Impact Opportunities 1: Inputs or Accountability? How to improve the supply of education services? How to make schools work?

Transcription

1 Impact Opportunities 1: Inputs or Accountability? How to improve the supply of education services? How to make schools work? Deon Filmer, Lead Economist World Bank Dakar, Senegal Monday, September 30, 2013

2 What s the problem? Within-country inequalities in schooling attainment are big Rich-Poor Gaps in Proportion of Year Olds who have Completed Grade Proportion Niger 2006 C.A.R Chad 2004 Mozambique 2003 Mali 2006 Burkina Faso 2010 Guinea 2005 Comoros 1996 Togo 1998 Liberia 2007 Madagascar 2008 Cote d'ivoire 2005 Rwanda 2010 Burundi 2010 Ethiopia 2011 Mauritania 2000 Senegal 2010 Benin 2006 Sierra Leone 2008 DR Congo 2007 Uganda 2011 Malawi 2010 Congo Rep Gabon 2000 Richest quintile Poorest quintile Average Sao Tome and Principe Cameroon 2011 Nigeria 2008 Zambia 2007 Ghana 2008 Swaziland 2006 Lesotho 2009 Tanzania 2010 Kenya 2008 Namibia 2006 South Africa 1998 Zimbabwe 2010 Source: DHS. Most recent survey available shown.

3 What s the problem? Low performance relative to expected SACMEQ Math 2007: Grade 6 students scoring at various levels PASEC: Grade 5 test-takers who perform at a level no better than random guessing Percent SACMEQ Zambia Malawi Namibia Lesotho Uganda Mozambique Zanzibar South Africa Zimbabwe Botswana Swaziland Tanzania Seychelles Kenya Mauritius Mathematically skilled, Concrete and Abstract problem solving (Levels 6,7,8) Competent (Level 5) Chad Benin Cameroon Madagascar Gabon Burkina Faso Congo, Brazzaville Senegal Burundi Cote d'ivoire Comoros Beginning numeracy (Level 4) Pre, Emergent and Basic numeracy (Levels 1,2,3) Math French

4 What s the problem? Low performance relative to comparators Proportions of Grade 8 students scoring at low intermediate/high and advanced Benchmarks (Math, TIMSS 2011) Proportion Korea Malaysia International Average Botswana Chile Indonesia Jordan Ghana South Africa > <400

5 What s the problem? Low performance starts early Percent of 3 rd graders who cannot read a single word Ghana Kenya Liberia Mali Senegal The Gambia Uganda Source: Marie Helene Cloutier, C. Reinstadtler and Isabel Beltran (2011). Making the Grade: Assessing Literacy and Numeracy in African Countries. DIME Brief. Amber Gove and Peter Cvelich Early Reading: Igniting Education for All. A report by the Early Grade Learning Community of Practice. Research Triangle Park, NC: Research Triangle Institute.

6 What to do? Just spend more? Primary math test scores vs. public education spending Malawi Primary School Leaving Exam (PSLE) pass rate vs. per-student spending Normalized primary test score (controlling for GDP per capita) Spending on primary (controlling for GDP per capita) Pass rate Per-student spending (log) Normalized primary test score (controlling for GDP per capita) Predicted Normalized test score Source: Bruns, Filmer and Patrinos 2011.

7 What to do? A range of entry points Child endowments/readiness to learn Early Child Development, deworming, Demand side policies Scholarships, Conditional Cash Transfers, Supply side policies Increased inputs (classrooms, textbooks, extra tutors, teacher training) Accountability reforms Change the environment in which decisions about resource allocation get made

8 Can simply increasing inputs help? Yes, sometimes Kindles in Lagos Appropriate books and materials in South Africa But Systematic reviews suggest that purely working on inputs can lead to disappointing outcomes (Glewwe et. al 2011; Krishnaratne et al. 2013) Recall, money itself isn t enough In many cases funding and inputs are available, but there is service delivery failure

9 What is Service delivery failure? What teachers know 100 Percent of teachers with Minimum Content Knowledge Senegal Tanzania Kenya Overall Rural Urban Source: SDI.

10 What is Service delivery failure? Teachers absent from school Peru Papua New Guinea Ecuador Kenya Senegal Zambia Indonesia India Tanzania Uganda Sources: Chaudhury et al (2006) except for PNG, World Bank (2004), Zambia, Das et al (2005), and SDI.

11 What is Service delivery failure? Teachers absent from school, and from the classroom Kenya Senegal Tanzania Absent from school Absent from classroom Sources: SDI.

12 What is Service delivery failure? Time Children are in School Being Taught (per day) Time on task 3:50 3:21 2:52 2:24 1:55 1:26 0:57 0:28 0:00 Senegal Kenya Tanzania Overall Rural Urban Source: SDI

13 How to address service delivery failure? Not just a set of technical decisions, e.g. What is the right number of textbooks per student that the ministry should send to each school? What is the right teacher training protocol? Rather: Who has information and can provide pressure and oversight? What are the incentives to provide effort? Who has the capability and authority to act?

14 How to strengthen relationships of accountability Policymakers Students, families and communities Providers Client Power Capability and Autonomy Services

15 Tools to increase accountability Information For Accountability The generation and dissemination of information about inputs, outputs, and/or outcomes. School Autonomy/School Based Management The decentralization of school-level decision making to school-level agents. Teacher Incentives The linking of teacher pay to measures of effort and performance and/or the hiring of local teachers whose performance is evaluated by the school community

16 Further reading on recent evidence on accountability reforms Making Schools Work By Barbara Bruns, Deon Filmer and Harry Anthony Patrinos

17 Further reading School Resources and Educational Outcomes in Developing Countries: A Review of the Literature from 1990 to 2010 Paul Glewwe, Eric A. Hanushek, Sarah Humpage, Renato Ravina Quality education for all children? What works in education in developing countries Shari Krishnaratne, Howard White and Ella Carpenter

18 Thank you