El Salvador. The state of public teacher policies

This document is part of a series of follow-up reports on teacher policies by the Partnership for Educational Revitalization in the Americas (PREAL). These reports seek to foster informed debates on public teacher policies through national studies that systematically illustrate the status and scope of these policies in each country's schools.

The report, prepared by the Inter-American Dialogue and the Fundación Salvadoreña para el Desarrollo Económico y Social [Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development – FUSADES], analyses several areas of teacher policies in El Salvador, such as strategies for recruiting and retaining talented teachers, and processes that incentivize good teaching. It highlights that progress is being made in terms of what is expected of teachers and students, regulations around initial training, and establishing increasingly strict criteria for entry into the profession. However, the greatest public policy challenges are fundamentally around offering salaries and incentives that attract and retain the most talented teachers, creating an information and evaluation system to help improve teaching practice, and establishing better mechanisms to promote and recognize good performance.