harmonized external evaluation and school evaluation, national indicators and public feed back of information.• Making the use of any performance evaluation instruments

mandatory in schools• Introducing promotion ladder for teacher (induction period,

professional examination for full teacher status, „mentor” (senior) teacher status.

• Differentiated school based specifications for the content of the work of teachers („job descriptions” for the 40 working hours)

• Long-term teacher compensation policy to create space for differentiation.