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Across six Sub-Saharan African countries, grade 4 students of teachers who were hired after a free primary education reform perform worse, on average, on language and math tests--statistically significantly so in language--than students of teachers who were hired before the reform. Teachers who were hired just after the reform also perform worse, on average, on tests of subject content knowledge than those hired before the reform. The results are sensitive to the time frames considered in the analysis, and aggregate results mask substantial variation across countries--gaps are large and significant in some countries but negligible in others. Analysis of teacher demographic and education characteristics--including education level or teacher certification--as well as teacher classroom-level behaviors reveals few systematic differences associated with being hired pre- or post-reform. [Additional support for the working paper from the Research in Improving Systems of Education (RISE) (United Kingdom) and the Knowledge for Change Program (KCP) Trust Fund.]

There is little evidence of how differentiated instruction is being implemented, if at all, in low- and middle-income contexts, which often have unique challenges such as availability of resources and large class sizes. In this paper, we present the results of a qualitative study in eight multigrade preprimary classrooms in Kenya. We used classroom observations and teacher interviews to understand how teachers approached differentiation during language and mathematics lessons, including understanding why teachers were making the moves we observed. All teachers differentiated instruction to some extent in our findings, and we provide detailed descriptions of the ways that teachers adapted content to fit the needs of their students. We also provide recommendations, including how to support teachers in creating activities that are appropriate for different abilities of students in the same classrooms, and suggest next steps for research in this area.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been intensely disruptive to education all around the world. With children in many countries continuing to face prolonged absences from the classroom, innovative solutions are needed to maintain education continuity, especially for the most vulnerable students. Such crises require solutions that go beyond the resources of the 'traditional' education workforce, with local communities and inputs from other sectors playing a potentially important role in ensuring continuity of learning. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Education Development Trust has sought to be highly responsive to the changing needs of educators, system leaders and partners around the world. In doing so, Education Development Trust has developed an evidence base from which new thinking has been developed, called 'Learning Renewed', which reimagines what more effective, equitable and resilient education systems might look like, and how they might better withstand future shocks. This report, the second in the Learning Renewed series, explores the solutions adopted by a team in Kenya, where the roles of community health volunteers (CHVs) have been redesigned to support continuity of learning for the vulnerable girls, and identifies key lessons which may prove valuable both during and beyond the current crisis. To do so, Education Development Trust commissioned a research study to explore, in detail, CHV activities during school closure. Data was collected remotely through surveys, diaries written by CHVs and interviews with stakeholders. The research covered CHVs operating in both rural Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) and urban areas. The research highlighted both many positive outcomes for girls and significant challenges. [Foreword is written by Tony McAleavy. For "Learning Renewed: A Safe Way to Reopen Schools in the Global South. Paper 1 of the Learning Renewed Series," see ED614318.]

In the past decade, hundreds of impact evaluation studies have measured the learning outcomes of education interventions in developing countries. The impact magnitudes are often reported in terms of "standard deviations," making them difficult to communicate to policy makers beyond education specialists. This paper proposes two approaches to demonstrate the effectiveness of learning interventions, one in "equivalent years of schooling" and another in the net present value of potential increased lifetime earnings. The results show that in a sample of low- and middle-income countries, one standard deviation gain in literacy skill is associated with between 4.7 and 6.8 additional years of schooling, depending on the estimation method. In other words, over the course of a business-as-usual school year, students learn between 0.15 and 0.21 standard deviation of literacy ability. Using that metric to translate the impact of interventions, a median structured pedagogy intervention increases learning by the equivalent of between 0.6 and 0.9 year of business-as-usual schooling. The results further show that even modest gains in standard deviations of learning--if sustained over time--may have sizeable impacts on individual earnings and poverty reduction, and that conversion into a non-education metric should help policy makers and non-specialists better understand the potential benefits of increased learning. [This paper is a product of the Office of the Chief Economist, Africa Region and the World Development Report 2018 Team.]

This paper uses recent evidence from international early grade reading programs to provide guidance about how best to create appropriate targets and more effectively identify improved program outcomes. Recent results show that World Bank and US Agency for International Development-funded large-scale international education interventions in low- and middle-income countries tend to produce larger impacts than do interventions in the United States, as measured by effect sizes. However, these effect sizes rarely translate into large gains in mean oral reading fluency scores and are associated with only small increases in the proportion of students meeting country-level reading benchmarks. The limited impact of these low- and middle-income countries' reading programs on the proportion of students meeting reading benchmarks is in large part caused by right-skewed distributions of student reading scores. In other words, modest impacts on the proportion of students meeting benchmarks are caused by low mean scores and large proportions of nonreaders at baseline. It is essential to take these factors into consideration when setting program targets for reading fluency and comprehension. We recommend that program designers in lower-performing countries use baseline assessment data to develop benchmarks based on multiple performance categories that allow for more ambitious targets focused on reducing nonreaders and increasing beginning readers, with more modest targets aimed at improving oral reading fluency scores and increasing the percentage of proficient readers.

This paper examines common instructional strategies in early grade mathematics interventions through a review of studies in classrooms in low- and middle-income countries. Twenty-four studies met the criteria for inclusion, and analyses reveal four sets of instructional strategies for which there is evidence from multiple contexts. Of the 24 studies, 16 involved the use of multiple representations, 10 involved the use of developmental progressions, 6 included supporting student use of explanation and justification, and 5 included integration of informal mathematics. Based on the review, we provide conclusions and recommendations for future research and policy.

This report presents the results of RTI International Education's study on teachers' guides across 13 countries and 19 projects. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, we examine how teachers' guides across the projects differ and find substantial variation in the design and structure of the documents. We develop a scripting index so that the scripting levels of the guides can be compared across projects. The impact results of the programs that use teachers' guides show significant impacts on learning outcomes, associated with approximately an additional half year of learning, showing that structured teachers' guides contribute to improved learning outcomes. During observations, we find that teachers make a variety of changes in their classroom instruction from how the guides are written, showing that the utilization of structured teachers' guides do not create robotic teachers unable to use their own professional skills to teach children. Unfortunately, many changes that teachers make reduce the amount of group work and interactivity that was described in the guides, suggesting that programs should encourage teachers to more heavily utilize the instructional routines designed in the guide. The report includes a set of research-based guidelines that material developers can use to develop teachers' guides that will support effective instructional practices and help improve learning outcomes. The key takeaway from the report is that structured teachers' guides improve learning outcomes, but that overly scripted teachers' guides are somewhat less effective than simplified teachers' guides that give specific guidance to the teacher but are not written word for word for each lesson in the guide.

Despite the fact that access to education has dramatically increased over the past decade, 57 million children do not currently have access to education, and many of those who do receive limited, low-quality services. Recent estimates have shown that the stagnation of aid and inflation has meant that the funding gap needed to provide basic education for all children and adults has increased from $16 billion to $26 billion. In this context, impacting investing, which uses the tools of commercial capital deployment for social good, has emerged as a potential tool to support education access, equity, and quality. This study maps the emerging landscape of education impact investing, with a view to identify potential areas for intervention by investors. It describes the characteristics of impact investment, including sources of capital, investor profiles and preferences, and areas of investment. Its focus is on investments that broaden access to quality education, especially for the most vulnerable populations. This study, conducted by D. Capital Partners, is part of the Open Society Education Support Program's efforts to identify innovative financing mechanisms and approaches that can increase the availability and allocation of resources for education systems. [The working paper was written by D. Capital Partners.]

The System-wide Collaborative Action for Livelihoods and Environment, or SCALE process, has become one of the Academy for Educational Development's (AED's) and the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID's) most utilized and replicated models, with applications in education, health, natural resources management, tourism, sustainable agriculture, and energy, among others. SCALE was originally designed through the GreenCOM project, which was funded by the USAID/Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade Bureau's Natural Resources Management Office and implemented by AED. This paper illustrates how the SCALE model can be modified for use in the context of international workforce initiatives.

In "Beyond Fishing," the Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) documents its experiences as a local capacity building and grantmaking organisation and describes how it supports community based projects in developing their organisational capacity. In recent decades, development organisations have been supporting capacity building mainly through training. In this they have often been influenced by the paradigm, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for today, but teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." KCDF takes this paradigm a step further, moving "beyond fishing," and emphasising the importance of "helping the fisherman to gain access and increased control over all the resources to which he has a right." The first section of the Working Paper concentrates on the value of capacity building and grantmaking as a strategy for development in general. However, KCDF's work is also making a particularly meaningful contribution to meeting the goals of Early Childhood Development. In Section Two of the paper, KCDF explains its view on the value of a holistic development approach to improving the well-being of children. This is illustrated with a description of the work of KCDF with the Nyuat and El-barta projects, two of the Bernard van Leer Foundation's partner organisations in the Samburu district of Kenya. This description of KCDF's approach to development can be informative for readers working as programme staff, policy makers or academics, whose interests lie in finding ways to achieve local autonomy and participation. Funders and other development agencies will find that KCDF gives a useful description of the role that local grantmaking and endowment building can play in furthering community development; and of how a local community foundation can make a difference in this respect. Finally, the publication will appeal to a wide readership interested in concrete examples of integrated projects in support of the development of the young child. A glossary is included. (Contains 22 footnotes.)

Within and beyond Africa, it is the public sector much more than the private sector that is the scene of strikes and other forms of disorder, conflict and difficulty. Yet the private sector can be much affected by the public problems. Effects may be simultaneously positive for the private sector and deleterious for the public sector. Although a few higher education works have considered the private sector impacts of general public sector disorder, our Kenyan case study goes much further in uncovering and detailing inter-sectoral dynamics. Compared to the (sparse) literature on higher education inter-sectoral dynamics, it extends consideration from Latin America to Africa, from elite to other private higher education, and from challenges facing public universities to ensuing challenges facing private universities. It also extends consideration of strikes to the faculty side. Faculty strikes have been less common than student strikes in higher education, but Africa stands out for experiencing both strike forms. We treat faculty strikes as a prominent case of the wider phenomenon of disorder, conflict, or difficulty. The ramifications of public disorder do not stop at one-shot impacts on private higher education. On the contrary, the Kenyan case reveals dynamic and multiple, sometimes sequential, public-private interactions. The public sector does not haplessly suffer and the private sector does not inevitably gain. Both face challenges as the other sector shifts strategies and as macro political and economic contexts change. The case of Kenyan faculty strikes tells us much about unfolding realities in African higher education and much about private-public dynamics more widely. Whether in regard to particular private gains or generally in regard to multiple public-private shifts, the case provides insights into significant conceptual and empirical questions about inter-sectoral impacts--whether in higher education or beyond. Public and Private University Enrolment, 1994, 2004 is appended. (Contains 2 tables and 23 notes.)

This is a report on the quality review of distance learning in a sample of five countries. The report was commissioned by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation's (CHEA's) International Commission in order to understand better the nature of existing regulatory arrangements in the context of growth in electronically supported learning and in the import and export of education world-wide. The data collected from readily available public sources were used to create country case studies for Jordan, Malaysia, Australia, Kenya and the UK, which were subsequently verified by in-country experts. From the data and information collected, a summary report was produced in two parts. Part One summarizes information and issues arising from relevant policy reports and academic literature. The sections of the report cover: context and terminology, approaches to quality review, agencies involved, review processes, and challenges and issues in the quality review of distance learning. The second part presents data from the case studies. After a brief section outlining the socio-economic context, educational system and policy context for each country, Part Two addresses the main themes of the project: the nature of distance learning in each country and the main providers, the nature of the regulatory and quality assurance systems as they apply generally and to distance learning in particular, and the relationship between trade in educational services (from an importing and exporting perspective) and arrangements for quality review. [This report was produced by CHEA (Council for Higher Education Accreditation) Institute for Research and Study of Accreditation and Quality Assurance. It was prepared for the International Commission of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.]

The advent of schooling, the cash economy, and new political systems have brought about many situations providing challenges to the Samburu and the Turkana nomadic pastoralists in northern Kenya. This report details the experiences of the staff of the El-barta project in working with communities within a situation of isolation, harsh climatic conditions, and few economic resources. Chapter 1 of the paper introduces the organization and describes the scope of their work in enabling groups and individuals to take responsibility for building the capacity of their communities in order to enhance young children's development. El-barta works closely with community organizations through its six departments--health, education, food security, communications, finance, and administration--and links its interventions to the communities through three main community groups: focus groups, function committees, and opinion leaders. Chapters 2 through 5 examine different aspects of the El-barta project, showing how they are tied together in an integrated program: (1) early childhood development program, building on positive traditional child-rearing practices and facilitating the development of community day care centers; (2) health interventions, including medical care, maternal-child health, nutrition, personal hygiene, and safe home environment; (3) food security interventions, including drought preparedness, improved food practices, and income generating activities; and (4) further education interventions, including out-of-school programming and adult literacy training. Chapter 6 details some of the obstacles to program implementation and identifies potential goals for further enhancing early childhood development. The report concludes by asserting that it is critical to have an integrated program when working in a harsh environment and imperative to keep as many good traditional practices as possible for a society in transition from traditional to modern ways of life. (KB)

A multinational, multidisciplinary team examined the impact of globalization on education, training, and small and medium sized enterprise development in Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. The study focused on the following issues: developing a learner-led competitiveness approach; building learning enterprises; education for microenterprises and macroeconomic growth; and training for self-employment and competitiveness. The study documented the importance of learning-led competitiveness and identified obstacles to development of learning enterprises in all three countries. The following are among the 12 recommendations offered to national governments and international agencies with development concerns: (1) insert learning-led competitiveness into development debates; (2) understand the implications of globalization better; (3) address the range of barriers to development of learning enterprises; (4) consider interenterprise linkages and the role of learning therein; (5) place learning-led competitiveness at the heart of small enterprise development policy; (6) broaden the universal primary education vision; (7) construct a curriculum for competitiveness; (8) improve public training's ability to support competitive self-employment; (9) empower training providers to be more market responsive; and (10) emphasize skills transfer from large to small firms. (The bibliography lists 139 references. Brief profiles and addresses of the research team members and a list of project papers are appended.) (MN)

During 1997-98, a research team from the University of Leeds investigated the effectiveness of teacher resource centers (TRCs) as a strategy for teacher development in developing nations. The study included a literature review and fieldwork in four countries (India, Kenya, Nepal, and Zambia). The study examined the extent to which TRCs helped improve the environment for learning in schools and the quality of teaching and learning in classrooms. It also examined issues surrounding TRCs and how TRCs were affected by those issues. Data collection involved literature reviews and observations and interviews at TRCs and in schools in the four countries. Results indicated that it was very difficult for TRCs to achieve their goal of improving teachers' classroom performance and thus positively impacting teaching and learning, because they were detached from work at schools. Overall, the TRCs and their inservice courses were used very little in all four countries and made little significant contribution to improved teaching and learning in schools. Teachers had to leave their classes to go to TRC activities, so the TRCs actually contributed to teacher absenteeism. Sustainability depended on outside resources, particularly international donors. (Contains 227 references.) (SM)

This publication is a companion volume to a research report that examined local, national, and international interventions and initiatives aimed at promoting education and training for the informal sector. It provides four case studies on types of initiatives being taken by a wide range of actors in the area of education and training. "Ghana" (Osei Boeh-Ocansey) addresses how the government realizes that employment opportunities in the formal sector of the economy will continue to be limited; therefore, educational reforms are now emphasizing the acquisition of skills that promote self-employment and entrepreneurship. "Kenya" (Henry Oketch) reviews strategies that individuals, the government, and nonprofit organizations are using to improve skills in the informal sector. It identifies nine different types of agencies or processes providing skills for self-employment. "India" (Keith D'Souza, Liza Thomas) focuses on the activities of four nongovernmental organizations working in the field of nonformal education in the state of Gujarat. Their emphasis is on capacity building rather than on employment generation or job skill development. "Chile" (Graciela Messina) compares two training programs for unemployed youth to develop a series of reflections on the role that training for the informal sector ought to play. It concludes that the government is more concerned with employment policies than with training policies. (YLB)

This paper offers a broad look at accreditation and quality assurance in higher education and how these issues are addressed around the world. Section 1 is an overview of accreditation and addresses the aims and objectives of accreditation, standards, accreditation bodies, stages of the accreditation process, the quality of that process, the role of government in the accreditation process, some critical points of view concerning the process, and present accreditation trends. Section 2 looks at accreditation and quality assurance through brief national case studies. The nations represented are France, Germany, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States, China, India, Hong Kong, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Australia. This section closes with a section comparing accreditation and quality assurance in various regions. Section 3 takes a closer and more detailed look at the accreditation process in Romania, particularly in light of the recent political and educational changes in this nation and the fairly recent decision to introduce accreditation of institutions of higher education. This examination covers accreditation principles and objectives, standards for initial and subsequent accreditation, application rules, structure of the accreditation committee and its functions, and provisions for financing accreditation. Appendixes contain institutional evaluation standards and a glossary. (Contains 27 references.) (JB)

This paper reviews the evolution of the Kenyan education system since independence from Britain in 1963. At the time of independence, very few resources were devoted to the education of Africans as compared to non-Africans, resulting in critical shortages of trained manpower. Educational segregation and differentiation also reinforced racial and ethnic prejudices. After independence, education was to be a significant tool not only for social justice and rapid development, but also for the promotion of unity and "nationhood." The report outlines the institutional and legal steps that were taken to improve the educational system and traces its development through four 5-year development plans. In the space of 20 years, the system has expanded dramatically and universal free primary education has been achieved, the progression of the system has been restructured, and the curriculum has been significantly revised, placing more emphasis on the technical and vocational skills which remain in high demand. However, educational development in the post-colonial period has been hampered by insufficient resources due to poor economic conditions, a high rate of population growth, teacher shortages, the need to balance native language with foreign language instruction, poor internal efficiency, and continued problems with curriculum relevance. (Author/DB)

A research project in the Ivory Coast, Kenya, and Tanzania evaluated the cost effectiveness of management training seminars for women entrepreneurs in the informal sector. Women, a large and growing part of entrepreneurs, had less access to needed resources, skills, and information than men. Reasons for failure to study the cost effectiveness and efficiency of development assistance included lack of clear concepts, methodologies, and standards. Grassroots management training seminars were conducted for businesswomen operating established informal sector businesses. In each country, 40 businesswomen were selected; some were assigned to a control group. A set of indicators was developed to measure benefits. Levels of criteria considered in evaluating outcomes were reaction, learning, behavioral, and result. Impact of the training program was assessed by applying this set of indicators and comparing pre- and postseminar values. Findings indicated that participants appreciated acquisition of management skills, had a more favorable attitude toward learning and the importance of management know-how to improve business, and acquired cognitive skills. Behavioral changes were reflected in the application of acquired skills and knowledge through business expansion by at least one-third of participants in each country. They improved or stabilized their businesses. Benefits to participants exceeded costs in all three countries. (Appendixes include 29 references, a summary of seminar content, and data tables.) (YLB)

Curriculum planning emphasizes that education should serve to enable society to achieve its needs and aspirations. One such need in Kenya, which has remained largely elusive, is national cohesion and integration. Research has revealed that education contributes to the development of social capital by increasing individual propensity to trust and be tolerant. Learning as a social activity has a strong influence on the development of shared norms and the value placed on tolerance and understanding within a community. This paper discusses the relationship between education and cohesion. It explores the contemporary conceptualization and practice with respect to the place of national cohesion and integration in the school curriculum. The paper argues that the gap between the intended, implemented and achieved curriculum is too wide, and this especially undermines the affective domain, which is the mainstay of providing learners with opportunities to practice cohesion and integration. The paper further discusses the extent to which the current school curriculum is designed to foster national cohesion and integration, and evaluates achievement of this intention suggesting that the school policies and context do not empower learners with attitudes that facilitate cohesion. Finally, the paper explores the opportunities and challenges that exist within the school curriculum to foster national cohesion and integration. A bibliography is included.

This paper provides an overview of the available information concerning selected policy instruments intended to promote employer-provided training, including the stated rationale and objectives, the target groups and operational design as well as a at a summary of the evaluative evidence regarding their operation. The analysis focuses on policy instruments providing financial assistance or incentives, specifically, subsidies (including tax incentives and grants) and levy schemes that devote a least some share of their resources to continuing training. Training leave regulations are considered only to the extent that they can be treated as a form of subsidy or a levy scheme, depending on the main financing mechanism involved. Instruments that focus solely on improving the quality of training or enhancing transparency in the training market are not addressed. In addition to offering a description of different instruments, the paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses (or risks and opportunities, respectively) of different types of instrument or particular elements of instrument design. It also specifies principles of successful instrument design that have been put forth in the literature and concludes with some remarks regarding the choice of policies. Training funds in combination with levy schemes in OECD and non-OECD countries are appended. Individual sections contain endnotes. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

Existing studies from the United States, Latin America and Asia provide scant evidence that private schools dramatically improve academic performance relative to public schools. Using data from Kenya--a poor country with weak public institutions--we find a large effect of private schooling on test scores, equivalent to one full standard deviation. This finding is robust to endogenous sorting of more able pupils into private schools. The magnitude of the effect dwarfs the impact of any rigorously tested intervention to raise performance within public schools. Furthermore, nearly two-thirds of private schools operate at lower cost than the median government school. Data on test scores, household survey and school administrative are appended. (Contains 1 figure, 2 tables, and 3 endnotes.)

A large empirical literature has shown that user fees significantly deter public service utilization in developing countries. While most of these results reflect partial equilibrium analysis, we find that the nationwide abolition of public school fees in Kenya in 2003 led to no increase in net public enrollment rates, but rather a dramatic shift toward private schooling. Results suggest this divergence between partial- and general-equilibrium effects is partially explained by social interactions: The entry of poorer pupils into free education contributed to the exit of their more affluent peers. (Contains 2 figures, 4 tables, and 7 endnotes.)

This paper reviews recent evidence on the impact of a teacher incentives program in Kenya. The results are based on a randomized trial, which removes many sources of bias that can arise in analyses of non-experimental data. One hundred schools in a rural area were randomly divided into 50 that participated in a teacher incentives program and 50 that served as controls. Students in the schools that were selected the teacher incentives programs had higher test test scores on exams linked to incentives during the time the program was in place, but test scores did not increase significantly on exams that were not linked to incentives, and test score gains on exams linked to incentives did not persist after the program ended. Teachers in the 50 program schools did conduct more test preparation sessions, and students in those schools were more likely to take exams. Overall, there is little evidence that the teacher incentives program increased student learning. (Contains 4 tables and 11 footnotes.)

The paper is one of a series dealing with different aspects of the fund-raising campaign, which began in mid-1971, for the establishment throughout Kenya of a large number of institutes of technology on a self-help basis. By March 1973, 17 such institutes had been proposed. In the absence of coordination each institute's planning committee is trying to draw up its own plan for curriculum, syllabus, enrollment, etc. It is an aim of this paper to bring together information which will be useful to this task and, it is hoped, will contribute to the public debate about the role that these institutes might play in Kenya's technical and vocational training system. The paper concentrates, therefore, on such fairly narrow, economic questions as sources of staff and students, employment prospects, and cost and financing. It starts with an analysis of the existing system of training and of plans for its expansion, based partly on a survey carried out by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in 1971 and on a followup to that survey in 1972. The plans of the proposed harambee institutes are then reviewed and, in conclusion, some observations about their prospects are made. (Author/NH)

There are various assumptions underlying the University Tracer Project at the University College, Nairobi, Africa: (1) that there is a relationship between subjects studied in university and the employment sought and found; (2) that this relationship will increase as competition for jobs increases; (3) that this relationship is sufficiently flexible to allow for career guidance; and (4) that the experience of earlier graduates will provide a meaningful source of information for the guidance of later graduates. The interview questionnaire, which was administered to all Kenyan third year students at University College, Nairobi in mid-April 1970, had three basic objectives: (1) to learn something about the student approach to the employment market; (2) to learn something about the reasons guiding the students' choice of subjects in university; (3) to familiarize the graduating students with the objective of career guidance and thereby enlist their support and cooperation later. This paper is a brief review of the questionnaire. Statistical tables display the results in the following areas: total number of students by discipline, year of birth by discipline, home province by discipline, religion, sex, father's occupation, mother's education, postgraduate qualification desired, how job was found, status of job. (Author/RC)

This paper examines the relationship between female schooling and two behaviors--cumulative fertility and contraceptive use--in 14 Sub-Saharan African countries where Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) have been conducted since the mid-1980s. Using multivariate regression analysis, the paper compares the effect of schooling across countries, in urban and rural areas, and across different cohorts of women. The results show a negative correlation between female schooling and fertility in virtually all of the countries. Female primary schooling has a negative relation with fertility in about half of the countries and no relation in the other half. Secondary schooling is universally associated with lower fertility, and the strength of the effect increases with the years of schooling. Among ever-married women, husband's schooling has no significant relation with fertility in one-third of the countries and, when both women's and men's schooling matter, women's schooling exerts a much larger negative effect on fertility than men's schooling. Even low levels of female schooling are found to have a positive relationship with contraceptive use, but higher levels of schooling have a greater effort. Botswana, Kenya and Zimbabwe were found to have the highest levels of female schooling, lowest child mortality rates and the most vigorous family planning programs. (JE)

This report describes the state-of-the-art of audio cassette technology (ACT) and reports findings from field tests, case studies, and pilot projects in several countries which demonstrate the potential of audio cassettes as a medium for communicating with rural people. Specific guidance is also offered on how a project can use cassettes as a communication or teaching tool. The changing concept of development is discussed as well as major communication problems in rural development. The problems of rural development and communication are illustrated by the case study of a migrant farmer project in a remote rural area in Pematang Panggang (South Sumatra, Indonesia). Experience is also reported on the use of audio technology with agricultural extension workers in Bangladesh. Additional topics include the characteristics of cassettes that make them so powerful, the content and format used in ACT systems, and distribution systems. Findings from evaluations of the ACT system are summarized, as well as policy implications and research needs. Appendices include a chart of selected rural development cassette projects; a description of cassette projects and simple audio cassette recording equipment, and profiles of the following projects: Assistance to Rural Broadcasting, Afghanistan; Radio Mensaje, Ecuador; the Kipsigis Homesteads Cattle-Dip Management Program, Kenya; and the Pila Project, Guatemala. Sixty-nine references are listed. (LMM)

A partial survey of the literature on the economics of vocational training reveals three important lessons on how evaluations may be undertaken using data on pay, inputs, and outputs. The first lesson is that social, corporate, and private returns to vocational training in developing countries appear to be high enough to justify expanding training activity. However, training in industrial institutes and vocational secondary schools is less cost-effective than more formal firm-based training, at least in Kenya, India, and Israel. Also, Latin American data indicate that school and formal institutional vocational training may be substituted for one another. The second lesson is that in some sectors a more labor-intensive method of production is economically more effective than current methods. This may, in turn, imply the need for more--not less--skilled labor and vocational training. Further, given technology and output, unskilled and skilled labor appear to be substitutes, rather than complements, in the production process. The third lesson is that sophisticated function analyses are plagued by statistical and measurement problems. If they are not resolved, estimation techniques are unlikely to be able to pick up any relationship between trained labor and output among firms. However, there are alternatives. Many input and output measures such as performance rating and downtime are available for more modest evaluations. Training can be evaluated using earnings data or output and input data. In all cases, there are technical problems including sample size, control groups, the use of longitudinal data, and difficulties caused by labor mobility. A simpler before/after plant level study of changes in inputs or output associated with training may offer the most tractable evaluation. (112 references.) (Author/CML)

Despite rising sentiment, the decision to "de-school" society seems premature unless it derives from a comparative empirical assessment of school and nonschool educational programs' relative contributions to national goals. One of many new alternative systems, Kenya's village polytechnics (low-cost primary training centers in rural areas) are widely perceived to be alleviating unemployment and manifesting self-help. The polytechnic is significant as an ideological movement whose essence is an attempt to break away from conventional concepts and to develop types of training rooted in practical local and individual needs, conveying a sense of individual purpose and a capacity for continuing self-instruction. Data are used to illustrate the movement's achievements, problems, and potential in the task of national development--its major problems have derived from the pervasiveness of the ethic of formal schooling; part of the movement's achievement and much of its potential lie in the extent to which the polytechnics have nevertheless exemplified significant new principles of education: flexibility, availability, individualization, and relevance. The data suggest, however, that the alternative system must await modifications in the present social structure linking schooling and wage incentives before it can have extensive impact on educational philosophy and practice in Kenya. (Author/AJ)

This publication presents a discussion of the status of poor urban children world-wide and the design of a five-nation study of the condition of distressed urban children. Following an introduction, Section 2 describes the urban child project designed to study and advance the plight of urban children in developing nations. Section 3 outlines the scope of the problem, including urbanization trends, migration, and issues beyond the statistics. Section 4 describes growing up urban and poor, focusing on the deteriorating environment, poverty and ethnic redistribution, the lack of appropriate shelter, child labor in the urban informal sector, lack of access to safe play spaces, and the monotony of poverty stricken communities. Section 5 describes the five studies being carried out in the Philippines, India, Kenya, Brazil, and Italy. The issues covered are childhood, families, coping strategies, communities and neighborhoods, and children in especially difficult circumstances. Also described are the study's comparative assessment of situations, street children, views on working children, and the problem in the context of the larger society. Also mentioned are an assessment of policies and programs, and interventions. Contains 108 references. (JB)

We examine a program that enabled Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) in Kenya to hire novice teachers on short-term contracts, reducing class sizes in grade one from 82 to 44 on average. PTA teachers earned approximately one-quarter as much as teachers operating under central government civil-service institutions but were absent one day per week less and their students learned more. In the weak institutional environment we study, civil-service teachers responded to the program along two margins: first, they reduced their effort in response to the drop in the pupil-teacher ratio, and second, they influenced PTA committees to hire their relatives. Both effects reduced the educational impact of the program. A governance program that empowered parents within PTAs mitigated both effects. Better performing contract teachers are more likely to transition into civil-service positions and we estimate large potential dynamic benefits of contract teacher programs on the teacher workforce.

Less developed regions have experienced massive increases in both education and democracy over the past half century, and it is widely claimed that many recent democratic transitions have been propelled by increasingly educated youth populations. Scholars have also speculated about education's social and political impacts, variously arguing that education promotes "modern" pro-democratic and secular attitudes and weakens ethnic attachments; that it instills acceptance of existing authority; and that it empowers the disadvantaged. These views have informed international efforts to promote education in poor countries, often focusing on girls. We assess the social and political impacts of a randomized girls' merit scholarship incentive program in Kenya that raised test scores and secondary school enrollment. Counter to modernization theory, increased human capital did not produce more pro-democratic or secular attitudes and, if anything, it strengthened ethnic identification. Consistent with the empowerment view, young women in program schools had fewer arranged marriages and were less likely to accept domestic violence as legitimate. Moreover, the program increased objective political knowledge, and reduced both acceptance of political authorities and satisfaction with politics. However, in our Kenyan context, this rejection of the status quo did not translate into greater perceived political efficacy, community participation or voting intentions. Instead, the program increased the perceived legitimacy of political violence. We argue that selection bias may account for the view that education instills greater acceptance of authority.

This paper provides experimental evidence on the impact of tracking primary school students by initial achievement. In the presence of positive spillover effects from academically proficient peers, tracking may be beneficial for strong students but hurt weaker ones. However, tracking may help everybody if heterogeneous classes make it difficult to teach at a level appropriate to most students. We test these competing claims using a randomized evaluation in Kenya. One hundred and twenty one primary schools which all had a single grade one class received funds to hire an extra teacher to split that class into two sections. In 60 randomly selected schools, students were randomly assigned to sections. In the remaining 61 schools, students were ranked by prior achievement (measured by their first term grades), and the top and bottom halves of the class were assigned to different sections. After 18 months, students in tracking schools scored 0.14 standard deviations higher than students in non-tracking schools, and this effect persisted one year after the program ended. Furthermore, students at all levels of the distribution benefited from tracking. A regression discontinuity analysis shows that in tracking schools scores of students near the median of the pre-test distribution score are independent of whether they were assigned to the top or bottom section. In contrast, in non-tracking schools we find that on average, students benefit from having academically stronger peers. This suggests that tracking was beneficial because it helped teachers focus their teaching to a level appropriate to most students in the class.

I use a randomized experiment to test whether information can change sexual behavior among teenagers in Kenya. Providing information on the relative risk of HIV infection by partner's age led to a 28% decrease in teen pregnancy, an objective proxy for the incidence of unprotected sex. Self-reported sexual behavior data suggests substitution away from older (riskier) partners and towards protected sex with same-age partners. In contrast, the national abstinence-only HIV education curriculum had no impact on teen pregnancy. These results suggest that teenagers are responsive to risk information but their sexual behavior is more elastic on the intensive than on the extensive margin.

A randomized evaluation suggests that a program which provided official textbooks to randomly selected rural Kenyan primary schools did not increase test scores for the average student. In contrast, the previous literature suggests that textbook provision has a large impact on test scores. Disaggregating the results by students' initial academic achievement suggests a potential explanation for the lack of an overall impact. Textbooks increased scores for students with high initial academic achievement and increased the probability that the students who had made it to the selective final year of primary school would go on to secondary school. However, students with weaker academic backgrounds did not benefit from the textbooks. Many pupils could not read the textbooks, which are written in English, most students' third language. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that the Kenyan education system and curricular materials are oriented to the academically strongest students rather than to typical students. More generally, many students may be left behind in societies that combine 1) a centralized, unified education system; 2) the heterogeneity in student preparation associated with rapid expansion of education; and 3) disproportionate elite power.