The impact of education programmes on learning and school participation in low- and middle-income countries

Abstract

About 3ieThe International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) is an international grant-making NGO promoting evidence-informed development policies and programmes. We are the global leader in funding, producing and synthesising high-quality evidence of what works, for whom, why and at what cost. We believe that high-quality, policy-relevant evidence will help make development more effective and improve people's lives. 3ie in-house systematic reviews 3ie in-house systematic reviews appraise and synthesise the available high-quality evidence on the effectiveness of social and economic development interventions in low-and middle-income countries. 3ie's specialists follow scientifically recognised methods in conducting these reviews. They are quality assured according to internationally accepted standards. They are peer reviewed by members of an expert advisory group and three anonymous external reviewers. 3ie is providing leadership in demonstrating rigorous and innovative review methodologies, such as using theory-based approaches suited to informing policy and programming in the dynamic and challenging contexts of low-and middle-income countries.About this systematic review summary report 3ie systematic review summary reports distil key analyses and present the findings and recommendations of a full systematic review for policymakers and programme managers. The impact of education programmes on learning and school participation in low-and middle-income countries is based on a full review, Interventions for improving learning outcomes and access to education in low-and middle-income countries: a systematic review, which is available on the 3ie website. The summary report was peer-reviewed internally and by members of the expert advisory group convened for the full review.

What have we learned after ten years of systematic reviews in international development?

“…3ie publishes a series of Systematic Review Summary reports, which present review evidence structured around the theory of change, and focus more clearly on how the interventions themselves work and the reasons underlying heterogeneity in findings. Examples of these summaries are in Table 1 (De Buck et al 2017;Kristjansson et al 2016;Oya et al 2017;Snilstveit et al 2016;Stewart et al, 2016; 3. Keeping reviews up to date Systematic reviews need to be kept up to date.…”

Free Primary Education, Schooling, and Fertility: Evidence from Ethiopia

“…This strategy allows for the identification of national level reforms by exploiting variation in pre-existing levels of education. This can be a powerful tool for examining the return to free primary education in any number of countries, an area of research highlighted by 3ie (Snilstveit et al, 2016) as an area in which more study is needed. Furthermore, this paper shows strong evidence of a positive return to schooling, even in the presence of large increases in pupil-teacher ratios.…”

“…First, the paper presents an application of an identification strategy that can be applied to a number of settings to study national level reforms with a minimal amount of variables needed for identification. Measuring the impact of national level removal of user fees was one of the key categories found to need further study in the 3ie systematic review of education policy (Snilstveit et al, 2016). Second, the paper finds strong evidence of a negative relationship between schooling and fertility, and presents evidence of the pathways through which this relationship exists.…”

“…Work by Pritchett (2001) has called into question the efficacy of increases in schooling in developing parts of the world; the potential reduction in quality generated by these "big-bang" education reforms is a prime example of an environment in which a deterioration of the quality of schooling could fail to increase learning and improve the lives of the newly enrolled students. However, evidence of the returns to reductions in these user fees is lacking, as highlighted by the recent systematic education review from the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie - Snilstveit et al, 2016). This paper evaluates the returns to a nationwide free primary education program in Ethiopia by examining the relationship between the additional schooling, generated by the removal of fees in grades one through ten, and women's fertility decision, as well as the potential mechanisms driving this relationship.…”

Scaling up successfully: Lessons from Kenya’s Tusome national literacy program

“…Their "right drivers" included capacity building, pedagogy, and systemic policies (Fullan and Quinn 2016). Attention to pedagogy as the driver of improved learning outcomes (whether at the micro or system level) was reiterated by the findings of the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation's (3ie's) summary review of the impact of education programs, which showed that the largest and most consistent positive effects on learning resulted from programs that used structured approaches to improving pedagogy (Snilstveit et al 2016). The experience in Gauteng Province in South Africa mentioned above also demonstrated the importance of structured approaches to pedagogy, with additional emphasis placed on the institutional infrastructure needed to support those approaches .…”