Education

Education

Pritchett 2013
1. Schooling Facts
  1. 1) Adult average schooling has tripled between 1950-2010
  2. 2) Rapid expansion of schooling - lots of schools being built
  3. 3) Even in non-democratic, repressive, corrupt, slow-growing economies, schooling is increasing
  4. 4) in 2010, the average Haitian or Bangladeshi had more year of schlooing than the average Frenchman or Italian in 1960.
2. PROBLEM!
  1. Learning profiles too flat
    1. e.g. Andhra Pradesh, India
      1. Examined a variety of interventions:
        Performance pay
        Increasing school grants
      2. Schools randomly selected for treatment
      3. Developed test (ASER) to assess student's rote learning and deeper conceptual understanding
        ASER test
        Literacy
        Numeracy
        Telling time
        Handling $$
        Less than 2/3 of children aged 15-16 mastered all 4 components
      4. Test student in multiple grades
        Produce cross section learning profiles
      5. RESULTS
        FLAT LEARNING PROFILES!
        e.g. single digit addition
        Grade 2: 35%
        Grade 5: 61%
    2. PISA standardised test
      1. Average Score 2009
        OECD: 496
        Denmark: 503
        Tamil Nadu: 350
        Also more students placed in th bottom category in Tamil Nadu
      2. Sampling was mostly school based
        Don't know the learning outcome of children not in school
        Progress may actually be exaggerated
    3. WHY???
      1. Barriers to universal education
        1) current page of educational progress is too slow and unlikely to change because system is centralised
        Lack of evidence based planning
        Only Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) visible goals
        More inputs: books, teachers, buildings, etc.
        Perpetuates illusion of progress
        Tendency to replicate rich countries' and educational system
        Existing systems cannot easily change and flow of innovation unlikely
      2. Centralised "spider" system - top down approach
        Good at logistics and can crank out primary schools quickly
        But has delivered:
        More schooling
        Resources for marginalised children that are not yet schooled in remote areas
        But education needs judgement and control
        Teaching a child with top down approach may be forcing a round peg into a square hole
        Mostly run by government
        Teachers are mostly civil servants
        Nationalisation wave in 1870s -1920s beacuse
        Increased demand for skilled labour especially during industrial revolution
        rise of centralising ideologies and nationalisms
        Mimicry of successful education systems especially in France and Japan
        Why not follow them?
        Most OECD achieved current levels before 1970 - used to know how. They now know how to improve but not build from scratch.
        Hasn't changed because
        Camouflage: e.g. hiring building contractors, putting colour in textbooks to gain legitimacy as if they are creating learning
        System perpetuates itself - it is more convenient to be blind/ignorant to parents' concerns
  2. can more spending improve learning outcomes?
    1. NO!
      1. Countries have exactly same learning outcomes with different level of spending
        US PPP $105,000 per child
        Poland PPP $39,000 per child
      2. Countries have different learning outcomes with same level of spending
        Finland PPP $71,000
        But Finland outperforms Spain by 50 points on average PISA results
        Spain PPP $74,000
3. International assessments:
  1. East Asian countries - highest scores
  2. Most OECD clustered around OECD mean of 500 in PISA
  3. Eastern European countries near OECD mean
  4. Most developing countries score around 400 or below
4. Solution
  1. "Starfish" bottom up approach
    1. Qualities
      1. Examples
        Community controlled schools: Community hired teachers paid 1/5 amount as civil service teacher but produce equivalent or better learning outcomes. E.g. Andhra Pradesh
        Private Providers of education like in Kenya (Bold et al. 2011)
        Schools under small governmental jurisdiction
        Putting cameras in classrooms and have teachers take date-time stamped photos >> increase student attendance and scores in India (Duflo, Hanna and Ryan 2010)
      2. Open
        have many different types of schools providing education instead of only having schools under spider control
      3. Locally operated
        Given autonomy to operate
      4. Performance pressure on learning through accountability
      5. professionally networked
        communities of professional practice
      6. Flexibly financed
        finance follows students and performance rather than mainly being directed at the teachers, independent of performance

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