Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
Center for Contemporary South Asia

Tara Beteille – The Contentious Politics of Teacher Transfers in India: A Way Forward

Friday, November 17, 2017

2:00pm – 4:00pm

CGIS South 153, Harvard University, 1730 Cambridge st

Tara Béteille is currently Senior Economist in the Education Global Practice at the World Bank, where she focuses on project design, implementation, evaluation and research. She is currently leading two engineering education projects in India, and research related to teacher appointments and transfers. She joined the World Bank in 2010 through the Young Professional’s Program. Prior to joining the World Bank, Tara was a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice (now CEPA), Stanford University. She received her PhD from Stanford University in 2009, where she was a recipient of the William Kimball and Sara Hart Stanford Graduate Fellowship. Tara also holds Master’s degrees in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics (2000) and Stanford University (2009). Tara’s research has focused on teacher and principal labor markets. Her dissertation, Absenteeism, Transfers and Patronage: The Political Economy of Teacher Labor Markets in India, argues that strategic linkages between teachers and politicians compromise teacher accountability efforts in large parts of India. During her post doctoral year, she worked on principal labor markets. Tara’s interest in teacher labor markets dates to 2000, when she worked with ICICI Bank, India, managing their nonprofit funding in education. Her experiences over this period made her acutely aware of the range of political and bureaucratic processes governing policy outcomes, and the need to study teacher accountability as a systemic issue in order to frame effective policies.

Read the Paper: Focus will be on Chapters four & Five.

Joint Seminar on South Asian Politics