Person:
Sosale, Shobhana
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Education finance,
Education policy,
Development economics
Degrees
Departments
Education Global Practice
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
June 19, 2023
Biography
Shobhana Sosale is a senior education specialist in the South Asia Region of the World
Bank Education Global Practice. She is global co-lead for the Education and Gender
thematic area and is the climate change and education focal point for South Asia. She
has more than 25 years of experience in education and skills development. She has
published on education and related fields, analyzing topics linking political economy
and cross-sectoral issues in education, technology, climate change, skills development,
entrepreneurship, public-private partnerships, and finance. She has led the World
Bank’s education engagement in more than 14 countries in East Asia, Europe and
Central Asia, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North America.
She also has academic teaching experience at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
She holds graduate degrees in political economy and macroeconomics.
Publication Search Results
1 - 6 of 6
-
Publication
Skills, Human Capital, and Economic Development
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-05)This paper presents a skills index for developing countries in Asia as a first step toward developing a Global Skills Index. The Asian Skills Index is roughly modeled on the European Skills Index for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. However, the Asian Skills Index is substantially more complicated to develop. In addition to data limitations, the Asian Skills Index incorporates several structural and institutional features of labor markets in Asian countries, such as vulnerable employment and unemployment among the highly educated, which are specific to Asian countries. In addition, the newly developed learning-adjusted years of schooling indicator plays an integral role in the Asian Skills Index. Using the k-means clustering algorithm, the paper identifies a comparable group of Asian developing countries for which it develops an index of the country’s skills system. While studies on human capital focus only on education, the Asian Skills Index is a more comprehensive construct since it goes beyond just education and skills development. By incorporating labor market conditions within which education and skills can thrive and be translated into productive output, a skills system provides crucial economic context for the human capital development process. Using the Asian Skills Index, the paper provides some economic estimates and policy recommendations. -
Publication
Tools for Education : Policy Analysis
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003)This hands-on, interactive guide to evaluating and revamping education policy is designed to help policymakers in low-income countries identify weakness and make the most efficient use of scarce education resources. Education specialist in the developed world will also find this guide to be an invaluable tool for analyzing priorities and arriving at cost-effective solutions. The out-growth of training workshops held at the World Bank, this book and CD-ROM present relevant policy problems and engage the user in a search for effective education-service delivery options. Users can, moreover, plug in their own data and apply the statistical models to the specific challenges of their own educational systems. Both a self-paced learning guide and a practical assessment tool, this publication will be of interest to policymakers, as well as education researches, teachers, and students. -
Publication
Trends in Private Sector Development in World Bank Education Projects
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000-09)Emerging trends in education show the private sector to be playing an increasingly important role in financing and providing educational services in many countries. Private sector development has not arisen primarily through public policy design, but has of course been affected by the design, and limitations of public policy. The author traces trends in private sector development in eleven of seventy World Bank education projects in 1995-97, asking two questions: What has been the rationale for Bank lending in education? And, in countries where there is both privately financed, and publicly financed, and provided education, how has the Bank encouraged the private sector to thrive? The eleven country samples reveal that the Bank's interest in private sector development is basically in capacity-oriented privatization, to absorb excess demand for education. This is crucial to the Bank's general strategy for education lending: promoting access with equity, focusing on efficiency in resource allocation, promoting quality, and supporting capacity building. Absorbing excess demand tends to involve poorer families, usually much poorer than those that take advantage of other forms of privatized education. The Bank emphasizes capacity-oriented privatization, especially of teacher training for primary, and secondary schools, as well as institutional capacity building for tertiary, and vocational education. The underlying principle is that strengthening the private sector's role in non-compulsory education over time, will release public resources for the compulsory (primary) level. The private sector is emerging as a force governments, donors, and other technical assistance agencies cannot ignore. Often the term private sector encompasses households' out-of-pocket expenses, rather than describing for-profit, or not-for-profit (religious or otherwise) sectors. And lumpy investments, supporting both private, and public education, are the norm. -
Publication
Enhancing STEM Education and Careers in Sri Lanka
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-06-20)In recent decades, the Sri Lankan government has introduced reforms aimed at enhancing education access and quality, as well as emphasizing the importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), which are crucial fields for economic development and social inclusion. “Advancing STEM Education and Careers in Sri Lanka” examines how access to STEM education can affect enrollments at various levels (lower, upper secondary, higher education, and technical and vocational training) and careers in the labor market. The report also analyzes STEM education status by gender at the central, provincial, and district levels, and it highlights factors that enable and hinder the achievement of desired outcomes. The report offers a wide range of interventions to boost student access and teacher training, including developing digital learning materials and technology-based tools to broaden service delivery, facilitate learning, and support an inclusive public education system. In addition, it proposes policy options at the central and provincial levels. The findings and recommendations can be used to guide policy and investments to achieve the country’s potential to expand human capital, foster inclusion, contribute to economic development and competitiveness, promote recovery from the economic crisis, and build resilience. -
Publication
Mobilizing the Private Sector for Public Education : A View from the Trenches
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)Historically, ensuring access to primary education has been seen as a predominantly public responsibility. However, governments are increasingly sharing this responsibility through a variety of subsidiary arrangements. Some governments are contracting services out to the private sector, to nongovernmental organizations, and even to other public agencies. Some societies are transferring responsibility for financing, providing, and regulating primary education to lower levels of government, and in some cases, to communities. In education policy, public-private partnerships play an important role in enhancing the supply and the quality of human capital. This book explores the burgeoning number of public-private partnerships in public education in different parts of the world. The partnerships differ in form and structure, in the extent of public and private participation, and in the forms of their engagement. The essays in this book are written mainly from the provider's perspective and offer valuable insights into the purpose, trend, and impact of public-private partnerships, and an understanding of the barriers they face. -
Publication
Engendering Access to STEM Education and Careers in South Asia
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-06-20)Building a skilled and diverse science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce is crucial for economic development, cross-border trade, and social inclusion in South Asia. However, underrepresentation of girls and women in STEM education and careers remains a persistent issue. What kinds of macro and micro socioeconomic interventions are needed to increase girls’ and women’s access to and participation in STEM education and careers in South Asia?