Counting the costs of learning - Part 2

Peter-John  Gordon, guest columnistThis series of articles comes out of work done for the Education Cluster of the 50|50 project spearheaded by the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies at UWI (Mona). This project is a reflection on the first 50 years of Independence in the Anglophone Caribbean, and preparation for the next 50 years. This second instalment deals with the primary school.We start with our ideal primary school consisting of 450 students. Currently, primary education is delivered in four types of institutions: primary schools (grades one to six, and public); preparatory schools (grades one to six, and private); all-age schools (grades one to nine, and public); and primary and junior high schools (grades one to nine, and public).The average class size in our model school will be 25 students. The student-teacher ratio in such a school is 21.4:1 (this does not include teachers on leave). Included in the teacher corps are a principal, a vice-principal, a guidance counsellor and a librarian. It is assumed that the vice-principal is also a classroom teacher. The current student-teacher ratios are: for the public system 24.6:1 and preparatory 16:1.In our configuration of the educational system, public primary education would be delivered exclusively in primary schools. We would dispense with the all-age schools and the primary and junior high schools. Each school would be dedicated to either the primary or the secondary level exclusively.We make the same assumption about a primary-school teacher as we do about a high-school teacher, i.e., the teacher is a trained graduate. Currently, 42 per cent of teachers teaching at the primary level are so trained.Academic staff costIn order to estimate academic staff cost per annum, we take the current salary scale as given (based on the heads of agreement between the Government of Jamaica and the Jamaica Teachers' Association from April 2008 to March 31, 2010), make adjustments for inflation (7.9 per cent to March 2011 and a further 7.3 per cent to March 2012) and make assumptions as to where on the scale the 'average' teacher would fall.We assume that the average principal is a principal of a primary III school being paid at the fourth increment of a six-increment scale i.e. $2.8 million per annum. We assume that a vice-principal is at the fourth increment of a six-increment scale being paid $2,239,000 per annum (we adjust the special teachers' allowance payable to vice-principals to the level paid to principals to sufficiently differentiate the payments to a vice-principal and a teacher).We assume the same rate of pay for teachers in the primary schools as in high schools. We also assume the same ratio of senior teachers to teachers (30 per cent senior teachers). The cost of an 'average teacher' is, therefore, $1,796,000 per annum. The academic staff cost in our primary school with one principal, one vice-principal and 19 teachers (inclusive of NIS and NHT) is $40,911,600 per annum.Administrative Staff CostThe administrative staff cost for our model school are as seen in Table 1.Given the size of the primary school compared to a high school, the tasks of bursar and registrar are combined. This person, like in the high school, is raised to the level of a vice-principal and paid accordingly.For the primary school, we do not designate a plant manager, instead, we use a maintenance manager - a different nomenclature is used to indicate that the tasks required of this person at a primary school is likely to be less onerous than his/her counterpart at a high school.Ancillary Staff CostAncillary Staff costing is presented in Table 2.Administrative ExpensesOur estimate for administrative expenses (non-salary cost) for our model primary school is $4.5 million per year. This will cover utility bills, cleaning material, stationery, etc.Teaching/Learning SuppliesWe estimate the cost for teaching/learning supplies to be $1.8 million.Co-curricular ExpenditureCo-curricular activities are estimated to cost $1.8 million.Maintenance CostIn estimating the maintenance cost of our model primary school, we make the assumption that a primary-school student utilises approximately 50 per cent of the space utilised by a high-school student. A high-school has more space dedicated to specific activities - science laboratories, industrial arts workshops, gymnasiums, auditoriums, etc. For a high-school student, we estimated a maintenance cost of $35,000 per student. We estimate a maintenance cost at primary school of $18,000 per student.Estimated Cost of Operating Our Model Primary SchoolTable 3 summarises the cost of operating our model primary school for a year.Note that the estimates do not include cost of teachers on leave, any welfare programmes delivered through the school (e.g., school feeding or school books) or the cost for any net addition to the capital stock of the school.Peter-John Gordon is lecturer in the Department of Economics, UWI, Mona. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com. Click here for more details including the tables.