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The Ethiopian education system has been very dynamic over recent years, with a series of large-scale education program interventions, such as the Second Phase of General Education Quality Improvement Project (GEQIP-II) that aimed to improve student learning outcomes. Despite the large-scale programs, empirical studies assessing how such interventions have worked and who benefited from the reforms are limited. This study aims to understand the impact of the reform on Grade 4 students’ maths learning outcomes over a school year using two comparable Grade 4 cohort students from 33 common schools in the Young Lives (YL, 2012-13) and RISE (2018-19) surveys. We employ matching techniques to estimate the effects of the reform by accounting for baseline observable characteristics of the two cohorts matched within the same schools. Results show that the RISE cohort started the school year with a lower average test score than the YL cohort. At the start of Grade 4, the Average Treatment Effect on the Treated (ATT) is lower by 0.36 SD (p

Vietnam has achieved near-universal access to compulsory schooling over the past two decades. However, inequalities between ethnic majority and minority students are stark at post-compulsory levels...

In this Insight Note, we explore the possible explanations for the decline in learning levels among primary school pupils in relation to the General Education Quality Improvement Programme (GEQIP) reforms that wereintended to improve quality and equity in the Ethiopian basic education system. We examine the extent to which mathematics learning levels for Grade 4 pupils have declined over time, despite the implementation of reforms to improve them, as well as the lessons that may be drawn from this. We also examine whether there is any difference in the benefits of the educational reforms for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds (i.e., from rural areas, emerging regions, and from the lowest socio-economic background). We make use of a unique longitudinal dataset on 33 schools in six regions of Ethiopia covering the period 2012 to 2019.

While critical thinking is widely regarded as a key outcome of higher education, research has shown that in practice it is only developed when certain conditions are in place, relating to the pedag...

India’s informal economy accounts for more than half the country’s GDP but is characterised by low levels of skills, and considerable barriers to skills development for workers. The Government of I...

Primary school enrolment in Ethiopia has more than doubled over the past two decades. In spite of this impressive achievement, and as in many low and middle-income countries that have experienced rapid expansion, the Ethiopian education system is characterised by a ‘learning crisis’ in which many children are leaving school without basic numeracy and literacy skills. In this paper, we explore the relationship between low learning levels and the features of an education system characterised by a sudden increase in learners from disadvantaged backgrounds, including ‘first generation learners’, or students whose parents have never been to school. Using unique longitudinal school survey data, we examine whether first generation learner status represents an additional layer of disadvantage in the Ethiopian education system; the relationship between first generation learner status and learning outcomes; and the educational trajectories of first generational learners through primary school. Based on these findings, we consider the implications of a rising tide of access for Ethiopia as it seeks to provide equitable, quality education for all by 2030.

Universalisation of basic education in India has increased demand for access to secondary schooling, yet concerns about quality and equity remain. While evidence of poor learning attainment continues to accumulate, less is known about classroom interactions or how these relate to student outcomes. In this paper, we employ a unique dataset linking school effectiveness and classroom observation data to examine the relationship between these dimensions. We show that teacher classroom practices represent a potentially distinctive aspect of school quality in two states in India only weakly associated with effectiveness measures. We discuss the implications of this for understandings of equity of learning opportunities.

Vietnam’s strong performance on the 2012 and 2015 PISA assessments has led to interest in what explains the strong academic performance of Vietnamese students. Analysis of the PISA data has not shed much light on this issue. This paper analyses a much richer data set, the Young Lives data for Ethiopia, India (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), Peru and Vietnam, to investigate the reasons for the strong academic performance of 15-year-olds in Vietnam. Differences in observed child and household characteristics explain 37-39% of the gap between Vietnam and Ethiopia, while observed school variables explain only about 3-4 additional percentage points (although an important variable, math teachers’ pedagogical skills, is not available for Ethiopia). Differences in observed child and household characteristics explain very little of the gaps between Vietnam and India and between Vietnam and Peru, yet one observed school variable has a large explanatory effect: primary school math teachers’ pedagogical skills. It explains about 10-12% of the gap between Vietnam and India, raising the overall explained portion to 14-21% of the gap. For Peru, it explains most (65-84%) of the gap.

Ethiopia has succeeded in rapidly expanding access to primary education over the past two decades. However, learning outcomes remain low among primary school children and particularly among girls and children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Starting with a systematic review of quantitative studies on the determinants of learning outcomes among primary school children in Ethiopia, this study then examined key determinants of students’ numeracy achievement over the 2018-19 school year. The study focused on Grade 4 children (N=3,353) who are part of an on-going longitudinal study. The two questions that guided this study are: what are the key determinants of numeracy achievement at Grade 4 in primary schools in Ethiopia, and how does our current empirical study contribute to understanding achievement differences in numeracy among primary school children in Ethiopia? We employed descriptive and inferential statistics to examine factors that determine differences in numeracy scores at the start and end of the school year, as well as determinants of numeracy scores at the end of the school year conditional on achievement at the start of the school year. We examined differences across gender, region, and rural-urban localities. We also used ordinary least squares and school ‘fixed effects’ approaches to estimate the key child, household and school characteristics that determine numeracy scores in Grade 4. The findings revealed that boys significantly outperformed girls in numeracy both at the start and end of the 2018/19 school year, but the progress in numeracy scores over the school year by boys was similar to that of girls. Besides, students in urban localities made a slightly higher progress in numeracy over the school year compared to their rural counterparts. Students from some regions (e.g., Oromia) demonstrated higher progress in numeracy over the school year relative to students in other regions (e.g., Addis Ababa). Key child (e.g., age, health, hours spent per day studying at home) and school- and teacher-related characteristics (e.g., provision of one textbook per subject for each student, urban-rural school location, and teachers’ mathematics content knowledge) were found to be significantly associated with student progress in numeracy test scores over the school year. These findings are discussed based on the reviewed evidence from the quantitative studies in Ethiopia.

The concept of ‘approaches to learning’ (Marton, 1976) has long assumed a position of central importance in the analysis of student learning outcomes. However, constructing effective measures of students’ approaches to learning is a complex task, and it is an empirical question whether such measures transfer well across contexts. In this paper, we examine the functioning of a moderately modified version of one of the most commonly used assessment of approaches to learning – the revised two-factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ2F) – in three African contexts (Ghana, Kenya and Botswana). We first present confirmatory factor analysis, which demonstrates that the modified R-SPQ2F functions in these contexts as intended by the developers of the instrument. We then consider the potential utility of the R-SPQ2F in these contexts by examining its relationship with student background characteristics, educational experiences at universities and learning outcomes.

Cognitive gaps between children of different socioeconomic backgrounds are particularly significant in the developing world. We propose and use a new decomposition strategy to measure the contribution of early childhood and school influences to the cognitive gap between urban and rural eight-year-old children in Peru. This strategy accounts for the relation between family choices and skill inputs and is less prone to biases than those employed before. We find that school influences occurring between ages 6 and 8, account for a significant share of urban/rural cognitive gap (around 35%). The share attributable to early childhood influences is important but no larger than 50%. Because skill depreciates, only a fraction of the gap (70–80%) is carried forward to the next period. Therefore, inequalities in school environments are sustaining a cognitive gap that would otherwise be smaller and this explains why differences that emerge during early childhood can remain unchanged after children start school.

The rhetoric around decentralisation suggests school-based management improves education outcomes. Existing reviews on school-based decision-making have tended to focus on proximal outcomes and offer very little information about why school-based decision-making has positive or negative effects in different circumstances. The authors systematically searched for and synthesised evidence from 35 quantitative and qualitative studies evaluating 17 individual interventions on the effectiveness of school-based decision-making on educational outcomes. Devolving decision-making to the level of the school appears to have a somewhat beneficial effect on dropout, repetition and teacher attendance. Effects on test-scores are more robust, being positive in aggregate and for middle-income countries specifically. On the other hand, school-based decision-making reforms appear to be less effective in communities with generally low levels of education, where parents have low status relative to school personnel. The authors conclude that school-based decision-making reforms are less likely to be successful in highly disadvantaged communities.

Advocates of teacher value-added modelling (VAM) argue that this technique can provide evidence on teacher effectiveness to inform teacher policies and broader education system reforms. Critics contend that value-added is a poor proxy for teacher quality and as such is of questionable utility, especially where teacher accountability is concerned. In low- and middle-income countries, and especially sub-Saharan Africa, where the challenge of the ‘learning crisis’ is most severe, a lack of longitudinal data has precluded extensive debate on the matter. In this paper we explore the potential of value-added analysis for diagnostic purposes in the context of Ethiopia. We make use of data from the Young Lives longitudinal study – specifically two rounds of school surveys conducted in Ethiopia between 2012 and 2017 when pupils were in grades 4–8. Learning levels in the Young Lives sites in Ethiopia are very considerably below curricular expectations. Like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ethiopia faces a significant challenge in terms of a ‘learning crisis’ and in terms of the attendant need to develop policies to improve educational effectiveness within the confines of very limited resources. We discuss the background to VAM models and their use, including in relation to the context of Ethiopia. The paper shows that learning progress in primary schools varies widely between classrooms, and between pupils within the same classroom. Some schools and teachers are more successful in raising overall attainment by ‘raising the floor’ of learning and narrowing the dispersion. Others are more successful by ‘raising the roof’. Less effective teachers appear to be particularly ineffective for pupils with higher scores at the start of the year. In contrast, the most effective teachers showed high levels of ‘value-added’ for pupils at all levels of prior performance. Diagnostic analysis of teacher value-added has potential, we argue, to aid understanding of contributors to low levels of learning such as: (i) over-ambitious curricula; (ii) absence of ‘teaching at the right level’; (iii) within class heterogeneity and pupil grouping strategies; and (iv) teaching and learning strategies – such as ‘differentiation’ or ‘mastery’.

Human capital development, including the expansion and improvement of schooling, has played a crucial role in Vietnam’s strong and relatively inclusive economic growth in recent years. Universal access to primary and lower secondary education have been achieved, but progression to upper secondary remains, for the most part, rationed by entrance examinations and the payment of fees. Both supply and access have improved strongly at upper secondary level since the 1990s, in line with rising demand for higher skilled school-leavers. However, it is less clear whether access to upper secondary schooling, and its wider social and economic benefits, is provided equitably. In this paper we employ a unique longitudinal dataset to examine the patterns of both access and attainment in upper secondary education in Vietnam. We consider their implications for equitable educational progression and the extent to which, in light of these patterns, the system can be described as meritocratic.

This paper explores the quantitative relationships between average levels of learning achievement across countries, changes in average levels of learning achievement, the inequality of distribution of achievement (akin to income or wealth inequality in general development analysis), and the proportion of students learning at or below an absolute minimum (akin to poverty in general development analysis). The paper uses a variety of data from cross-national and national assessments: aggregate data, micro (student-level) data, school-level data, and time-series data. The paper shows how various factors such as gender or wealth impact learning levels, but also shows that ‘systems-related’ inequality, not directly related to such factors, is typically much larger than inequality associated with any of those factors. The paper shows that countries progress from very low average levels of achievement to middle levels more by reducing the percentage of students with very low scores (that is, by paying attention to the ‘bulging’ left-hand tail of the distribution) than by increasing the percentage of high performing students. The availability of micro data from a particular case allows exploration of the relationship between inequality measures and measures of the percentage of students below a low level of achievement and shows that, at least in that case, the reduction in inequality that accompanies improvements in the average levels takes place mostly through a reduction in the percentage below a low level. Unlike in the case of income, where vast reductions in income poverty seem possible without reducing income inequality, the evidence presented here suggests that this typically does not happen with learning levels: inequality reduction, reductions in percentages below a low level, and improvements in the averages are all empirically connected. More work is needed to show whether that connection is also causal.

This Campbell systematic review assesses the effectiveness of school‐based decision‐making. The review summarises findings from 17 impact studies and nine studies of barriers and enablers. School‐based decision‐making has small effects in reducing dropouts and repetition. There is a moderate positive effect on average test scores, though the effects are smaller for language and maths. The effects are not large, but comparable to those found in many other effective educational interventions. The positive impact is found in middle‐income countries, with no significant effect in lowincome countries. School‐based decision‐making reforms appear to have a stronger impact on wealthier students with more educated parents, and for children in younger grade levels. School‐based decision‐making reforms appear to be less effective in disadvantaged communities, particularly if parents and community members have low levels of education and low status relative to school personnel. Plain language summary SCHOOL‐BASED DECISION‐MAKING HAS POSITIVE EFFECTS ON EDUCATION OUTCOMES – BUT LESS SO IN LOW‐INCOME COUNTRIES Decentralising decision‐making to schools has small to moderate positive effects in reducing repetition and dropouts, and increasing test scores. These effects are mainly restricted to middle‐income countries, with fewer and smaller positive effects found in low‐income countries or disadvantaged communities. WHAT DID THE REVIEW STUDY? Many governments have addressed the low quality of education by devolving decision‐making authority to schools. It is assumed that locating decision‐making authority within schools will increase accountability, efficiency and responsiveness to local needs. However, there is limited evidence of the effectiveness of these reforms, especially from low‐income countries. Existing reviews on school‐based decision‐making have tended to focus on proximal outcomes and offer very little information about why school‐based decision‐making has positive or negative effects in different circumstances. This review addresses two questions: 1. What is the impact of school‐based decision‐making on educational outcomes in low‐ and middle‐income countries (L&MICs)? 2. What are the barriers to, and enablers of, effective models of school‐based decision‐making? What studies are included? Included studies for the analysis of impact evaluated the change in decision‐making authority from a higher level of decision‐making authority to the level of the school on educational outcomes. Outcomes were either proximal, for example attrition, equality of access, increased enrolment, or final, for example test scores, psychosocial and non‐cognitive skills. Included studies had to have a comparison group and data which were collected since 1990. The analysis of impact included 26 studies, covering 17 interventions. The review identified nine studies to assess barriers and enablers of school‐based decision‐making. What is the aim of this review? This Campbell systematic review assesses the effectiveness of school‐based decision‐making. The review summarises findings from 17 impact studies and nine studies of barriers and enablers. WHAT ARE THE MAIN FINDINGS OF THIS REVIEW? School‐based decision‐making has small effects in reducing dropouts and repetition. There is a moderate positive effect on average test scores, though the effects are smaller for language and maths. The effects are not large, but comparable to those found in many other effective educational interventions. The positive impact is found in middle‐income countries, with no significant effect in low‐income countries. School‐based decision‐making reforms appear to have a stronger impact on wealthier students with more educated parents, and for children in younger grade levels. School‐based decision‐making reforms appear to be less effective in disadvantaged communities, particularly if parents and community members have low levels of education and low status relative to school personnel. WHAT DO THE FINDINGS OF THIS REVIEW MEAN? Implications for policy and practice 1. School‐based decision‐making reforms in highly disadvantaged communities are less likely to be successful. Parental participation seems to be the key to the success of such reforms. 2. The involvement of school management committees in personnel decisions appears to play a role in improving proximal outcomes, such as teacher attendance, but success is also likely to be linked to the overall teacher job market and the prospects of long‐term employment. 3. The specifics of programme design appear to be crucial. Given the limited evidence, we cannot conclude with certainty that incorporating certain elements into school‐based management reforms are generally beneficial. However, it appears that the details of such supplementary elements may be important. Implications for research There needs to be further robust analysis of the impact of large‐scale school‐based decision‐making, as well as further analysis of the conditions that mitigate their impact. There is also a clear need to examine the potentially negative impacts of these reforms, given widespread adoption of such policies. HOW UP‐TO‐DATE IS THIS REVIEW? The review authors searched for studies published until January 2015. This Campbell systematic review was published in November 2016. Executive summary Background Although there have been significant improvements in recent decades, access to education remains limited, particularly for girls, poor children and children in conflict‐affected areas. There is also worrying evidence that many children who are enrolled in school are not learning. Recent estimates suggest that around 130 million children who have completed at least four years of school still cannot read, write or perform basic calculations (UNESCO, 2014, p. 191). Many governments have attempted to address this situation, while also improving efficiency and reducing costs, by devolving decision‐making authority to schools, as it is assumed that locating decision‐making authority within schools will increase accountability, efficiency and responsiveness to local needs (Gertler et al., 2008). This devolution includes a wide variety of models and mechanisms, differing in terms of which decisions are devolved (and how many), to whom decision‐making authority is given, and how the decentralisation process is implemented (i.e., through ‘top‐down’ or ‘bottom‐up' processes). All models and mechanisms are presumed to increase responsiveness to local needs and accountability by bringing community members into direct contact with schools, and to increase efficiency by making financial decisions more transparent to communities, reducing corruption and incentivising investment in high quality teachers and materials. Although the rhetoric around decentralisation suggests that school‐based management has a positive effect on educational outcomes, there is limited evidence from low‐income countries of this general relationship. Existing reviews on school‐based decision‐making have tended to focus on proximal outcomes, while the more comprehensive reviews that do exist are not formal systematic reviews, according to the criteria set by the Campbell Collaboration. They also need updating, as they (a) rely on literature that is now nearly ten years out of date and (b) focus almost exclusively on Central America, referencing almost no evidence from other low‐ and middle‐income countries (L&MICs). Existing reviews on this topic also tell us very little about why school‐based decision‐making has positive or negative effects in different circumstances. Objectives This review aims to address these gaps by answering the following questions: (1) What is the impact of school‐based decision‐making on educational outcomes in low‐ and middle‐income countries (L&MICs) (Review Question 1)? (2) What are the barriers to (and enablers of) effective models of school‐based decision‐making (Review Question 2)? For the purposes of the review, ‘school‐based decision making' was defined as any reform in which decision‐making authority has been devolved to the level of the school. Within this broad definition, there are three main mechanisms discussed in the literature: (1) reforms that devolve decision‐making around management to the school level; (2) reforms that devolve decision‐making around funding to the school level; and (3) reforms that devolve decision‐making around curriculum, pedagogy and other aspects of the classroom environment to the school level. Methods This review followed an explicit protocol following methodological guidance provided by the Campbell Collaboration and the EPPI‐Centre at the UCL Institute of Education (Becker et al., undated; Gough et al., 2012; Hammerstrom, 2009; Shadish & Myers, 2004). To be included in the review, all studies had to: 1) be empirical in nature and focused on primary and secondary schools within L&MICs; 2) investigate a change in decision‐making authority from a higher level of decision‐making authority to the level of the school (excluding studies where the intervention was conceptualised, managed and implemented by an external decision‐making agency, or aimed exclusively at improving the functioning of existing devolved decision‐making structures); 3) provide data on the relationship between school‐based decision‐making and at least one educational outcome (either proximal, e.g. attrition, equality of access, increased enrolment; or final, e.g. student learning, as captured by test scores, psychosocial and non‐cognitive skills, etc.); and 4) rely on data collected since 1990. To be included in reference to Review Question 1, studies needed to be causal in nature, meaning we included: (1) Experimental designs using randomised or quasi‐ randomised assignment; (2) Quasi‐experimental designs; and (3) comparison group designs using before‐and‐after data at baseline and endline, as well as those using cross‐sectional endline data only, where analysis was used to control for confounding. For Review Question 2, we included studies of any empirical design, so long as they provided additional data relating to those interventions featuring in the impact component of the synthesis. Potentially relevant literature was identified through a five‐stage search strategy, which comprised: 1) Identification of existing systematic reviews in related areas; 2) Targeted searches in a wide range of bibliographic databases and websites; 3) Hand searches of the eight most relevant journals relating to the topic; 4) Citation chasing; and 5) Contacting experts involved in the research area. A comprehensive list of search terms was developed in collaboration with information scientists at the EPPI‐Centre. Search terms were also translated into French, Spanish and Portuguese for use in regionally specific databases. All identified literature was subjected to a two‐stage screening process. Relevant studies were then appraised for robustness of evidence and methodological rigour prior to synthesis. In order to answer Review Question 1, we conducted meta‐analysis, relying on the use of ‘standardised mean difference’ (SMD) calculations to compare effects across studies. In our meta‐analysis, we were able to report on the impact of any school‐based decision‐making reform on six educational outcomes: 1) student drop‐out; 2) student repetition; 3) teacher attendance; and 4) student learning, as assessed via i) language test scores, ii) math test scores, iii) aggregate test scores (i.e. tests of more than one subject). We also examined heterogeneity by investigating differences in impacts based on three moderating variables – level of decentralisation, income level, and type of evaluation design. Further, we discuss and synthesise sub‐group effects discussed in the included studies themselves. Analysis in reference to Review Question 2 followed the principles of framework synthesis (Thomas et al., 2012), in order to identify the main barriers and enablers that appear to have influenced the impact of the interventions under review. Results We identified 2,821 titles through our five‐stage search. Of these, 100 met our eligibility criteria. Thirty of the 100 met the design criteria required for RQ1, but three were removed from the RQ1 synthesis, due to high risk of bias. A fourth study had to be excluded due to missing data. Twenty‐six impact studies were thus included in the meta‐analysis. These 26 studies investigate the impact of 17 individual interventions. Of the 73 non‐causal studies subjected to quality appraisal, nine were identified to be of sufficient quality to provide additional data on the included interventions. Devolving decision‐making to the level of the school is found to have a somewhat beneficial effect on drop‐out; a pooled effect of reducing drop‐out by 0.07 standard deviations (SDs). For repetition, the equivalent pooled effect is a reduction of 0.09 SDs. Effects on test‐scores are larger and more robust. We find a positive and significant improvement of 0.21 SDs in aggregate test scores on average, and positive and significant improvements of around 0.07 SDs in scores on language and 0.08 on math tests. Further analysis of test score results suggests that these results pertain to middle income countries, while we did not find statistically significant improvements in test scores in low‐income country settings, with the exception of one study in Kenya (now a middle income country). Evidence does not show that effects on teacher attendance are significant overall, but there is evidence that effects are stronger in contexts of high decentralisation. In common with other comparative studies of the impacts of educational initiatives (Kremer et al., 2013; Snilstveit et al., 2015), these effects of decentralised school‐based decision‐making are relatively small in magnitude. For example, Snilstveit et al. (2015) conducted a recent and broad‐ranging review of interventions to improve learning outcomes in L&MICs and report that the most substantial effects on test‐scores are for ‘structured pedagogy programmes', which found a pooled effect on math scores of 0.14 SDs, while a large number of education intervention types showed no overall effects. Accordingly, while educational effects appear small in comparison to those in some other fields, effects of school‐based decision‐making may be considered similar to interventions that demonstrate medium‐sized effects on education outcomes. Most of the included studies do not conduct any sub‐group analysis relating to individual characteristics, such as gender and student background; those that do differ in their findings. However, there is some evidence to suggest that school‐based decision‐making reforms have a stronger impact on wealthier students with more educated parents. It appears that school‐management reforms may be particularly impactful on children in younger grade levels. School‐based decision‐making reforms appear to be less effective in disadvantaged communities, particularly if parents and community members have low levels of education and low status relative to school personnel. Devolution also appears to be ineffective when communities choose not to actively participate in decision‐making processes. Small schools, however, may find school‐based decision‐making to be effective, particularly if community members establish a collaborative, rather than an adversarial, relationship with teachers. Conclusions and implications for policy, practice and research Overall, we can conclude that devolving decision‐making authority to the school level can have a positive impact on educational outcomes, with magnitudes of effect in the median range for education programmes, but that this is only likely in more advantaged contexts in which community members are largely literate and have sufficient status to participate as equals in the decision‐making process. Our findings carry a number of implications for policy and practice. First, it appears that school‐based decision‐making reforms in highly disadvantaged communities are less likely to be successful. Parental participation seems to be the key to the success of such reforms and this is linked to the real authority or status and cultural capital of community members. Second, the involvement of school management committees in personnel decisions appears to play a role in improving proximal outcomes, such as teacher attendance, but success is also likely to be linked to the overall teacher job market and the prospects of long‐term employment. Third, the specifics of programme design appear to be crucial. Given the limited evidence available in this review, and the contextualised nature of that evidence, we cannot conclude with certainty that incorporating certain elements into school‐based management reforms are generally beneficial. However, it does appear that the details of such supplementary elements may be important. The evidence also suggests that, at least in some contexts, impact on student learning may take longer than is often allowed within evaluation timelines. Where donors are involved, this also means that decentralisation reforms may require sustained donor commitment over the long term. The review also suggests a number of fruitful directions for future research. Although a large number of titles were identified during our initial search, the small number of impact studies included in the meta‐analysis represent a limited geographic diversity and a small number of discrete interventions. There needs to be further robust analysis of the impact(s) of large‐ scale school‐based decision‐making reforms that have recently been implemented, as well as further analysis of the conditions that mitigate their impact. There is also a clear need to examine the potentially negative impacts of these reforms, given widespread adoption of such policies. Although this review has highlighted a number of potential enablers and barriers of effects, the limited evidence base has prevented us from drawing any robust conclusions on the conditions necessary for positive impact. A future review of the same topic, drawing on broader qualitative evidence, would complement the findings of this study.

In recent decades, both India and Vietnam have successfully expanded access to schooling to near-universal levels and have shifted their focus to quality-oriented policy reform. Yet, international and national evidence shows strongly contrasting learning profiles for children within the two systems. Simple indicators of numeracy suggest similar learning levels in both countries for 5-year-olds, but data suggest that, by the time they are 15, Vietnamese pupils outperform those in many OECD countries, while many pupils in India fail to master even the most basic skills. This article examines evidence from the Young Lives longitudinal surveys for Vietnam and the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on the diverging learning profiles of children in the light of their socioeconomic, cultural, and educational contexts. It considers various explanations for this divergence, including recent education policies, and highlights potential areas for cross-country policy learning.he responses they make, and the shifting trajectories of their lives.

Educational access in developing countries has improved significantly in recent years, but less evidence is available on learning and learning progress in comparative perspective. This paper employs data from Young Lives to examine levels and trends in cognitive skill development and the links to enrolment in school across the four study countries for pupils aged five to 15. Non-continuous patterns of enrolment are linked to lower learning levels in all countries, as are key indicators of home background disadvantage. Large differences in learning and learning progress are also found between the four countries’ education sytems, with ‘learning gains’ being typically highest in Vietnam and much lower in India (Andhra Pradesh) and Ethiopia. Inequalities linked to prior learning and home backgrounds are wide in Peru, while in Ethiopia and India relatively low levels of learning progress are a more general concern. In Ethiopia, both enrolment and quality improvements remain priorities for policy, while in India high levels of primary school enrolment, at younger ages than in the other study countries, suggest that comprehensive quality improvements may be required, nonetheless with a focus on disadvantaged pupils and those with low attainment in the early years.

Ghana has seen notable poverty reduction alongside improvements in school participation since 1991. This paper examines the role of education in determining welfare and poverty and its reciprocal, the role of welfare and other aspects of economic privilege in the determination of school attendance and progression. Two groups of models are presented using data from the Ghana Living Standard Surveys. The results suggest that education levels play an important role in determining household welfare and that higher levels of education have relatively larger and increasing benefits. Improvements are observed in relation to lower levels of educational access over the period, while the lucrative benefits of progression beyond the compulsory phase are found largely to be the preserve of relatively economically privileged households.

This article examines access to and exclusion from basic education in Ghana over the period 1991–2006, using data derived from the Ghana Living Standards Surveys. It uses the CREATE ‘zones of exclusion’ model to explore schooling access outcomes within the framework of the household production function. Empirical findings indicate that the period was marked by large?scale quantitative access gains in Ghana. However, rates of progress through the system, as well as rates of dropout, showed no such improvements. Progress towards completion of the basic phase of education was found to be the preserve of the relatively privileged, raising questions of equity in relation to both the supply and demand for schooling. While Ghana may be one of few countries in Africa to achieve universal initial access to education, considerable challenges lie ahead in terms of improving rates of retention and completion.

This chapter reviews the evolution of education policies in the East African region in a historical context. The focus is on the formulation of policies for access to primary and secondary education in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania since their inde pendence in the 1960s. We ask the following questions: What led to those policies and how were they funded? What was the role, if any, of the international commu nity? What were the politics and underpinning philosophy surrounding the formu lation of those policies and have the policies changed over time, and if so why? In recent years, several countries in sub-Saharan Africa have (re) introduced the Free Primary Education (FPE) policy in line with both Education For All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) international agendas. Three East African countries?Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania?are among them. All three countries are often held up as success stories in the implementation of FPE policies and in all of them, implementation of FPE policies is already leading to new policies for access to secondary education. But the idea of a universal primary education system is not new to these countries. Efforts have been made to expand access to education ever since they gained their independence from British colonial rule in the early part of the 1960s. Yet, still, there are those with no access, those who are excluded after initial entry, those at risk of dropout, and a majority excluded from any form of secondary education. The three countries have common characteristics and historical backgrounds. For example, few of their population had access to education at all levels in the past, and hence, each faced similar educational and literacy challenges at the time of their political independence in the 1960s. Kenya declared a campaign for Universal Primary Education (UPE) free of charge as a long-term objective in 1963. Tanzania followed in 1967, and Uganda, although lukewarm in its desire to expand primary education, nonetheless experienced improved access from the time of independence in 1962 until the late 1970s when internal political conflict and war caused serious

Este documento examina si los niños desfavorecidos aprenden menos que los niños aventajados cuando ambos tipos de niños están matriculados en la misma escuela para dos países en desarrollo, Vietnam y Perú. Esto se hace estimando las funciones de producción educativa que contienen dos efectos fijos escolares para cada escuela, uno para niños aventajados y uno para niños desfavorecidos. El documento examina seis definiciones diferentes de desventajas, basadas en el hogar riqueza, tener habilidades cognitivas bajas a los 5 años, género, grupo étnico minoritario (Perú solamente), educación materna y estado nutricional. Los resultados no muestran signos de discriminación contra los grupos desfavorecidos en Vietnam; de hecho, si algún grupo aventajado, los varones, parece tener peores resultados en la escuela que el grupo desfavorecido correspondiente, las mujeres. Por el contrario, en Perú, los estudiantes de minorías étnicas y los estudiantes que ingresan a la escuela primaria con baja capacidad cognitiva parecen aprender menos en la escuela que los estudiantes de mayoría étnica y los estudiantes relativamente altos.

The development of productive capacities or ‘skills’ is the key mechanism through which education acquires economic value, for both individuals and society; and the imperative to ‘upskill’ the labour force finds plentiful expression in the rhetoric of education and development policy at both the country and international levels, often linked to concerns around globalization and increasing competition. Improvements in access to formal education in many developing countries since the turn of the millennium have meant that youth populations in these countries are more likely than their forebears to enrol in school and to stay there longer. Rapidly rising levels of educational access have nonetheless highlighted issues of educational quality and relevance in the face of global financial uncertainty and constrained national budgets and in the context of an expanding youth population. Educational advancement remains an important driver of social mobility and may serve to reduce the intergenerational transmission of poverty, especially where it provides access to economic opportunity.

The neo-classical ‘human capital theory’ continues to be invoked as part of the rationale for educational expansion in the developing world. While the theory provides a route from educational inputs to economic outputs in terms of increased incomes and standards of living, the route is contingent and relies upon a number of key assumptions. This study examines these assumptions alongside student expectations of their educations in the context of Ghana using data collected from a survey conducted at higher education institution and from the Ghana Statistical Service's ongoing living standards surveys. Data indicate that students have high economic expectations but that trends in wages and employment are leading to ‘wage compression’ which may ultimately make expectations difficult to fulfill. The relatively low private costs of education, particularly higher education, may mean, however, that educational investment remains very much a ‘rational’ choice in economic terms. However, the study finds that key assumptions of successful human capital investment went largely unsatisfied in Ghana.

Ghana has seen notable poverty reduction alongside improvements in school participation since 1991. This thesis explores the patterns among descriptive indicators and uses regression analysis to ex...

Ghana has seen notable poverty reduction alongside improvements in school participation since 1991. This paper examines the role of education in determining welfare and poverty and its reciprocal, the role of welfare and other aspects of economic privilege in the determination of school attendance and progression. Two groups of models are presented using data from the Ghana Living Standards Surveys. The results suggest that education levels play an important role in determining household welfare and that higher levels of education have relatively larger and increasing benefits. Improvements are observed in relation to lower levels of educational access over the period, while the lucrative benefits of progression beyond the compulsory phase are found largely to be the preserve of relatively economically privileged households.