IMF conditionalities both directly and indirectly place strict limits on public spending in order to control inflation and the fiscal deficit. In many instances, a cap is also placed on the public sector wage bill, through which teachers and nurses are paid.

This impacts the number of teachers a country can hire, their contract terms and salaries. In light of budget constraints, countries have been implementing the following policies, all of which undermine the quality of education:

1. Limiting teacher numbers. In 2003, the Government of Kenya eliminated user fees, bringing over 1.5 million children (a third of which were girls) to school. Over 60,000 new teachers were needed. Despite the availability of trained teachers, Kenya was only able to hire 5,000 because of a cap on teacher numbers agreed upon with the IMF in 1998.
2. Freezing teacher wages. Sierra Leone, post conflict country is struggling to get its education system on track. At the same time, it has agreed to decrease its wage bill from 8.4% of GDP to 5.8% of GDP by 2008. This not only limits how many teachers Sierra Leone can hire, but also the salaries.
3. Employing short-term ‘contract’ teachers. Another way to deal with budget constraints is to hire teachers for a shorter period. In Nigeria, new graduates of teacher training colleges only obtain 2-year contracts.
4. Employing non-professional teachers. In order to both hire more teachers and keep the spending at the agreed low levels, many countries are hiring ‘para professional’ teachers. In India there are now over 220,000 para teachers.

The rampant increase of non-professional teachers is a serious issue, particularly because the World Bank aggressively promotes it as a viable solution (see article in publications on World Bank education work).

The problem is that para teachers are not adequately (or at all) trained, hired at sub-standard wages and offered no job security. The lack of training has brought forth serious concerns about the quality of teaching, leading to many children dropping out of school.

Overall, the status of teachers and the teaching profession is being undermined. Para teachers do not have the right to unionize. As their numbers are growing, the overall voice and power of teacher unions is being fragmented. ActionAid International’s recent collaboration with Education International makes suggestions about how to incorporate para teachers into the professional cadre of teachers (see Parktonian Recommendations under publications).