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The role of education quality for economic growth

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World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, (2007)

Аннотация

Access to education is one of the highest priorities on the development agenda. High-profi le international commitment to progress—such as the second Millennium Development Goal of achieving universal primary education—has helped galvanize policy-makers into action. Signifi cant results have already been achieved in school enrollment. Yet care must be taken that the need for simple, measurable goals does not lead to ignoring the fact that it ultimately is the degree to which schooling fosters cognitive skills and facilitates the acquisition of professional skills that matters for development. As shown in this report, differences in learning achievements matter more in explaining cross-country differences in productivity growth than differences in the average number of years of schooling or in enrollment rates. A development-effective educational strategy should thus focus not only on sending more children to school, as the second Millennium Development Goal is often interpreted, but also on maintaining or enhancing the quality of schooling. The task at hand is imposing. As shown by the PISA survey, disparities in secondary education between developing countries and OECD countries are even larger when one considers not only access but also learning achievements. Things are not much better at the primary level. In recent surveys in Ghana and Zambia, it turned out that fewer than 60 percent of young women who complete six years of primary school could read a sentence in their own language. Reducing disparities in access to, and in the quality of, education are two goals that must be pursued simultaneously for any education reform to be successful. Considerable progress has indeed been made recently in increasing enrollment, but a reversal could occur if parents were to realize that the quality of schooling is not guaranteeing a solid economic return for their children. There are many reasons why school quality may be defi cient. Countries should investigate what the precise causes are in their own context and should be encouraged to experiment in fi nding the best way to correct weaknesses. Tools such as effective teacher certifi cation, public disclosure of the educational achievements of schools and teachers, local school control by parents associations, and, more generally, all measures contributing to the accountability of teachers and head teachers, can be useful starting points for refl ection. Education reforms take time to mature and bear fruit. Engaging in such refl ection and experimentation is therefore urgent for development. The Bank will do its part in making learning outcomes part of the overall educational goal. It will contribute to ensuring that the measurement of learning achievements is undertaken in a more systematic way and is properly taken into account in the Bank’s dialogue with partner countries. It will also invest in developing the appropriate evaluation tools to monitor this crucial part of educational development. It is our hope that this report will be a fi rst contribution to this agenda.

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