South Asia Region Workshop on Knowledge Generation and Integration in Operations
South Asia Region Workshop on Knowledge Generation and Integration in Operations June 30, 2008
This workshop highlighted the emerging coda of analytical work in South Asia, ranging from integrating impact evaluations into project design, impact evaluation studies, sector/sub-sector analysis, and strengthening data systems.
Pilot Evaluation of Community Managed Schools in Nepal
Nazmul Chaudhury, Senior Economist, SASHD
The Government of Nepal has embarked on a radical policy reform to devolve school management responsibilities, all the way down to the community level. Decentralization has been a key strategy of the Government of Nepal towards improving the equality, efficiency and quality of public service delivery. The IDA-funded Community School Support Project (CSSP) was initiated to support the Government in this decentralization initiative. The fact that communities self-select into the program, and rationing is not feasible, poses a challenge for causal inference of the impact of the program.
We introduce an exogenous instrument by randomly sending a NGO to induce and assist communities to join the program. In a randomly selected national representative sample of communities which still operate under government management, we conduct a detailed baseline survey (communities, households, children, and schools). Then for a random subset we send the NGO to induce communities to participate in the program. After one year, we do a detailed follow-up survey.
Our objective is to examine the impact of the community take-over on school governance, accountability, equity, and quality of learning. In this presentation we present our pilot results.
Evaluation of Dissemination of Information on School Governance and Quality in India
Priyanka Pandey, Consultant, SASHD
The study evaluates the impact of a community-based information campaign on school performance from a cluster randomized control trial. The campaign consisted of 8-9 public meetings in each of 340 treatment villages across three Indian states to disseminate information to the community about its state mandated roles and responsibilities in school management. No intervention took place in the control villages. At baseline there are no significant differences in school outcomes. The first follow up survey took place 2-4 months after the intervention was completed, on which this paper reports. We find that providing information through a structured campaign to communities had a positive impact in all three states.
However, there are differences in where the impact occurs. In two states there is a significant and positive impact on reading (14-27%) in one of the three grades tested and in the third state there is a significant impact on writing in one grade (15%) and on mathematics in the other grade tested (27%). The intervention is associated with improvement in teacher effort in two states: higher teacher attendance (11%) in one state, higher engagement in teaching (30%) in the second state and no impact in the third state that had high teacher effort at baseline.
Some improvements also occurred in the delivery of certain benefits entitled to students (stipend, uniform and mid day meal) and in process variables such as community participation in each of the three states.
Follow up research needs to examine whether there is a systematic increase in learning when the impact is measured over a longer time period and whether a campaign sustained over a longer time is able to generate greater impact on school outcomes.
Evaluation of Scholarships and Enrollment in Pakistan
Dilip Parajuli, Education Economist, SASHD
Instead of mean-tested Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs, some countries have implemented gender-targeted CCTs to explicitly address intra-household disparities in human capital investments. This study focuses on addressing the direct impact of a female school stipend program in Punjab, Pakistan.
- Did the intervention increase female enrollment in public schools?
To address this question, we draw upon data from the provincial school censuses 2003 and 2005. We estimate the net growth in female enrollments in grade 6-8 in stipend eligible schools.
Impact evaluation analysis, including difference-and-difference (DD), triple differencing (DDD) and regression-discontinuity design (RDD), indicate a modest but statistically significant impact of the intervention. The preferred estimator derived from a combination of DDD and RDD empirical strategies suggests that the average program impact between 2003 and 2005 was an increase of six female students per school in terms of absolute change and an increase of 9 percent in female enrollment in terms of relative change. A triangulation effort is also undertaken using two rounds of a nationally representative household survey before and after the intervention.
Even though the surveys are not representative at the sub-provincial level, the results corroborate evidence of the impact using school census data.
Teacher Incentives in Andhra Pradesh: A Randomized Experiment
Venkatesh Sundararaman, Economist, SASHD
Performance pay for teachers is frequently suggested as a way of improving educational outcomes in schools, but the empirical evidence to date on its effectiveness is limited and mixed.
We present results from a randomized evaluation of a teacher incentive program implemented across a representative sample of government-run rural primary schools in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The program provided bonus payments to teachers based on the average improvement of their students' test scores in independently administered learning assessments (with a mean bonus of 3% of annual pay).
Students in incentive schools performed significantly better than those in control schools by 0.19 and 0.12 standard deviations in math and language tests respectively. They scored significantly higher on "conceptual" as well as "mechanical" components of the tests suggesting that the gains in test scores represented an actual increase in learning outcomes. Incentive schools also performed better on subjects for which there were no incentives.
We find no significant difference in the effectiveness of group versus individual teacher incentives. Incentive schools performed significantly better than other randomly-chosen schools that received additional schooling inputs of a similar value.
Reema Nayar, Lead Education Specialist, SASHD & Dhushyanth Raju, Young Professional, SASHD
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are increasingly been perceived as a more effective and efficient mechanism for attaining key educational goals across the world. In particular, the emerging cross-country evidence suggests that the specific combination of public financing and private provision may be a promising option.
In Pakistan, several experiments are under development or under early implementation to leverage (via public financing) the large and growing low-cost private educational sector to increase equitable access and improve student achievement more efficiently than through the public schooling system.
This presentation provides
1. an overview of the educational context within which these models have been created; 2. the nature of the World Bank’s support for PPP experimentation in Pakistan; 3. the key objectives, design, and implementation features of these models; and 4. finally, the impact evaluation frameworks that have been proposed to examine the causal effects of these models on school participation and achievement, among other outcomes.
- South Asia Education The challenge for South Asia is to accelerate reforms and investments into education to bring more and better educational opportunity to its population and thereby alleviate poverty, reduce inequality and fuel economic growth. (Read More »)
- South Asia: Development Data A wide range of social and economic measures on South Asia, including links to the World Bank's most important online development databases. (Read More »)
- South Asia: Analysis and Research Compilation of all the World Bank's publications on South Asia, with 'search' options and links to analysis and research on other South Asian countries. (Read More »)
- World Bank Program in South Asia Launching pad to all information on World Bank activities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.(Read More »)
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