79961 Tunisia SABER Country Report TEACHER POLICY 2011 Policy Goals Status 1. Setting clear expectations for teachers Expectations for students and teachers are clear; however, schooling hours for students are lower than those of high-performing systems, and the statutory definition of working time is limited to classroom teaching. 2. Attracting the best into teaching Around 12 percent of the teaching force is unable to meet the profession’s minimum requirements; the introduction of flexible entry routes may open up the teaching profession to a wider pool of candidates. 3. Preparing teachers with useful training and experience The balance between subject matter and pedagogy during training for secondary school teachers may be reviewed; required time allocations for classroom experience during training are below those of high-performing systems. 4. Matching teachers’ skills with students’ needs While monetary bonuses are offered to teachers who take up posts in hard-to- staff schools, there are no subject areas identified as facing a shortage of skilled teachers. 5. Leading teachers with strong principals Performance-related pay for principals is absent; principals are able to make few decisions related to staffing in schools. 6. Monitoring teaching and learning Sufficient student achievement data to inform teaching are available; internally led teacher evaluations are carried out regularly. 7. Supporting teachers to improve instruction Weak teachers have the opportunity of being supported through a supervisor and mandatory professional development is broad ranging and includes a variety of different styles of active learning techniques. 8. Motivating teachers to perform Mechanisms exist to hold teachers accountable and performance-related incentives are offered; however, data on teacher dismissals are not available. THE WORLD BANK TUNISIA | TEACHER POLICY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2011 main indicators of public education expenditure in Education System at a Glance Tunisia. A total of 1,995,167 students (around 96.2% of total Table 1. Key public education spending indicators enrollment) attend public schools in Tunisia. The Education expenditure 2007 1999- public school student population is concentrated 2000 almost evenly between the primary (50.6%) and Public education spending as a share of GDP 7.2 6.9 (%) secondary levels (49.4%), and 82.6% of the total number of students attend schools in urban areas. Public spending on education as a share of 22.4 17.4 government expenditure (%) Around 3.9% of enrolled students attend private schools (all of which are private, government- Primary education spending 2005 2000 independent schools). All private schools are located Total public expenditure on educational 2 2 institutions and administration (% of GDP for in urban areas, principally serving secondary school primary) students. Spending per student – primary 20.9 15.4 (% of GDP per capita) Figure1. Number and share of public school students Secondary education spending 2005 2000 by level and location Total public expenditure on educational 3 3 institutions and administration (% of GDP for secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary) Spending per student – secondary 24.2 26.7 (% of GDP per capita) Sources: UNESCO Institute for Statistics and World Bank Development Indicators, 2011. Performance of Tunisia’s education system Table 2. Key indicators on system performance Indicator 2008 2000 Percentage of repeaters, female – 6 14 Source: World Bank, SABER – Teachers 2010-2011. primary (% of female enrollment) Percentage of repeaters, male – 10 18 Figure 2: Number and share of private school primary (% of male enrollment) students, (all located in urban areas) Primary completion rate, female (% of 93 -- relevant age group) Primary completion rate, male(% of 93 -- relevant age group) Sources: UNESCO Institute for Statistics and World Bank Development Indicators, 2011. Tunisia has participated in several international assessments of student learning: three rounds (2003, 2006 and 2009) of the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), and three Source: World Bank, SABER – Teachers 2010-2011. (1997, 2003 and 2007) of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Public investment in Basic Education Tunisia is a lower middle income country, with a GDP per capita of $3,720(current US$). Table 1 presents the SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS 2 TUNISIA | TEACHER POLICY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2011 Table 3. PISA results – average test scores and percentage of students performing at advanced and below basic levels Reading Mathematics Science Average % students % students Average % students % students Averag % students % students score performing performing score performing performing at e Score performing performing at at advanced at below at advanced below basic at advanced below basic level basic level level level level level 2003 375 -- 34 359 -- 51 385 -- -- 2006 380 -- 31 365 -- 48 386 -- 28 2009 404 -- 6 371 -- 43 401 -- 21 Source: OECD (2010). PISA 2009 Results: Learning Trends - Volume V. Table V.3.2 and Table S.V.h. Paris, France: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Table 4 and 5. TIMSS Results: Test Scores and Student Performance th th Mathematics (4 grade) Science (4 grade) Average score % students % students performing Average Score % students % students performing at at below basic level performing at performing at below advanced level advanced level basic level 1997 -- -- -- -- -- -- 2003 339 -- -- 314 -- -- 2007 327 -- 28 318 -- 32 th th Mathematics (8 grade) Science (8 grade) Average score % students % students performing at Average Score % students % students performing at below basic level performing at performing at below advanced level advanced level basic level 1997 448 -- 78 430 -- 68 2003 410 -- 55 404 -- 52 2007 420 -- 61 445 -- 77 Source: Mullis, I. V. S., Martin, M. O., González, E. J., Chrostowski, S. J. (2004). TIMSS 2003 International Mathematics Report. Exhibit 2.4. Boston, MA: TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center. Mullis, I. V. S., Martin, M. O., Foy, M. (2008). TIMSS 2007 International Mathematics Report. Exhibit 2.3. Boston, MA: TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center. SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS 3 TUNISIA | TEACHER POLICY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2011 Size and composition of the teaching force There are 133,671 public school teachers and 10,675 The private teaching sector is directed fully toward the private school teachers. urban student population (Figure 5). The majority (84.8%) of private school teachers are employed at the Figure 3. The total number and share of teachers by secondary level, with the remainder (around 15.2%) sector working at the primary level. No data are available on the number of teachers holding types of working statuses (open-ended/fixed) and whether they are employed as full-time or part- time workers. Figure 6. Distribution of public school teachers (secondary) by age Source: World Bank, SABER – Teachers 2011. Figure 4.Number and share of private school teachers, (all located in urban areas Source: World Bank, SABER – Teachers 2010-2011. Complete data are not available on the age ranges of teachers broken down by gender in the profession. At the secondary level, the data show that 57.6% are Source: World Bank, SABER – Teachers 2011 below 40 years. There are 2 national level teacher organizations with a membership of 89,000. Between Figure 5. Number and share of public school teachers 2006 and 2010, there have been around 11 strikes (4 in by level and location 2009) and 4 school days were lost over the same period (1 day in 2009). Goal 1: Setting clear expectations for teachers Established  Expectations for students and teachers are clear; however, schooling hours for students are lower than in high-performing systems, and the statutory definition of working time is limited to classroom teaching. Expectations for what students should know and be Source: World Bank, SABER – Teachers 2010-2011. able to do are clear. Tunisia has a national curriculum SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS 4 TUNISIA | TEACHER POLICY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2011 that sets out the content in detail. Standards, set by the working time for both primary and secondary school Ministry of Education (MoE) at the national level, teachers comes to around 1680 hours (40 hours per prescribe what students should know and be able to do week, 210 days per year). These working hours fall in at each grade level. line with high-performing systems, where average annual working hours exceed 1,500 hours. In terms of Expectations for what teachers are supposed to do are distribution of tasks per week, primary school teachers clear. Teachers’ tasks are explicitly laid out in legal are required to devote 20 hours per week to teaching regulations set out by the MoE. Primary and secondary and are supposed (although not formally required) to school teachers’ tasks include teaching, lesson-planning, spend 20 hours planning lessons and grading their grading assessments, and providing extra-curricular students’ work. On top of the 20 hours of mandatory activities. Tunisian teachers are guided by performance teaching time, 5 out of the 7 grade levels of primary goals set by the General Inspectorate of Education school teachers are required to devote 2.5 hours to (within the MoE), providing teachers with a focus of leading weekly cultural activities or in assisting the what they should accomplish. school principal with administrative tasks. Secondary school teachers are required to devote 18 hours to Teachers may not have enough time to fulfill their teaching and are supposed to spend 22 hours divided duties, as annual schooling hours are shorter than in on lesson-planning and grading (although this is not high-performing systems, and the statutory definition formally required). Therefore primary school teachers of “working time� is limited. The MoE is responsible for devote around 50% and secondary school teachers deciding on teachers’ working time, thereby providing around 45%, respectively, of their total working time to protection to teachers from arbitrary time management teaching. This time allocation for tasks falls in line with decisions at the school level. The school year consists of the requirements in high-performing systems, which 198 days at the primary level and 180 days at the generally require teachers to devote around 60% of secondary level (nearly all top-performing systems have total working time to teaching. more than 180 days of school). Actual schooling hours at the primary level of 5 hours (990 hours annually) and Figure 7. Share of teaching time as a percentage of 6 hours (1080 hours annually) at the secondary level fall total working time (primary), selected systems below those in high-performing systems (1200 hours). Teacher working time is defined as the number of teaching hours in the classroom: 20-25 hours per week at the primary level, and 15-18 hours per week at the secondary level. Primary school teachers are organized according to 7 grade levels and the working week (defined as teaching time) varies from 25 hours for primary school teachers within the first 2 lowest grade brackets to 20 hours for those within the remaining upper 5 grade brackets and for those who have been in the profession for over 20 years. Secondary school teachers are organized under the same 7 grade levels, with weekly hours declining from 18 to 15 hours as a Sources: OECD, Education at a Glance 2010 for Hungary, teacher moves up the grade levels. The statutory Netherlands and South Korea; World Bank, SABER – Teachers definition of working time (only defined as teaching 2010-2011 for Singapore, Tunisia, Japan, New Zealand, time) is limited: some teacher tasks such as lesson- Jordan, Lebanon, Chile and Indonesia. For Chile, this planning and grading take place outside of classroom percentage applies to both primary and secondary school teaching time, and the working time definition may not teaching time allocations but for other systems, these figures necessarily recognize clearly enough that teachers need are applicable to only primary school teachers. The to put in these additional hours outside of their lessons. classification of systems as (i)high-performers and top- Since Tunisian teachers hold civil-servant status, they improvers; (ii) high-performers; (iii) top-improvers is found are required to work 40 hours per week, in keeping with within , World Bank (Draft Report), Identifying Successful Education Systems: Using International Student Achievement the civil service regulations. Annual total teachers’ Tests: An Exercise for SABER Sub-System Work. SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS 5 TUNISIA | TEACHER POLICY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2011 Goal 2: Attracting the best into teaching Pay and benefits are appealing to talented candidates. Starting salaries for a beginning teacher with the Established  minimum required qualifications (maitre baccalaureate) are very high by world standards (around 423% of GDP Around 12% of the teaching force is unable to per capita). 1 High-performing systems pay their meet the profession’s minimum requirements; teachers 82%-119% of GDP per capita. Teacher flexible entry routes may open up the teaching profession to a wider pool of candidates. compensation packages in Tunisia include: paid sick leave and healthcare benefits, and may include pension Entry requirements are set up to attract talented benefits. Salaries (paid on time) rise only slightly over a applicants. Applicants are selected into initial teacher career: after 15 years of service, a teacher with the education programs based on the following: (i) minimum education qualifications (maitre performance in a compulsory tertiary education baccalaureate) can expect to earn around 1.19 times entrance examination to gain admission into teacher the starting salary. Most high-performing and rapidly education programs; (ii) performance in a compulsory improving systems pay their teachers between 1.31 and tertiary education program; and, (iii) motivation and 1.70 times the starting salary after 15 years in the interpersonal skills, demonstrated in an interview. profession. It currently takes 25 years of teaching Around 0.73% (2010) of applicants gains admission into experience to reach the maximum level on the salary teacher training programs. Overall entry into teacher schedule, comprising 6 salary grades. The salary education programs is highly competitive: for entry into schedule is differentiated according to the geographical primary school teacher education programs, location of schools; while monetary bonuses are offered approximately 100,000 applicants compete for 1,000 to teachers who take up positions in hard-to-staff places; and for entry into secondary school teacher schools, they are not offered for either teaching a education programs, approximately 100,000 candidates specific subject, grade level or for teaching difficult compete for 2,500 places. Official requirements to student populations. Performance-related pay through become a primary school teacher include: (i) completing the salary schedule and through monetary bonuses is required coursework; (ii) achieving an ISCED 5A offered to effective teachers. educational qualification – equivalent to a bachelor’s Working conditions are appealing. The MoE is tasked degree; (iii) graduating from a tertiary education with monitoring school infrastructure standards, but program; (iv) passing a written test; and (v) passing an data on how many schools meet these standards are interview-stage assessment. For secondary school unavailable. Average student-teacher ratios are 17 in teachers, the requirements are similar, with the primary and 13 in secondary. These averages are lower additional requirement of ensuring that a teacher is a than in many high-performing countries, but they may graduate from a tertiary education program specifically mask important variation across schools serving designed to prepare teachers. In 2010, 13.2% of primary different populations. school teachers and 10.8% secondary school teachers, respectively, were unable to meet these requirements There are attractive career opportunities. Upon the and yet still remained in the profession. Both primary promotional decision of the MoE, teachers can take up and secondary school teachers undertake consecutive (horizontal) leadership positions, such as head of education training programs (where subject matter department posts or subject area posts, and specific knowledge must be acquired first and then pedagogical incentives are offered to teachers who do assume these skills are learned). Concurrent training programs (where positions. Promotions are determined by the results of subject matter knowledge and pedagogical skills can be performance evaluations. acquired simultaneously) are not available. 1 Maitre principal (baccalaureate) earns 493% of GDP per capita; Professeur (maitrise) earns 610% of GDP per capita. SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS 6 TUNISIA | TEACHER POLICY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2011 time allocations for subject matter knowledge (60%) and Figure 8. Teachers’ salary increases after 15 years pedagogic theory and teaching methods (40%) are well balanced. For secondary school teachers, the balance between time allocation for subject knowledge and New teachers are required to have classroom experience, but the time allocations are below those of high-performing systems. While classroom experience is a prerequisite before teachers can preside over their own classrooms, the amount of required time is below the requirements of high-performing systems. Primary school teachers are expected to undertake 6-12 months of classroom experience, while secondary school teachers are expected to complete between 3-6 months. In most top-performing systems mandatory classroom Sources: OECD, Education at a Glance 2010 for South Korea, New Zealand, Finland, Italy and Hungary. World Bank, SABER experience consists of at least one year. Given that the – Teachers 2010-2011 for Singapore, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, initial years of teaching in the profession can impact Egypt, Tunisia and Chile. Note 1: for South Korea, New long-term effectiveness, Tunisia may look into the extent Zealand, Finland, Italy and Hungary, the figures are for to which the timing requirements for practical primary school teachers. Note 2: the classification of systems experience are aligned with preparing teachers well. as (i)high-performers and top-improvers; (ii) high-performers; (iii) top-improvers is found within , World Bank, Identifying New teachers are offered a smooth transition into their Successful Education Systems: Using International Student first teaching job. Beginning teachers are offered an Achievement Tests: An Exercise for SABER Sub-System Work. opportunity to participate in an induction program to Why Is There a Need for a Way to Identify Successful smooth their transition from training to work or from Education Systems? different classroom environments. Tunisia’s time allocations for induction programs of 24 months fall into line with those of high-performing systems, which Goal 3: Preparing teachers with useful typically offer induction programs of at least one year in training and experience length. Established  Figure 8. Length of induction programs (primary education teacher training requirements), selected The balance between subject matter and pedagogy during training for secondary school teachers systems needs to be reviewed; required time allocations for classroom experience during training are below those of high-performing systems. There are minimum standards for pre-service training.The MoE is responsible for establishing and implementing the rules that govern pre-service education programs.The existence of an accreditation process is a positive characteristic because it allows institutions seeking to enter the teacher training market to be evaluated, certifying that their courses reach the system-wide standard and have the potential to train students into successful teachers. During pre-service training for primary and secondary school teachers, Source: World Bank, SABER – Teachers 2010-2011 for there are requirements and corresponding specified time Singapore, Japan, Chile Indonesia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Egypt, allocations for pedagogic theory, teaching methods and Jordan and Lebanon. subject matter knowledge. For primary school teachers, SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS 7 TUNISIA | TEACHER POLICY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2011 Goal 4: Matching teachers’ skills with Figure 9. Incentives for teachers to take up posts in students’ needs hard-to-staff schools, selected systems Latent While monetary bonuses are offered to teachers who take up posts in hard-to-staff schools, there are no subject areas identified as facing a shortage of skilled teachers. There are some incentives to draw teachers into working in hard-to-staff areas. Teachers are offered monetary bonuses to take up positions in hard-to-staff areas. Other incentives such as better chances of promotion, a higher basic salary, scholarships, and food and travel stipends, are not currently offered. Transfer requests are determined and approved based on the Sources: OECD, Education at a Glance 2010 for Finland, teacher’s years of experience and, to a lesser extent, Netherlands and Slovenia; World Bank, SABER – Teachers the teacher’s performance (as assessed by both 2010-2011 for South Korea, New Zealand, Chile, Indonesia, external evaluators and by the school authority and/or Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan. colleagues). In some education systems, using years of teaching experience to grant transfer requests has had the undesired effects of denying disadvantaged areas access to experienced teachers – leaving the least Goal 5: Leading teachers with strong knowledgeable and potentially the least effective principals teachers in hard-to-staff schools and thereby possibly Established  increasing turnover rates. Requirements to become a principal are set up to There are few incentives offered to teachers to teach attract talented candidates. subjects in which there is a low supply of highly skilled teachers. Ensuring that there are skilled teachers in Requirements are administered by the Ministry of every subject area represents a challenge faced by most Education. All principals must hold 7 years of teaching education systems. Tunisia has not taken steps to experience and be at least 30 years of age; those identify a set of critical shortage subjects or a set of applying to be secondary school principals are required subjects which could be facing a low supply of highly to hold 2 years of administrative experience. Other skilled teachers. Even in top-performing systems, selection criteria include: holding the equivalent of an principals report difficulties in recruiting for certain ISCED 5A qualification (a Master’s level degree); disciplines. Given the absence of a policy that identifies completing specific courses/training requirements subject areas in which there is a shortage of qualified designed for aspiring principals; and performing to a teachers, there are no incentives offered to qualified satisfactory standard in a supervised internship. professionals with expertise in these subject areas to enter teaching. Tunisia might wish to look into the Principals are not provided with strong incentives to extent to which there may a shortage of qualified perform well. Principals are explicitly required to teachers in subject areas that offer more flexible provide guidance to teachers on curriculum and competitive job market opportunities (e.g., physics, teaching-related tasks, which should help the teachers chemistry, mathematics), and the extent to which other in their schools to improve instructional practices. It is professionals (e.g., in engineering and medicine) can be positive that principals must be evaluated on their attracted into teaching through monetary and non- performance in regular evaluations, conducted by the monetary incentives. Administrative and Financial Inspectorate, within the MoE, and sub-national authorities. Principal pay, which SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS 8 TUNISIA | TEACHER POLICY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2011 is governed by a distinct salary schedule, is very high – Figure 11. Sources used in teacher performance around 633% of Tunisia’s GDP per capita. High- evaluations, selected systems performing systems also pay their schools principals more than 100% of GDP per capita. Tunisian principals cannot receive monetary awards based on performance (which could act as a motivating force in this integral role of providing instructional leadership). Examples from Chile and Jordan may be useful to Tunisia. Chile offers performance-based pay to teachers and principals through individual bonuses and school-based bonuses based on a school’s performance in the externally-led performance evaluations. In Jordan, the Queen Rania Award for Excellent Principals, introduced in 2005, offers financial awards to a small number of successful principals who are selected as winners in the prestigious competition. Principals can make few decisions to improve teaching. They do not have any say in determining the selection of the teachers in their schools, as it is fully determined by the MoE. Further, principals do not play a significant role in removing ineffective teachers, although they can have some say in the decision. Research has shown that when given this authority, principals tend to make staffing decisions that lead to improvements in student Sources: OECD, 2008 – PISA 2006 and OECD, 2009 Creating learning outcomes. Similarly, principals do not have any Effective Teaching and Learning Environments: First Results decision-making authority in determining the salaries of from TALIS for Netherlands, New Zealand and Slovenia,; their teachers and rewarding strong performance or in World Bank, SABER – Teachers 2010-2011 for Singapore, determining overtime distribution and payment. South Korea, Japan, Chile, Indonesia, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. Why Is There a Need for a Way to Identify Successful Education Systems? In contrast, Tunisian principals do have full autonomy in managing the distribution of time during schooling hours and, as a corollary, teachers’ duties and responsibilities. This is positive, since there are good Goal 6: Monitoring teaching and learning reasons to believe that letting principals make this decision would lead to more efficient time use. Because Established principals know better than external authorities the needs of their schools, it is likely that they will allocate Sufficient student achievement data are available teachers’ time better than education officials at to provide information on learning outcomes, and national, sub-national or local offices. In addition, they teacher evaluations are conducted regularly to access teaching performance. have some input on promotional decisions affecting their teachers: principals are responsible for conducting There are enough student achievement data to the school-led performance evaluations and provide information on learning outcomes. Tunisia information from these are used in determining conducts regular national assessments of student promotional opportunities (although all promotions are learning for three groups: (i) all 10-year-old students ultimately governed by the MoE). annually (Fourth Grade Assessment); (ii) a sample of 15- year-old students annually (Ninth Grade Assessment - Examen pour l’obtention du diplôme de fin d’études de l’enseignement de base [DFEEB]); (iii) all 19-year-old students (le Baccalaureate) annually. While 2 out of 3 of SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS 9 TUNISIA | TEACHER POLICY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2011 these assessments are census-based, unfortunately Figure 12. Sources used in teacher performance students’ scores cannot be linked to individual teachers evaluations, selected systems in any of these assessments and students cannot be tracked over time. Tunisia regularly participates in international student assessments (TIMSS in 1999, 2003 and 2007; and PISA in 2003, 2006 and 2009) providing policy-makers with an opportunity to compare how Tunisian students are performing against their peers from other countries. Over the past decade, Tunisia’s performance has improved. In TIMSS 2003, Tunisian students (along with students from Iran, Morocco and the Philippines) performed at the bottom of the distribution of the 25 participating countries in both subjects (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2005; IEA, 2005). However in the second half of the decade (2006 onwards) Tunisian students’ performance has improved significantly. There is adequate teacher performance data to inform teaching. Mandatory internal teacher evaluations are carriedout biennially at the school level by the principal; Source: World Bank, SABER – Teachers 2010-2011 for South while external evaluations are carried out by the Korea, Japan, Chile, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon and General Education Inspectorate (within the MoE) at the Tunisia. national and sub-national levels. External evaluations are generally only carried out during the early years of a teacher’s career. In the internally-led evaluation it is Goal 7: Supporting teachers to improve positive that teachers might themselves be able to instruction inform the process through their own self-assessment which allows them to see the extent to which their own Advanced judgment of their performance tallies with the overall Weak teachers have the opportunity of being conclusions of the review. However, this evaluation is supported through a supervisor, and mandatory driven by the principal, whose evaluation largely professional development is wide-ranging and informs the process, along with classroom observation. includes a variety of different styles of active Feedback from colleagues, students, and parents could learning techniques. provide a more comprehensive guide to how an individual teacher is performing, especially as teachers Teacher performance data are used to improve tend to perform better under the scrutiny of an instruction. All professionals can constantly improve, evaluation process. The internal evaluation assesses a and teachers are no exception. In Tunisia, internal teacher on wide-ranging criteria: (i) compliance with the evaluations are used to inform teachers on how they curriculum, (ii) teaching methods, (iii) assessment can develop their instructional practices and may be methods, (iv) teacher-student interactions, (v) students’ used to allocate professional development level of participation, (vi) students’ academic opportunities. Underperforming teachers, as assessed achievement, and (vii) teacher attendance. by the performance evaluation process, are offered the Unfortunately, data are not available to give an support of an assigned supervisor. However, given that indication of the number of teachers that failed to national-level data are not available detailing how many perform to the requisite standard in the last round of teachers failed to perform to a satisfactory standard in evaluations. the last round of these evaluations, it might be worth looking into whether these follow-up steps are offered to such teachers on a regular basis. SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS 10 TUNISIA | TEACHER POLICY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2011 Professional development is used in a focused Figure 10. Number of required days of professional approach to improve instruction. The MoE (particularly development, selected systems the Director of Training) and sub-national educational authorities are responsible for providing professional development opportunities. Tunisian teachers are not responsible for funding their own professional development (the MoE provides financing), a positive feature because requiring teachers to pay for their professional development is likely to decrease participation and exclude some teachers from benefiting from these activities. All teachers are required to participate in professional development activities, for an upper limit of around 10 days (6 days appears to be the average). In high-performing systems, the required number of days of professional development ranges from a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 28 days per year. Enforcing explicit Sources: OECD, Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments: First Results from TALIS 2009 for Slovenia, requirements for professional development is Australia, Hungary, Netherlands and South Korea; World important so that teachers do not run the risk of Bank, SABER – Teachers 2010-2011 for Chile, Lebanon, prioritizing their immediate work agenda and not Indonesia, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Japan and Singapore. Note realizing the potential benefits from professional 1.In some cases (Chile, Jordan and Egypt), the number of development, as well as ensuring that principals are required days was calculated by dividing the total number of required to let their teachers’ participate in such annual hours by number of daily working hours. Note 2. activities. Professional development in Tunisia includes These figures refer only to secondary school teachers. Note broad-ranging activities and extends beyond traditional 3.For Tunisia, 10 days represents the upper limit activities, such as courses, workshops, conferences and requirement. The classification of systems as: (i)high- seminars to include qualification programs, performers and top-improvers; (ii) high-performers; (iii) top- improvers is found within , World Bank (Draft), Identifying participation in school and teacher networks, mentoring Successful Education Systems: Using International Student programs, and collaborative research. The Achievement Tests: An Exercise for SABER Sub-System Work. recommended content of these types of professional Why Is There a Need for a Way to Identify Successful development activities is similarly broad, covering not Education Systems? only support in carrying out administrative tasks (which are required as part of primary school teachers’ workloads) but aspects related to teaching, such as Goal 8: Motivating teachers to perform subject matter knowledge, teaching the curriculum, classroom management, instructional practices, and Emerging  providing guidance on teaching students with special needs. Given that Tunisia’s policies in this area are very Formal mechanisms exist in law to hold teachers promising, the government may decide to look into accountable and performance-related incentives level of implementation of policies and whether are offered; however, data on teacher dismissals teachers are in fact taking part in professional are not available development. There are minimum mechanisms in place to hold teachers accountable. Tunisia does have in place the following continuing requirements that teachers must fulfill to remain qualified as teachers: (i) to participate in the school-led performance evaluation; and (ii) to participate in professional development activities (between 6-10 days per year). Procedures are in place to safeguard the protection of vulnerable students and ensure that teachers who commit child abuse are SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS 11 TUNISIA | TEACHER POLICY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2011 dismissed. Further, teacher misconduct is a stipulated Figure 11. Regulations for teacher dismissal and criterion resulting in dismissal. There are sanctioning probationary periods, selected systems mechanisms (dismissal and salary reductions) applied to censure unauthorized teacher absenteeism (and this is taken into account in the performance evaluation process). In the performance assessment, a half point (marked out of 20 points) is deducted from the total score for each recorded day of unauthorized absence. Teachers are also subject to the Civil Service regulations, which prohibit unauthorized absenteeism. Teachers are offered a number of performance-related incentives. Positively, teacher performance is rewarded in the salary schedule. Teachers may also be offered individual monetary bonuses. Wage increases depend primarily on advancements in grades which are determined on a teacher’s pedagogic abilities determined through the teacher performance assessment (16 or more points out of 20 are required for a wage increase based on performance). Ineffective teachers can be removed early on in their careers during a probationary period; however data on the incidence of poor-performing teachers are absent. Source: World Bank, SABER – Teachers 2010-2011 for Tunisia does have in place a mandatory probationary Singapore, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Chile, period prior to awarding open-ended status to new Indonesia, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. teachers. This may help in facilitating the dismissal of weak and unmotivated teachers earlier on, before they become permanent staff and part of the civil service. The first years of teaching are among the best available predictors of a teacher’s performance later on. Therefore, it is positive to have in place screening Acknowledgements processes to dismiss low-performing teacher entrants. In Tunisia, this screening process to gain open-ended This report was prepared in 2011 by the SABER- status involves being assessed on performance. Once a Teachers Team, which included Lisa Kaufman, Nicole teacher holds an open-ended appointment, the results Goldstein, and Alejandro Ganimian and was led by of the performance evaluation process may be used in Emiliana Vegas (Lead Economist, HDNED). The team dismissing a teacher based on his/her performance. would also like to thank Hafedh Zaafrane for assistance However, given the fact that data on the extent of with data collection. Finally, the report also benefited teacher under-performance and rates of dismissal are from the collaboration of Kamel Braham and Tomomi unavailable, it is not possible to ascertain the extent to Miyajima. Information and analysis is based on the data which ineffective teachers are removed in practice. and SABER-Teachers conceptual model used in 2011. SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS 12 TUNISIA | TEACHER POLICY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2011 www.worldbank.org/education/saber The Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) initiative produces comparative data and knowledge on education policies and institutions, with the aim of helping countries systematically strengthen their education systems. SABER evaluates the quality of education policies against evidence-based global standards, using new diagnostic tools and detailed policy data. The SABER country reports give all parties with a stake in educational results—from administrators, teachers, and parents to policymakers and business people—an accessible, objective snapshot showing how well the policies of their country's education system are oriented toward ensuring that all children and youth learn. This report focuses specifically on policies in the area of teacher policy. This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. THE WORLD BANK SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS 13