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Many countries that have undergone expansion of access to public education still face significant disparities in school enrollment and attendance rates at sub-national levels, and fail to reach a high proportion of children who are outside of the government system. Completion and student learning have also continued to be system-wide challenges that many Ministries of Education struggle to address. Educational Policy, Systems Development, and Management (EQUIP2) identified nine case examples of complementary, community-based approaches to schooling from around the world, and developed a research methodology for analyzing the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of those models. Data were gathered on student enrollment, completion and learning, management, governance, organization, costs and financing. Cases demonstrate that complementary education programs can provide a unique and critical role to addressing Education for All (EFA) goals, particularly for disadvantaged and underserved populations. Additionally, the results of complementary education program are frequently equal to or better than to the government schools in terms of improving access, completion, and learning outcomes. Four features are identified as critical to the success of complementary programs: (1) Locally recruited teachers and ongoing, regular supervision and training; (2) School-based decision making and community-based management and governance; (3) Small schools located close to the communities they serve; and (4) Mother tongue instruction is used to deliver a simplified curriculum devoted to basic literacy and numeracy skills. Cases studies are included for Afghanistan Home-Based Schools, Afghanistan Community Schools, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) Primary Schools, Egypt Community Schools, Ghana School for Life, Guatemala PRONADE, Honduras Educatodos, Mali Community Schools, and Zambia Community Schools. References and unnumbered figures and tables are included by individual chapter.

In 2004, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Educational Quality Improvement Program 2 (EQUIP2) began investigating community-based schools as a mechanism for reaching the underserved populations. The team identified nine models that successfully organized schooling in regions least served by the formal education system. These complementary education approaches rely on community, non-governmental, and ministry collaboration and present a promising response to the challenge of meeting the EFA goals of universal access, completion, and learning. Complementary Education models work in support of the formal public system, offering students an alternative route to achieving the same educational outcomes as students in the government schools. The programs are designed to feed students into the government system at various entry points and are large enough to exhibit many of the same characteristics as mainstream schools. Over time, the models have increased rates of attendance, completion, and learning among the populations they serve. This EQUIP2 working paper synthesizes the findings from the nine case studies of successful complementary education programs in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Mali, and Zambia. The research demonstrated that the programs are more cost-effective than government schools in delivering education services and that they achieve higher learning outcomes through adjustments in school size and location, curriculum and language of instruction, school management and governance arrangements, and teaching staff and instructional support services.

This issues brief describes how complementary education approaches that rely on community, nongovernmental, and ministry collaboration present a promising response to the challenge to the limitations of conventional primary schooling. The brief is based on nine case studies of successful complementary education programs in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Mali, and Zambia, demonstrating that such approaches can effectively reach and educate otherwise underserved populations in various geographical, political, and social contexts.