What matters most for teacher deployment? A case study of teacher preferences in Sierra Leone

Over the past decade, governments in low- and middle-income countries have heavily invested in the education workforce to accommodate significant enrolment increases. However, these investments have not led to the delivery of quality education for all children. In Sierra Leone, for instance, the ratio of pupil to qualified teacher currently sits at 60:1 (⇡Ministry of Basic & Secondary Education, 2021). This ratio is far higher than the government target of 40:1. Notably, the impact of these investments is often inequitable as governments struggle to attract trained and qualified teachers to work in remote locations. In Sierra Leone, the ratio of pupil to qualified teacher rises from 44:1 for schools in urban centres to 76:1 for schools in rural areas (⇡Mackintosh et al., 2020b). In spite of government efforts to redress this imbalance, up to a fifth of teachers fail to take up their assignments in remote locations (⇡Mackintosh et al., 2020b). In this context, learners in urban centres consistently outperform their peers in rural areas (⇡Leh Wi Lan, 2021). The authors explored the question: What factors shape where teachers want to work in Sierra Leone? to better understand why the inequitable distribution of teachers persists in Sierra Leone and how the government may resolve this problem.