Other Education Study

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  • Publication
    From Good to Great in Indian Tertiary Education: Realizing the Promise of the National Education Policy
    (World Bank, Washington DC, 2023-03-23) Arnhold,Nina; Dey,Sangeeta; Goyal,Sangeeta; Larsen,Kurt; Tognatta,Namrata Raman; Tognatta,Namrata; Salmi,Jamil
    India has one of the largest and fastest-growing tertiary education systems in the world. The system enrolls 37 million students across nearly 50,000 institutions. The recently endorsed National Education Policy (NEP) aims at a further doubling of the gross enrollment ratio in higher education from 26.3 percent to 50 percent by 2035. Despite its size and growth rate, and the emphasis placed on tertiary education by Indian policymakers in recent times, the system has faced continuous challenges of equitable access, quality, governance, and financing, with the quality of inputs and outputs not keeping pace with the expansion of the sector. The World Bank has supported tertiary education in India through a series of engagements in technical education at the national level, and general tertiary education in specific states. The NEP’s proposal for broad-based tertiary education reforms as a key step toward transforming the tertiary education sector in India aligns with the Bank’s global tertiary education strategy and presents an opportunity for the Bank’s engagement in this area through analytic work, dialogue with key stakeholders, and strategic engagement with states and tertiary education institutions. Based on this analysis, the World Bank in 2020-2021 expanded its engagement in Indian tertiary education through dedicated analytical and advisory work in the NEP context. Focusing on the areas of access and equity, employability, digitalization, internationalization, academic careers, governance, funding, as well as quality assurance, the World Bank conducted a series of virtual events and prepared technical reports discussing the status quo in Indian tertiary education in the context of the proposed NEP reforms and international trends. The report at hand provides a summary of the outcomes of this work.
  • Publication
    Strengthening Teacher Mentoring and Monitoring Systems: Evidence from India
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-03) Vivek, Kumar; Bhattacharjee, Pradyumna; Mani, Subha; Kumar, Avinav
    Over the last 10 years, a special cadre of middle-level management known as Resource Persons (RPs) was specifically created in India for carrying out teacher mentoring and monitoring activities. Despite being allocated almost one-third of the education budget targeted at improving learning outcomes, the RPs are a poorly understood cadre with little known about their roles, responsibilities and effectiveness. In this paper, drawing on detailed data collected from school audits, unannounced classroom observations, student, teacher and RP surveys in approximately 350 primary and upper primary schools in Jharkhand, India, authors assess RPs’ mentoring and monitoring activities. This assessment points to several interesting findings. First, most children are behind their grade level in terms of achieving proficiency in reading and math. Second, teacher absenteeism remains a significant problem. Third, despite high levels of self-reported effort by RPs, these efforts do not translate into effective teaching activities. We postulate that asymmetries in contractual arrangements and demographic and social attributes between RPs and teachers limit RP mentoring efforts. Fourth, student responses on teaching methods are more consistent with independent classroom observations than teacher or RP reports on teaching activities. Our findings have three important policy recommendations: a) for improving teacher mentoring, more educated and qualified RPs must be hired and re-trained who are then entrusted with the sole responsibility of mentoring teachers; b) for improving teacher monitoring, governments should pilot student assessments of teaching activities along with independent school monitoring that eventually builds a culture of feedback based on accurate data to improve teaching and teacher mentoring; c) for improving both teacher monitoring and mentoring, the state should invest in holistically improving the use of enabler technology systems through technologies that work in constrained environments, a robust EMIS with strong data management capabilities, and a workforce with digital competence.
  • Publication
    Learning Losses in Pakistan Due to COVID-19 School Closures: A Technical Note on Simulation Results
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10) Geven, Koen; Hasan, Amer
    Pakistan was among the first countries in the world to institute widespread school closures as a result of Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). What are the expected levels of learning that teachers will have to deal with in the class? Will children have lost learning while schools were closed? What should teachers, parents, and children expect from the first few weeks of schooling? How can parents, teachers, and the school system as a whole help children catch up? While school closures have been effective in supporting efforts at social distancing, they may well have serious consequences for schooling and learning. This note presents results from a series of simulations that aim to capture the impacts that school closures in Pakistan may have on the learning levels, enrollment, and future earnings of children and students. In this note, the authors present an overview of how these numbers are calculated and how to interpret them. This note draws on a simulation exercise for all countries on which data is available, including Pakistan, conducted by researchers at the World Bank.
  • Publication
    Costing Study on Early Childhood Education and Development in Nepal: A Case for Investment in ECED
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-09-22) World Bank; UNICEF
    Skill formation and human capital accumulation are a lifetime process, and quality early childhood education and development (ECED) is critical for ensuring that children get a head start in this process. Recognizing the importance of ECED, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) include an early childhood development (ECD) target which aims to increase the percentage of children under five years of age who are developmentally on track in health, learning, and psychosocial well-being. Nepal has strived to achieve this target over the past decades, but significant disparities remain. The study provides cost estimates of improving existing and introducing new inputs to improve the quality of ECED in Nepal. The analysis shows that the cost of implementing different policy options while can be considered substantial compared to the current allocation, the increase required compared to the overall education budget is modest. A strong monitoring and evaluation (M and E) system with required data and information on the sub-sector, including data on child development outcomes, needs to be collected on a regular basis to track performance and inform future policies and reforms.
  • Publication
    The Landscape of Early Childhood Education in Bangladesh
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-02-12) Bhatta, Saurav Dev; Rahman, Tashmina; Rahman, Md. Naibur; Sharma, Uttam; Adams, Lindsay
    This report reviews the landscape of the ECE system in Bangladesh, focusing on the following key aspects related to the provision of ECE services: (a) access and equity, (b) quality, (c) governance and management, and (d) financing. It is based primarily on a desk review of existing documents and literature on ECE, and quantitative analyses of existing survey data. The desk review focuses on policies, plans, and strategies; existing studies; and pertinent records related to ECE in Bangladesh. The quantitative analyses are based on data from two rounds of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES 2010, 2016–17); the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS 2013); survey data from an ongoing impact evaluation of a small-scale ECE intervention in one district of the country; and administrative data from the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE). In addition, the study also uses some primary data collected using the World Bank’s Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) tool to analyze the governance and management status of ECE in Bangladesh.
  • Publication
    Sri Lanka Human Capital Development: Realizing the Promise and Potential of Human Capital
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-09) World Bank
    Human capital is a central determinant of economic well-being and social advancement in the modern world economy. The concept of human capital covers the knowledge, skills, nutrition, and health that people accumulate over their lives, enabling them to realize their potential as productive members of society. This Sri Lanka human capital report has several objectives. First, the report serves as a vehicle to explain the Human Capital Project (HCP) and Human Capital Index (HCI) to an audience of national and provincial policy makers and technocrats, and academics and researchers. Second, the report analyzes the main achievements and challenges in human capital development in the context of the World Bank’s HCP, with a special focus on the variables covered in the HCI. Third, the report applies the HCI to an analysis of regional variations in human capital in Sri Lanka. Fourth, the report presents policy and program options for Sri Lanka to combat the main challenges identified in the analysis of the HCI variables. Fifth, some strategic options broader than the HCI but within the scope of the HCP are discussed.
  • Publication
    Pakistan: Skills Assessment for Economic Growth
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-06) World Bank
    In an era of globalization and rapidly changing technology, the nature of work and skills required is also rapidly changing, and it calls for an urgent need to redefine the types of skills considered in public policy. Technology is reshaping the demand for skills by reducing the value of skills that can be substituted by technologies. Technology is affecting the demand particularly for three types of skills in the workplace. First, the demand for nonroutine cognitive and socio-behavioral skills appear to be rising in both advanced and emerging economies. Second, the demand for routine job-specific skills is declining, and third, the value of combinations of different skill types appear to be increasing. In this context, skills, often used as a synonym for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in public policy discussions, need to be redefined. The World Bank’s skills toward employment and productivity (STEP) framework defined three types of skills: (a) cognitive skills, (b) socio-behavioral skills, and (c) technical skills. The aim of this report is to discuss how Pakistan should deal with the skills development agenda for competitive economic growth. The study will focus on the big-picture questions of skills demand and supply in Pakistan by assessing the current situations of the skills demands, profiles of existing workers and future labor market entrants, and skills development opportunities in Pakistan and by discussing models and policy options for new skills and human capital development systems in Pakistan.
  • Publication
    Bangladesh Skills for Tomorrow’s Jobs: Preparing Youth for a Fast-Changing Economy
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03) World Bank
    The skills for tomorrow’s Jobs in Bangladesh attempts to address key skills challenges and identifyopportunities in the backdrop of fast technological and economic changes. It proposes mid to long-term strategic policy options that would contribute to economic growth and job creation in Bangladesh with a focus on post-secondary education and skills development sectors. It aims to inform the Government and the World Bank’s jobs agenda. The study draws upon relevant literatures from international and national sources, the government’s surveys and education statistics, and analytical works undertaken by the World Bank and other agencies. Moreover, the study was extensively informed and guided by knowledge and insights gathered through the experience from the World Bank funded operations and series of consultations on skills for future jobs with relevant stakeholders in Bangladesh.
  • Publication
    Governance for Quality in Higher Education in Odisha, India
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-08) World Bank Group
    The rise of the global economy, where social and economic development are driven by knowledge coupled with the information and technology revolution, signifies that tertiary education everywhere cannot continue with business as usual. The hope is that by creating, applying and disseminating new ideas and technologies to greater numbers, higher education systems will graduate a skilled, flexible and productive work force. The scope of the study includes primarily the governance and management system across the Higher Education (HE) sector in Odisha; the current Quality Assurance System (QAS) including affiliation and accreditation and the inter-relationship between QAS and HE governance system; issues associated with autonomy in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Odisha; the existing policy and legal environment in view of systemic transformation of governance for excellence; and international experience of good practices of governance and management system focusing on quality assurance. This paper aims: to describe and analyze the state of governance in Odisha higher education with special focus on the role of the higher education department of the GoO, university management, college management and the relationship between these structures; to analyze and re-examine the concept of increased autonomy for HEIs in Odisha; and to make recommendations on how to improve efficiency, effectiveness and accountability for increased autonomy in higher education governance.
  • Publication
    Pakistan--Tracing the Flow of Public Money: Punjab Expenditure and Quantity of Service Delivery Survey in Primary School Sector
    (World Bank, Islamabad, 2015-06) World Bank Group
    The main objective of the report is to provide recommendations for policy makers and sector managers to help improve service delivery and the resultant outcomes in primary education. The fundamental premise of this analysis stems from Punjab Social Sector Public Expenditure Review conducted in FY2013.