3 Comments
Sep 28, 2022·edited Sep 28, 2022

Hmm... I'm not sure what you are claiming the greatest education intervention is. Surprisingly, removing absenteeism is not, in fact, what the literature ranks as the strongest education intervention. In the big meta-analyses of Rachel Glennerster[1] and the RCTs of Duflo[2], the best bang for buck in classroom learning is tracking and ability grouping, outflanking teacher absenteeism, class size, and teacher training by quite a margin.

But you know how it is. Government capacity to make or even allow good interventions to occur is often weak. But almost all developing countries have a private school system, and those systems do frequently and reliably can outperform the government system as you say[3]! But is ability grouping likely to fail? I don't think so. You only need the administrators and teachers at the school to get on board. That seems to be a job which NGOs could do successfully, without stepping on any government toes or regulations.

[1]https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.101.5.1739

[2]https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/34658/How-to-Improve-Education-Outcomes-Most-Efficiently-A-Comparison-of-150-Interventions-Using-the-New-Learning-Adjusted-Years-of-Schooling-Metric.pdf

[3] https://econjwatch.org/articles/big-questions-and-poor-economics-banerjee-and-duflo-on-schooling-in-developing-countries

Expand full comment