Get to know » Schools & their leaders » Are there any barriers to quality teaching?:
Impact of external factors on teaching capacity
School leaders were asked to what extent they thought their school’s capacity to provide instruction was being hindered by external factors. These factors were natural disasters, pandemics (such as Covid-19), and epidemics (such as measles). They could respond with ‘To a large extent’, ‘to a moderate extent’, To a small extent’, or ‘Not at all’.
Students from schools affected by external factors
Table SLT3.2 shows the percentage of students in Marshall Islands whose school leader reported that their school’s capacity to provide instruction was hindered ‘To a large extent’ or ‘To a moderate extent’ by an external factor.
Pandemics hindered instruction in schools attended by 11% of students in PILNA 2021. For all PILNA countries, this percentage ranged from 0% to 76%. This was the single largest challenge reported by school leaders.
Natural disasters hindered instruction in schools attended by 15% of students, while epidemics hindered instruction in schools attended by 7% of students.
What does this mean?
One out of ten students in the region attended schools where instruction was hindered ‘To a moderate extent’ or ‘To a large extent’ by a pandemic.
Natural disasters and epidemics also affected 15% and 7% of students across the country respectively.
This research shows that school leaders believe these external factors had a substantial impact on the instruction of students in the region.
