Get to know » Schools and their leaders » Are there any barriers to quality teaching?:
Resource constraints
Resources in the PILNA context refer to the infrastructure, teaching materials and teachers available to a school.
School leaders were asked to indicate the extent to which their schools were affected by resource challenges. They could respond with ‘To a large extent’, ‘To a moderate extent’, ‘To a small extent’, or ‘Not at all’. Questions related to both the quantity and quality of resources available to their school.
Students attending schools with resource constraints
Table SLT3.1 shows the percentage of students from PILNA 2021 with a school leader who indicated that their school was experiencing a resource constraint ‘To a large extent’ or ‘To a moderate extent’. Note that responses indicating ‘to a small extent’ and ‘not at all’ were left out.
About one out of three students in Small Island States (30%) attended schools where school leaders reported a resource shortage as a common factor hindering the school’s capacity to provide instruction.
Substantial proportions of students attended schools where school leaders reported shortages of classrooms (44%) and inadequate classrooms (19%) in their schools.
About half the Small Island States students attended schools where a shortage of teachers was identified as hindering instruction (53%). This is higher than the regional average of 39%. Approximately one out of three students attended schools where school leaders reported instruction being hindered by teacher absenteeism (35%), and a lack of qualified teachers (32%).
For Small Island States countries, substantial variance was seen in the proportions of students affected by teacher factors. The percentage of students attending schools affected by these factors ranged from 0% to 100% for teacher shortages and teacher absenteeism, and from 0% to 85% for lack of qualified teachers.
What does this mean?
Together, these findings show a theme of insufficient or inadequate resourcing in a substantial number of schools. This is consistent across infrastructure, instruction materials, and teacher availability, though teacher-related factors affected the greatest proportion of students. There were also substantial variations across Small Island States countries for teacher-related factors, indicating a need for tailored interventions that consider local circumstances.
