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RESEARCH PRODUCT

What contexts are favorable for the adoption of the contract teacher policy ?

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Education systems in Francophone African countries are undergoing major reforms, consequence of the international commitment to achieve Universal Primary Education (UPE) by 2015. Teachers' recruitment is among the most important reforms for at least two reasons: first, various researches presented it as necessary otherwise UPE will not be achieved; second, the alternative policy proposed is unpopular as new teachers are recruited with lower qualification, receive lower salaries and have a less secure job position. Yet, some governments have succeeded in changing their teacher recruitment scheme and others have not. Conditions allowing a government to make the reform are still uninvestigated. This paper fills the gap by examining the origin of this new policy and the existence of a favorable context allowing the reform. Using a model of innovation and diffusion it identifies the severity of the teacher shortage, the strength of teachers unions, the existence of considerable number of non civil servant teachers and the dependence on external aid as conditions that can trigger the adoption of the reform. Applying crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis on a sample of Francophone African countries, it is established that there is not a unique context leading to the reform, but contract teacher policy was adopted under distinct contexts. The results highlight areas for future investigations in the understanding of policy making in sub-Saharan Africa.