Struck by crisis : The global financial crisis' impact on universal primary education

Broadening Access to Primary Education: Contract Teacher Programs and Their Impact on Education Outcomes in Africa – An Econometric Evaluation for Niger

06004; For Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, but particularly for countries in the Sahel zone, full primary enrolment and completion at acceptable quality as codified in the Millennium Development Goals and the Education for All objectives still remains a major challenge. In order to enhance education supply, many of these countries have launched large scale teacher recruitment programs in recent years, whereby the teachers are no longer engaged in civil servant positions, but on the basis of fixed-term contracts typically implying considerably lower salaries and a sharply reduced duration of professional training. While this policy has led to a boost of primary enrolment, stakeholders in the …

How can countries use cross-national research results to address "the big policy issues" ? (Case studies from Francophone Africa)

06058http://www.unesco.org/iiep/PDF/pubs/G117.pdf?class=IIEP_PDF_pubs&page=G117&estat_url=http://www.unesco.org/iiep/PDF/pubs/G117.pdf; The “Program on the Analysis of Education Systems“ (PASEC) was launched in 1991 at the conference of francophone education ministers (CONFEMEN) in Djibouti and carried out its first country evaluation one year later in the same country. Since then, 13 individual country evaluations have been carried out in francophone sub-Saharan Africa, including panel studies following primary students from 2nd to 6th grade within a given country. The primary objective of PASEC evaluations is not the comparison of student achievement across countries, but the analysis of …

Teacher shortages, teacher contracts and their effect on education in Africa

1001; To enhance primary enrolment rates, many African countries have launched large teacher recruitment programmes in recent years. Given tight budgetary constraints, teachers are no longer employed in civil service positions, but on the basis of (fixed term) contracts typically implying considerably lower salaries and a sharply reduced amount of professional training. We analyse the effect of this change on educational quality in Niger, Togo and Mali, on the basis of very informative data, which are comparable across these countries. We use a variety of estimation techniques, including a non-parametric estimation of quantile treatment effects. Our results demonstrate that contract teacher…

Teacher Shortages, Teacher Contracts and their Impacton Education in Africa

Primary school enrolment rates are very low in francophone Africa. In order to enhance education supply, manycountries have launched large teacher recruitment programmes in recent years, whereby teachers are no longer engaged on civil servant positions, but on the basis of (fixed-term) contracts typically implying considerably lower salaries and a sharply reduced duration of professional training. While this policy has led to a boost of primary enrolment, there is a concern about a loss in the quality of education. In this paper we analyse the impact on educational quality, by estimating nonparametrically the quantile treatment effects for Niger, Togo and Mali, based on very informative dat…

The Impact of Student Diversity in Secondary Schools : An Analysis of the International PISA Data and Implications for the German Education System

While increased heterogeneity in schools (diversity) leads to reduced segregation and greater equity for students from different family backgrounds, it is often expected to have a negative impact on overall performance, and on student well-being and motivation. In this study, neither cross-country comparisons nor student-level analysis confirm this hypothesis. In some countries, students' overall achievement as well as their interest and engagement even appear to be positively influenced by diversity, notably by socio-economic and cultural diversity. In Germany, socio-economic diversity has a positive impact on student achievement, and ability related and cultural diversity positively affec…