The old cliche used in the title has many opponents; not too many people are convinced that money is the only factor to get skilled or efficient workers. Peanuts, in this context, are slang for low wages, and monkeys imply stupidity, and by extension, unskilled workers. A seminal essay published by the Economic Policy in 2011, however, upheld the phrase to suggest that when it comes to education, there is a significant link between teachers’ pay and pupils’ performance. 

The authors of the article, Dr Dolton and Marcenaro-Gutierrez begin with a simple question: “Why are teachers paid up to four times as much in some countries compared to others, and does it matter?” They observe that some of the best-performing education systems, such as Finland and South Korea, recruit their teachers from the top third of their graduate cohort. Using aggregated data from 39 OECD countries over 10 years, the study argues that the relative wage in teaching determines the ability, and hence the quality of teachers the country gets. 

“If teachers are paid in the top 20 per cent of the earnings distribution of a country, then one would expect that 

this profession would attract some of the ablest graduates in the country. Likewise, if teaching is really poorly paid in relative terms, then one would expect that only the less able would end up in the job.” The study shows that a 15 per cent increase in teachers’ pay would give rise to around a 6-8 per cent increase in pupils’ performance. 

But there is a catch. This increase is not necessarily for the existing stock of teachers. An automatic pay increase will not necessarily turn the current teachers into better teachers. There should be additional incentives for them to undertake continuous professional development and in-service training to measure up to the higher pay. It would take 30-40 years to complete the cycle to replace the existing stock with better recruits. The article contends that the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers. 

With so much talk on education as the next “megaproject” of the government, reiterated by the education minister in a post-budget briefing, I think policymakers should focus on quality teachers at all levels of education in Bangladesh – primary, secondary and tertiary. However, the moment the term “megaproject” is used, a mega concern bursts into the scene. We get worried by the trajectory of the ongoing “development” practice that focuses on bricks and mortars, land acquisition, overseas consultancy, bureaucrats, and middlemen. Let us, therefore, be wary of the monkey business in identifying the elephant in the room: we need the right people for the right job. 

We need to make the right investment to get the right teachers for the right education. The same rule perhaps applies to other professional groups. It is not healthy to have a cadre officer with a background in humanities call the shots in the health ministry, for example. 

With limited resources available to Bangladesh’s education sector in the proposed budget, it is even more pertinent that we strategise. The proposed Tk 81,449 crore education budget is 12 per cent of the total budget. Its share in the GDP is 1.83 per cent, significantly lower than the prescribed six per cent. Already, the budget has been criticised for not paying the necessary focus on Covid-19 recovery and for its attempt to camouflage the information technology budget under its purview to look good on paper.