C. Journal articles published externally
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These are journal articles by World Bank authors published externally.
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Measuring Human Capital in Middle Income Countries
(Elsevier, 2022-12)This paper develops an indicator that measures the level of human capital to address the specific education and health challenges faced by middle income countries. We apply this indicator to countries in Europe and Central Asia, where productive employment requires skills that are more prevalent among higher education graduates, and where good health is associated to low levels of adult health risk factors. The Europe and Central Asia Human Capital Index (ECA-HCI) extends the World Bank's Human Capital Index by adding a measure of quality-adjusted years of higher education to the original education component, and it includes the prevalence of three adult health risk factors—obesity, smoking, and heavy drinking—as an additional proxy for latent health status. The results show that children born today in the average country in Europe and Central Asia will be almost half as productive as they would have had they reached the benchmark of complete education and full health. Countries with good basic education outcomes do not necessarily have good higher education outcomes, and high prevalence of adult health risk factors can offset good education indicators. This extension of the Human Capital Index could also be useful for assessing the state of human capital in middle-income countries in general. -
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Teacher Satisfaction and Its Determinants: Analysis Based on Data from Nigeria and Uganda
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-01-28)Teachers who are satisfied with their job are more likely to teach well, which in turn should enable their students to better learn while in school. Sub-Saharan Africa is currently experiencing a learning crisis, with close to nine out of ten children not able to read and understand a simple text at age 10. This affects all types of schools and students, including students in Catholic and other faith-based schools. Improving working conditions and job satisfaction among teachers is part of the answer to this learning crisis. After a brief discussion of data for Nigeria, this article looks at the level of satisfaction of teachers in Uganda, its determinants, and its impact on the quality teaching. Specifically, four questions are asked: What is the level of teacher job satisfaction in Uganda? How does job satisfaction relate to the characteristics of teachers? What is the impact of teachers’ satisfaction on their performance, as it can be measured through various variables of teacher effort? Finally, what are the main factors affecting satisfaction according to teachers? The answers to these questions have implications for policy and practice in faith-based as well as in other schools. -
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Relationships between Christian Schools and the State: A Comparative Analysis for Five sub-Saharan African Countries
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-01-28)This article provides a comparative analysis of Christian faith-based schooling in five African countries, including data on the proportions of faith-based schools, financing models, and forms of organization vis-à-vis the state. The case studies represent different forms and models. In all of the countries, at least one in six schools is run by a church. Christian churches do not see themselves as ‘private schools’ but as public providers working for the public common good. Faith-based schools contribute not only to making sure that children go to school and learn while in school, but also to sharing ideals ranging from social justice and equity, to peace and democracy, and social participation and inclusion. The article concludes with some reflections on future challenges for faith-based schools, mainly related to their funding and the lack of data to assess challenges and opportunities. -
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Catholic and Faith-Based Schools in Africa: Introduction to the Special Issue
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-01-28)Africa is the region of the world where Catholic and other faith-based schools have the largest footprint. One in nine students in a primary school in Africa is enrolled in a Catholic school, and students from the region account for more than half of all students in Catholic primary schools globally. Through the role it plays in Africa, the Catholic Church is at the forefront of providing educational opportunities in low-income countries, but challenges abound. In particular, learning poverty defined as the inability of 10-year-old children to read and understand an age-appropriate text, affects nine in ten children in sub-Saharan Africa. Students in Catholic schools are not immune to this crisis. This article introduces a framework from the World Bank on how we could end the learning crisis and summarizes the contributions of the articles included in this issue in terms of that framework. -
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How Do Shocks Affect Enrollment in Faith-Based Schools?: Evidence from West Africa
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-01-28)The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed concerns about how shocks may affect religious and other private schools in low-income countries, especially when they do not benefit from state support. By reducing parental incomes, shocks – not only epidemics but also natural disasters and conflicts, reduce overall enrollment in school. But they may also lead to a shift from private to public schools with potentially differentiated effects by type of private school depending on context. In addition, household responses to shocks such as migration may lead to a change in the socio-cultural context in which households live, and these changes may also affect school choice. This paper explores the effects of shocks and migration on school choice in West Africa. Results suggest that shocks and migration lead to a shift from private to public schools, but with differentiated effects by type of private schools. -
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Not All Catholic Schools Are Private Schools: Does It Matter for Student Performance?
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-01-28)National student assessments from Uganda suggest low levels of proficiency for students in primary and secondary schools. This is confirmed by data for primary schools from the 2013 Service Delivery Indicators survey. The data are used in this article to conduct an assessment of factors affecting student performance. A unique feature of the data is that comparisons can be made not only between public and private schools, but also between Catholic and non-Catholic schools, with most of the Catholic schools being public schools. The analysis looks at student performance on tests for English, numeracy, non-verbal reasoning, and the student’s overall score for the three dimensions combined. Explanatory factors include a wide range of school, teacher, child, and community characteristics. After controlling for these factors, students in private schools, Catholic or not, tend to perform better than those in public schools, Catholic or not. By contrast, differences between Catholic and non-Catholic schools, especially when the schools are public, appear to matter less for student performance. -
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Koranic Schools in Niger: How Much Can Be Learned from Existing Data?
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-01-28)The term Koranic school is often used to describe schools that are not part of the formal education system and typically place a strong emphasis on memorizing the Koran in Arabic, as well as on knowledge of Islamic religious education and practice. Using data from Niger as a case study, this paper provides data on trends in the share of individuals that have a Koranic education, a formal education, or no education at all, as well as a basic profile (univariate and multivariate) of children with Koranic education, formal education, or no education at all. In addition, the potential impacts of Koranic education in comparison to formal education or no education at all on outcomes such as literacy and numeracy, labor market earnings, household consumption, assets and perceptions of well-being, and infant mortality is analyzed. -
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Information, Knowledge, and Behavior: Evaluating Alternative Methods of Delivering School Information to Parents
(University of Chicago Press, 2022-01-01)This paper evaluates alternative approaches to disseminating information about a school-based management program in Indonesia. Low-intensity approaches, sending a letter from the principal or a colorful pamphlet home with the child, had no impact. Holding a facilitated meeting with school stakeholders or sending targeted text messages (SMSs) to parents increased knowledge and participation. Facilitated meetings increased overall knowledge, fostered a feeling of transparency, and increased participation in formal channels for providing feedback to the school. SMSs increased knowledge about specific aspects of the program, such as the grant amount, and increased participation through informal channels. -
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The Impact of Sri Lanka’s School-Based Management Program on Teachers’ Pedagogical Practices and Student Learning: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial
(Taylor and Francis, 2021-12)Education is widely accepted as a key determinant of economic and social development. Developing countries have made substantial progress in increasing school enrollment rates in the last 50 years, but in many countries’ students are not learning the skills that the curriculum sets as the goals of their education. One policy that has been advocated by experts and international development agencies is school-based management. This paper investigates the effectiveness of a school-based management policy recently introduced in Sri Lanka, the Program for School Improvement (PSI). The PSI established new management structures and provided training and support services in order to: (a) devolve decisions for a range of activities to the school level; (b) increase the participation of parents and the local community in the work of the school; and (c) focus schools’ efforts on student learning. To evaluate the effectiveness of the PSI on measures of school performance, a randomized controlled trial was conducted. Overall, the data show some evidence of changes in the behavior of both principals and teachers in the PSI schools, but most of the observed behaviors did not change. Turning to student learning as measured by test scores, there are also no statistically significant effects, although the (imprecisely) estimated impact on math scores (0.21 standard deviations) is moderately large. -
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Factors Associated with Educational and Career Aspirations of Young Women and Girls in Sierra Leone
(Taylor and Francis, 2021-09-05)Empirical data on the aspirations of young women and girls in post-conflict settings are scarce. This article analyses the factors associated with the educational and career aspirations of 2,473 young women and girls in Sierra Leone. Findings indicated that over three-quarters of our sample aspired to continue their studies up to the university level, and two-thirds aspired to obtain a formal sector job requiring an education. These findings are important for discussions of aid which can accelerate economic advances and opportunities within advanced economies for both women and men.