Teachers’ salary and class size: Two attractive indicators to be used as a basis for high-quality education reform

Abstract

For the sake of quality, most developing countries at certain intervals submit part or all of their school system to evaluation. Without losing sight of the realities of each country and educational model, we analysed two indicators that were used, to a greater or lesser extent, in the educational reforms undertaken in various OECD member countries. These are teachers’ salaries and student/teacher ratio, together with class size.

Both are part of an attractive and sometimes profitable strategy to offset the unfavourable results that can be overwhelming for a school system. But they have also been used as a ‘relief’ measure in the face of the adverse results of external evaluations. We also analysed the relationship that these indicators may have with the PISA results. It is generally acknowledged that there is no direct relationship between them, although some marginal influence may exist. In those countries with excellent performance data, teachers usually have good salaries, but not all of those who have good salaries achieve good results. We also found that reducing class sizes is more beneficial in certain contexts, since class size does not acquire an absolute value. It could have more of an impact on the proposed strategies than on the final results. In general terms, what stands above any indicator is the selection and training of teachers.