Person:
Hasan, Amer
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Early childhood development,
Education,
Impact evaluation
Degrees
ORCID
External Links
Departments
Education Global Practice, South Asia Region
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Amer Hasan is a Senior Economist with the Education Global Practice, focusing on the South Asia Region (SAR). His most recent assignment before this was with the Human Capital Project team. He has also been a part of the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) Education team where he worked on Indonesia and China and served as Task Team Leader on both lending and analytical operations. He was the EAP regional focal point for Early Childhood as well as for Disability Inclusive Education. He co-led the 2018 flagship report on the quality of education in EAP entitled “Growing Smarter: Learning and Equitable Development in East Asia and Pacific.” Amer holds a PhD and Masters in Public Policy from the University of Chicago as well as a BA in History from Yale University.
Publication Search Results
1 - 10 of 19
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Publication
Mama Knows (and Does) Best: Maternal Schooling Opportunities and Child Development in Indonesia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-08)This paper leverages quasi-experimental variation in increased access to basic formal education, introduced by a large-scale school construction program in Indonesia in the 1970s, to quantify the benefits to the children of women targeted by the program. Novel and rich data allow the analysis of a range of health, cognitive and socio-emotional development outcomes for children ages 6 to 8 in 2013. The paper finds that increased maternal access to schooling has positive and multidimensional effects on children. The effects are particularly salient at the bottom of the distributions of outcomes. Drawing on insights from economics, psychology, and sociology, the paper examines pathways for these impacts. Evidence suggests that mothers who were exposed to more schooling opportunities during childhood demonstrate less hostility toward their children when parenting and also invest more in their children's preschool education. -
Publication
Understanding Effective Teaching Practices in Chinese Classrooms: Evidence from a Pilot Study of Primary and Junior Secondary Schools in Guangdong, China
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-04)This study documents the results of a pilot study jointly undertaken by the World Bank and the Guangdong Department of Education to assess teaching practices in public primary and junior secondary schools using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System tool. The tool was used to conduct classroom observations on an illustrative sample of 36 teachers in three counties across Guangdong. The pilot tested whether such a tool could be used to measure the strengths and weaknesses of teaching practices in the Chinese context. It also informed how classroom observations can be more consistently applied in the province's Quality Assurance and Monitoring and Evaluation system. On average, teachers in this sample scored high on classroom organization, but lower on emotional support and instructional support. While there was substantial variation in performance across teachers, there was only modest variation by county, urban versus rural school location, teacher type, grade, and years of experience. Teachers who believed that students should be the focus of instruction (those who espouse student-centered learning) scored significantly higher across all domains than teachers who believed that teachers should be the focus of instruction (those who espouse teacher-centered learning). Together the results from this pilot provide insights into how teacher training can address the most critical gaps in teaching practices. -
Publication
Simulating the Potential Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures on Schooling and Learning Outcomes: A Set of Global Estimates
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)School closures due to COVID-19 have left more than a billion students out of school. This paper presents the results of simulations considering three, five and seven months of school closure and different levels of mitigation effectiveness resulting in optimistic, intermediate and pessimistic global scenarios. Using data on 157 countries, the analysis finds that the global level of schooling and learning will fall. COVID-19 could result in a loss of between 0.3 and 0.9 years of schooling adjusted for quality, bringing down the effective years of basic schooling that students achieve during their lifetime from 7.9 years to between 7.0 and 7.6 years. Close to 7 million students from primary up to secondary education could drop out due to the income shock of the pandemic alone. Students from the current cohort could, on average, face a reduction of $355, $872, or $1,408 in yearly earnings. In present value terms, this amounts to between $6,472 and $25,680 dollars in lost earnings over a typical student's lifetime. Exclusion and inequality will likely be exacerbated if already marginalized and vulnerable groups, like girls, ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities, are more adversely affected by the school closures. Globally, a school shutdown of 5 months could generate learning losses that have a present value of $10 trillion. By this measure, the world could stand to lose as much as 16 percent of the investments that governments make in the basic education of this cohort of students. The world could thus face a substantial setback in achieving the goal of halving the percentage of learning poor and be unable to meet the goal by 2030 unless drastic remedial action is taken. -
Publication
Learning Losses in Pakistan Due to COVID-19 School Closures: A Technical Note on Simulation Results
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10)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. -
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Remote Learning During COVID-19: Lessons from Today, Principles for Tomorrow
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-11-30)School closures during COVID-19 (coronavirus) led to an unprecedented global experiment in the delivery of remote learning. This report seeks to assess what lessons can be drawn from experiences of remote learning during COVID-19 in K-12 education, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. It focuses on the period from March 2020 to October 2021 and addresses the following key questions: 1. Was remote learning during COVID-19 taken up and if so, was it effective That is, did children learn as much as they did during pre-pandemic, in-person learning 2. What lessons can governments derive from this wide-spread experience 3. How might policymakers use these lessons to reimagine learning as schools begin to reopen This report is part of a larger effort led by the World Bank to provide guidance and technical assistance to optimize country effectiveness in the design and execution of remote learning strategies. It has been developed in conjunction with Remote Learning During the Global School Lockdown: Multi-Country Lessons, a qualitative study conducted between May and November 2020 to understand the perceived effectiveness of remote and remedial learning solutions implemented across 17 countries. -
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Contrasting Experiences: Understanding the Longer-Term Impact of Improving Access to Preschool Education in Rural Indonesia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-11)This paper examines the longer-term impact of a project that expanded access to playgroup services in rural Indonesia. It compares the outcomes of two cohorts of children who were exposed to the same intervention at different points in time. One cohort was eligible to access playgroups during the first year of a five-year project cycle, beginning at age four. The other cohort became eligible to access these services during the third year, beginning at age three. The younger cohort was more likely to be exposed to playgroups for longer and at age-appropriate times relative to the older cohort. The paper finds that enrollment rates and enrollment duration in preprimary education increased for both cohorts, but the enrollment effects were larger for the younger cohort. In terms of child development outcomes, there were short term effects at age five that did not last until age eight, for both cohorts. The data reveal that the younger cohort had substantially higher test scores during the early grades of primary school, relative to the older cohort. To unpack why the two cohorts experienced different longer-term outcomes, the paper provides evidence of changes that transpired in the operating conditions of the playgroups over time. -
Publication
Time Allocation in Rural Households : The Indirect Effects of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs
( 2010-03-01)Conditional cash transfers are being heralded as effective tools against the intergenerational transmission of poverty. There is substantial evidence on the positive effects of these transfers. Analysts are only now beginning to investigate the indirect effects these programs generate. This paper examines the effect of a gender-targeted conditional cash transfer program on the time allocation of mothers in rural program-eligible households. Using a fixed effects difference-in-differences estimator, the author finds that program eligibility is associated with an increase of 120 minutes of housework per typical school day by mothers of eligible children in the stipend district when compared with mothers of eligible children in the non-stipend district. There is a 100-minute reduction in the amount of time mothers report spending on children s needs. The intent-to-treat effect of the program suggests no change in the amount of time spent on paid work or sleep. -
Publication
Early Childhood Education and Development in Poor Villages of Indonesia : Strong Foundations, Later Success
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-06-11)Influenced by the condition of young children within its own country and by the pattern of international evidence about the value of Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED), the government of Indonesia has implemented policies and programs that prioritize the early years of children's lives. The first critical step was taken in 2001, when a new directorate dedicated to early childhood was established within the Ministry of Education and Culture. The second critical step was taken when early childhood education was included in a succession of key policy documents-the National Education System Law No. 20 in 2003 and the Ministry of Education and Culture's Strategic Plan (Rencana Strategis or Renstra) in 2004. ECED services are privately provided in multiple formats intended to cater to distinct age groups, and several different government ministries regulate the services. These arrangements underscore the continuing challenges in coordinating services and ensuring high quality across service providers. This book uses Indonesian data to answer five questions with significance for research, policy, and practice within and beyond Indonesia: (1) shat does global evidence tell us about the importance of ECED, and what policies and programs has Indonesia implemented to promote ECED?; (2) what is the pattern of development among young children in poor villages in Indonesia, and how is that development linked with their families' characteristics and the ECED services typically available to them?; (3) what were the processes and challenges of implementing a community-driven ECED project across 50 poor districts in Indonesia?; (4) what can be learned from the short-term results of a randomized evaluation of the project's impact on children s development?; and (5) what insights can be derived from this body of research to inform future policies and practices in Indonesia and beyond? With support from the World Bank and other development partners, the government has provided new early childhood services in 6,000 poor communities across 50 districts in the country. The lessons from this experience are focused in this book. -
Publication
The Impact of Early Childhood Education on Early Achievement Gaps : Evidence from the Indonesia Early Childhood Education and Development Project
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-02)This paper assesses whether the Indonesia Early Childhood Education and Development project had an impact on early achievement gaps as measured by an array of child development outcomes and enrollment. The analysis is based on longitudinal data collected in 2009 and 2010 on approximately 3,000 four-year-old children residing in 310 villages located in nine districts across Indonesia. The study begins by documenting the intent-to-treat impact of the project. It then compares the achievement gaps between richer and poorer children living in project villages with those of richer and poorer children living in non-project villages. There is clear evidence that in project villages, the achievement gap between richer and poorer children decreased on many dimensions. By contrast, in non-project villages, this gap either increased or stayed constant. Given Indonesia's interest in increasing access to early childhood services for all children, and the need to ensure more efficient spending on education, the paper discusses how three existing policies and programs could be leveraged to ensure that Indonesia's vision for holistic, integrated early childhood services becomes a reality. The lessons from Indonesia's experience apply more broadly to countries seeking to reduce early achievement gaps and expand access to pre-primary education. -
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Investing in School Readiness: An Analysis of the Cost-Effectiveness of Early Childhood Education Pathways in Rural Indonesia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-09)This paper presents evidence on the cost-effectiveness of early childhood education pathways in rural Indonesia. It documents the existence of substantial differences in school readiness between 6 to 9 year old children. Using detailed enrollment histories, it unpacks whether and how early education experiences explain these gaps. The analysis considers not only the sequence of services children enroll in, but also the age at which they enroll and the duration for which they enroll. The differences in primary school test scores between a child who has no early education exposure and a child who completes a full sequence at the developmentally appropriate age are 0.42 standard deviations in language and 0.43 standard deviations in mathematics, roughly equivalent to an additional 0.9 to 1.2 years of primary schooling. The paper analyzes the cost-effectiveness of various early education pathways in Indonesia to show that providing access to both playgroups and kindergartens to young children at developmentally appropriate ages can optimize public investments in early childhood education. The paper subjects the analysis to a variety of robustness checks, and concludes that children enrolled in play-based early education programs (playgroups) at age 3 or 4, followed by the country's more academically structured programs (kindergartens) at age 5 or 6, are more likely to be ready for primary school than children who do not follow this sequence. Compulsory pre-primary education policy should consider incorporating both playgroups and kindergartens.