Publication:
What Do Teachers Know and Do? Does It Matter?: Evidence from Primary Schools in Africa

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dc.contributor.authorBold, Tessa
dc.contributor.authorFilmer, Deon
dc.contributor.authorMartin, Gayle
dc.contributor.authorMolina, Ezequiel
dc.contributor.authorRockmore, Christophe
dc.contributor.authorStacy, Brian
dc.contributor.authorSvensson, Jakob
dc.contributor.authorWane, Waly
dc.date.accessioned2017-01-30T21:07:13Z
dc.date.available2017-01-30T21:07:13Z
dc.date.issued2017-01
dc.description.abstractSchool enrollment has universally increased over the past 25 years in low-income countries. However, enrolling in school does not guarantee that children learn. A large share of children in low-income countries learn little, and they complete their primary education lacking even basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills—the so-called "learning crisis." This paper uses data from nationally representative surveys from seven Sub-Saharan African countries, representing close to 40 percent of the region's total population, to investigate possible answers to this policy failure by quantifying teacher effort, knowledge, and skills. Averaging across countries, the paper finds that students receive two hours and fifty minutes of teaching per day—or just over half the scheduled time. In addition, large shares of teachers do not master the curricula of the students they are teaching; basic pedagogical knowledge is low; and the use of good teaching practices is rare. Exploiting within-student, within-teacher variation, the analysis finds significant and large positive effects of teacher content and pedagogical knowledge on student achievement. These findings point to an urgent need for improvements in education service delivery in Sub-Saharan Africa. They also provide a lens through which the growing experimental and quasi-experimental literature on education in low-income countries can be interpreted and understood, and point to important gaps in knowledge, with implications for future research and policy design.en
dc.identifierhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/882091485440895147/What-do-teachers-know-and-do-does-it-matter-evidence-from-primary-schools-in-Africa
dc.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-7956
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10986/25964
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherWorld Bank, Washington, DC
dc.relation.ispartofseriesPolicy Research Working Paper;No. 7956
dc.rightsCC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holderWorld Bank
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo
dc.subjectteacher absenteeism
dc.subjecteducation
dc.subjectteacher performance
dc.subjectteacher effectiveness
dc.subjecteducation policy
dc.subjectpublic service delivery
dc.subjectlearning crisis
dc.titleWhat Do Teachers Know and Do? Does It Matter?en
dc.title.subtitleEvidence from Primary Schools in Africaen
dc.typeWorking Paperen
dc.typeDocument de travailfr
dc.typeDocumento de trabajoes
dspace.entity.typePublication
okr.crossref.titleWhat Do Teachers Know and Do? Does It Matter? Evidence from Primary Schools in Africa
okr.date.disclosure2017-01-26
okr.doctypePublications & Research
okr.doctypePublications & Research::Policy Research Working Paper
okr.docurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/882091485440895147/What-do-teachers-know-and-do-does-it-matter-evidence-from-primary-schools-in-Africa
okr.guid882091485440895147
okr.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-7956
okr.identifier.externaldocumentum090224b0848d9214_2_0
okr.identifier.internaldocumentum27131464
okr.identifier.reportWPS7956
okr.importedtrue
okr.language.supporteden
okr.pdfurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/882091485440895147/pdf/WPS7956.pdfen
okr.region.administrativeAfrica
okr.region.geographicalSub-Saharan Africa
okr.statistics.combined12930
okr.statistics.dr882091485440895147
okr.statistics.drstats10285
okr.topicEducation::Education Reform and Management
okr.topicEducation::Educational Policy and Planning
okr.topicEducation::Educational Sciences
okr.topicEducation::Effective Schools and Teachers
okr.unitEducation Global Practice Group, the Development Research Group, and the Africa Region
relation.isAuthorOfPublication31f46949-2ccf-502a-bdbd-784362f63ce8
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery31f46949-2ccf-502a-bdbd-784362f63ce8
relation.isSeriesOfPublication26e071dc-b0bf-409c-b982-df2970295c87
relation.isSeriesOfPublication.latestForDiscovery26e071dc-b0bf-409c-b982-df2970295c87
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