Despite widely documented shortfalls of teacher skills and effort, there is little systematic evidence of rates of teacher turnover in low-income countries. I investigate the incidence and consequences of teacher turnover in Rwandan public primary schools over the period from 2016-2019. To do so, I combine the universe of teacher placement records with student enrollment figures and school-average Primary Leaving Exam scores in a nationally representative sample of 259 schools. Results highlight five features of teacher turnover. First, rates of teacher turnover are high: annually, 20 percent of teachers separate from their jobs, of which 11 percent exit from the public-sector teaching workforce. Second, the burden of teacher churn is higher in schools with low learning levels and, perhaps surprisingly, in low pupil-teacher-ratio schools. Third, teacher turnover is concentrated among early-career teachers, male teachers, and those assigned to teach Math. Fourth, replacing teachers quickly after they exit is a challenge; 23 percent of exiting teachers are not replaced the following year. And fifth, teacher turnover is associated with subsequent declines in learning outcomes. On average, the loss of a teacher is associated with a reduction in learning levels of 0.05 standard deviations. In addition to class-size increases, a possible mechanism for these learning outcomes is the prevalence of teachers teaching outside of their areas of subject expertise: in any given year, at least 21 percent of teachers teach in subjects in which they have not been trained. Taken together, these results suggest that the problem of teacher turnover is substantial in magnitude and consequential for learning outcomes in schools.

中文翻译：

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卢旺达教师流动

尽管广泛记录了教师技能和努力的不足，但几乎没有系统证据表明低收入国家的教师更替率。我调查了 2016 年至 2019 年期间卢旺达公立小学教师更替的发生率和后果。为此，我将教师安置记录的范围与学生入学人数和学校平均小学毕业考试成绩结合起来，在全国代表性的 259 所学校样本中进行。结果突出了教师更替的五个特征。首先，教师流动率很高：每年有 20% 的教师离职，其中 11% 的教师退出公共部门的教学队伍。其次，在学习水平低的学校，以及可能令人惊讶的是，在师生比例低的学校中，教师流失的负担更高。第三，教师更替集中在早期职业教师、男教师和分配给教数学的教师中。第四，教师退出后快速更换是一个挑战；23% 的离职教师在第二年没有被替换。第五，教师更替与随后的学习成果下降有关。平均而言，教师的流失与学习水平降低 0.05 个标准差有关。除了班级人数增加之外，这些学习成果的一个可能机制是教师在其学科专业领域之外进行教学的普遍性：在任何一年中，至少有 21% 的教师在他们未受过培训的学科中任教. 综合起来，