Publication: Zambia: Can Financial Incentives and Better Communication Improve the Last-Mile Delivery of Textbooks?
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2020-06-01
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2020-06-03
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Zambia has invested heavily on education with an allocation of about 20 percent of the government budget, but this investment has not translated into better student learning outcomes in primary education. Among the main reasons for this is the severe shortage of learning materials, particularly textbooks in both English and local languages. A public expenditure review of the Zambian education system has shown that 91 percent of schools lack textbooks and on average five to six pupils share less than one textbook, including textbooks in local languages To address this shortage, the REACH Trust Fund provided a grant to investigate the factors related to the availability of textbooks in schools and to evaluate a set of financial incentive mechanisms for improving the last-mile delivery of textbooks. The questions that the research set out to answer were: What is the current status of textbook distribution in Zambia and what are the factors that influence their availability? Do financial incentives have any impact on textbook distribution and availability? What kind of financing scheme might be effective in improving the last-mile delivery of textbooks? Does providing information to schools about textbook availability increase the numbers that are available in schools? A study was conducted in 2018–2019 with the objective of answering these questions. It focused on textbooks procured for use in Zambian literacy and English courses for students in grade two in 2016 and grade four in 2018. The study surveyed 243 schools in 27 districts in Zambia that had not received grade four Zambian language literacy course books until July 2019 as a result of the severe resource constraints that they were experiencing. The study used the difference-in-difference estimation methodology to identify the causal links among the factors contributing to availability and delivery of textbooks to schools.
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“World Bank. 2020. Zambia: Can Financial Incentives and Better Communication Improve the Last-Mile Delivery of Textbooks?. RBF Education;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33842 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Zambia(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)Zambia has invested heavily on education with an allocation of about 20 percent of the government budget, but this investment has not translated into better student learning outcomes in primary education. Among the main reasons for this is the severe shortage of learning materials, particularly textbooks in both English and local languages. A public expenditure review of the Zambian education system has shown that 91 percent of schools lack textbooks and on average five to six pupils share less than one textbook, including textbooks in local languages To address this shortage, the REACH Trust Fund provided a grant to investigate the factors related to the availability of textbooks in schools and to evaluate a set of financial incentive mechanisms for improving the last-mile delivery of textbooks. The questions that the research set out to answer were: What is the current status of textbook distribution in Zambia and what are the factors that influence their availability? Do financial incentives have any impact on textbook distribution and availability? What kind of financing scheme might be effective in improving the last-mile delivery of textbooks? Does providing information to schools about textbook availability increase the numbers that are available in schools? A study was conducted in 2018–2019 with the objective of answering these questions. It focused on textbooks procured for use in Zambian literacy and English courses for students in grade two in 2016 and grade four in 2018. The study surveyed 243 schools in 27 districts in Zambia that had not received grade four Zambian language literacy course books until July 2019 as a result of the severe resource constraints that they were experiencing. The study used the difference-in-difference estimation methodology to identify the causal links among the factors contributing to availability and delivery of textbooks to schools.Publication Impact of Financial Incentives and the Role of Information and Communication in Last-Mile Delivery of Textbooks in Zambia(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)This study investigates the impact of financial incentives and role of information and communication in textbook availability (especially those in local languages) in Zambia. It uses the difference-in-difference estimation method to identify the causal links among the factors. The data used for the study were collected in 2017 and 2019 for baseline and end-line information. The study shows that providing financial incentives to schools increases the likelihood of a school receiving textbooks by 0.126. This improvement is mainly driven by raising the likelihood of a school collecting the books from zone-center schools and District Education Board Secretaries offices, by 0.356 and 0.158, respectively. Providing financial incentives to District Education Board Secretaries does not have any impact on the likelihood of a school receiving textbooks. This is partly because the current textbook delivery practice in districts and communities relies heavily on the action of schools and less on District Education Board Secretaries. Thus, providing incentives directly to schools seems to intensify the current last-mile textbook distribution practice and has better results. In addition, providing information to schools on the availability of textbooks at District Education Board Secretaries offices improves the outcomes significantly with minimum cost.Publication Book Chain(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-12)The Results in Education for All Children (REACH) Trust Fund builds evidence on results-based financing in education, including by capturing operational lessons around its use. In the PRACTICE series, experts share their experience from working in the field to provide practical advice on how to apply results-based approaches to boost education outcomes. Reports in this series highlight key discussion points from REACH roundtables, backed by direct though anonymous quotes from participating experts to allow for frank discussion.Publication Cambodia(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-05)The textbook supply chain in Cambodia has several weak points. Book forecasting can take many months, as schools report their book needs to district or cluster officers who then collate all the requirements of the schools within their jurisdiction and report them to the national government. This process is also not well aligned with the government budgeting processes which further exacerbates delays. Schools fill out paper-based forms with complex formulae to determine the number of books the schools need, making the process prone to errors. The distribution of books is also a time-consuming process and prone to error. When the books are printed and dispatched, district or cluster officials receive a bulk allocation for all their schools and are then required to collate and repackage the books destined for each school, which introduces a risk of error. Then the school directors (or headteachers) collect their schools’ books from the district and report the receipt of the books using a complex paper receipt template, which is time-consuming to complete and also prone to error. As a result of these weaknesses in the supply chain new textbooks often do not reach schools on time or in the correct quantities. In the baseline for this study, only around 65 percent of school directors surveyed reported having adequate numbers of textbooks for key subjects, and 45 percent did not receive their books in time for the start of the school year. Consequently, it is estimated that more than 2 million primary school students in Cambodia face a chronic lack of good quality textbooks.Publication Nepal - Can Incentives Drive Publishers to Produce Quality Reading Materials and Schools to Buy and Use Them?(Washington, DC, 2022-02)The Results in Education for All Children (REACH) Trust Fund supports and disseminates research on the impact of results-based financing on learning outcomes. This study evaluates how the use of incentives impacted the production, procurement, and utilization of supplementary reading materials in lower primary grades in Nepal. The EVIDENCE series highlights REACH grants around the world to provide empirical evidence and operational lessons helpful in the design and implementation of successful performance-based programs.
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