Improving school education outcomes: evidence, knowledge gaps, and policy implications

Convener: Jakob Svensson, Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University

Contact: jakob.svensson@iies.su.se

In many low income countries, most children learn little in school and complete their education lacking even basic lower-order numerical and literacy skills. Evidence from the recent research on the economics of education in developing countries, showing that increasing the supply of basic educational inputs has little impact on test scores but interventions aimed at increasing teachers’ effort and training teachers to teach scripted lessons do, suggests that the underlying problem lie at the teacher level.

The objective of this panel is twofold. First, to review recent evidence on measurement of teacher behavior, skills, and competence. Second, to review recent evidence – based on randomized or quasi-experimental studies – of interventions that aim at improving the quantity and quality of teaching.

24 Aug., 09:00–10:30, Seminar Room Y11

• What Do Teachers Know and Do? A Report Card on Primary Teachers in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Tessa Bold, Stockholm University.
• Evaluating teachers’ performance using multiple methods for effective learning in Kenya’s public schools. Carolyne L. A. Onyango, The Catholic University of Eastern Africa.
• Attitudes and ongoing language shift and maintenance among speakers of Portuguese and Bantu languages in Angolan high schools. Laura Álvarez López, Stockholm University.

Abstracts

What Do Teachers Know and Do? A Report Card on Primary Teachers in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Tessa Bold, Stockholm University.

Using data from nationally representative surveys from seven Sub-Saharan African countries, representing close to 40% of the region’s total population, we answer three questions: How much instruction time in class do students actually get? Are they taught by teachers who know the material that should be covered? Do teachers have the skills to effectively transfer what they know to students? Averaging across countries, we find that students receive about two and a half hours of teaching a day – or less than half the scheduled time. Further, a large majority of teachers do not master even their students’ curriculum and their pedagogical knowledge and skills are strikingly low. As a result, we estimate that less than half a percent of primary public school students attend a school with decent quality standards. We show that the differences in teacher content knowledge and teachers’ knowledge and skills in pedagogy can account for a significant part of the variation in test scores across countries. Our findings 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 our knowledge, which highlight directions for future research.

Evaluating teachers’ performance using multiple methods for effective learning in Kenya’s public schools. Carolyne L. A. Onyango, The Catholic University of Eastern Africa.

Public primary schools in Kenya continue to post poor results in comparison to private schools. Stakeholders in the education sectors had always attributed the dismal performance to perennial strikes that bedevil the sector each year as teachers agitate for better pay. However, the release of 2015 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) results in Kenya in December 2015 indicated that schools in far-flung and terror-prone regions that were deserted by qualified, state-employed teachers, and salvaged only by High School graduates and other untrained teachers have for the first time posted a significant improvement in the overall academic performance of the candidates. Due to this sudden positive turn of outcome, the debate on basic education outcome has now shifted to other possible causes of poor school education outcome such as teacher absenteeism, teacher enthusiasm, and teacher-performance. This paper proposes the use of multiple methods of collecting data on teacher performance in several areas including assessment of teachers’ personal traits, inter-personal relations, individual performance in terms of preparation for the lessons, delivery of lessons, communication skills, mastery of subject, as well as attainment of prescribed aims. Tools such as observation checklists, teachers’ self-reports, supervisor’s appraisals, portfolios, learners’ assessment records and data and questionnaires should be developed and used at different periods to monitor learning outcomes as regards teachers’ performance.  Presently, the Teachers’ Service Commission uses the highly subjective Teacher’s appraisal instrument which has been widely abused.

Attitudes and ongoing language shift and maintenance among speakers of Portuguese and Bantu languages in Angolan high schools. Laura Álvarez López, Stockholm University.

The present paper deals with questions related to language shift, bilingualism and language maintenance by focusing on how speaker’s age and level of bilingualism in Bantu languages and Portuguese relate to self-reported proficiency, use and attitudes toward reported use of these languages in a rural and an urban setting in Cabinda, Angola. The aim is to provide an overview of language use and attitudes by describing tendencies in ongoing language shift and identifying factors that may be favorable for the maintenance of local languages. Participants are bi- or multilingual speakers of Bantu languages and Portuguese as first and second languages, as well as simultaneous bilinguals of Bantu languages and Portuguese. The analyzed materials consist of 159 questionnaires, 30 language diaries and 64 interviews. The results show that, despite that Bantu languages have generally not been taught in school in Cabinda, students tend to have positive attitudes toward Bantu languages, and respondents may be motivated to use these languages more than they do today. Consequently, a higher degree of exposure to both languages through bilingual education would have positive effects in maintenance of Bantu languages and increased proficiency in both Portuguese and local Bantu languages.