Better Teachers, Better Results? Evidence from Rural Pakistan

Abstract Most of the existing literature examining the determinants of school quality in developing countries has failed to take into account the crucial role of teachers. This study assesses how teachers contribute to knowledge acquisition in Punjab, Pakistan. The baseline specification used is a gain model with three different levels of fixed effects. We find that teacher quality is strongly correlated with student achievement. Increasing teachers’ wages could improve schooling quality, as could the recruitment of local and contract teachers. Our analysis also underlines the importance of reforming training programmes and re-thinking wage policies.