The School governance environment in Uttar Pradesh, India: implications for teacher accountability and effort

The school governance environment is an important determinant of schooling quality and thus of development. This article explores how school governance is influenced by teacher unions and teacher politicians by presenting evidence on the political penetration of teachers, the activities of teacher unions and the stances of teachers' organisations on various decentralisation and accountability reform proposals over time. It asks how student achievement varies with teachers' union membership and political connections. Finding that students taught by unionised or politically connected teachers have significantly lower scores, it asks to what extent this negative relationship works via such teachers applying lower effort.