Biggest issues with education in developing countries are lack of demand for school, and
bad quality of education with teachers missing work and not teaching
Some children in developing countries have no motivation to attend school. Thus they
skip school
o Is there demand for education? Even if its free?
Problem with education in developing countries
o School in most developing countries is free
o High child absentee rate of between 14% and 50%
Not entirely driven by sickness or needs at home
o Does this reflect failure of a top-down approach in education?
Yes in part, building schools and training teachers can be pointless if
there is no demand for education
But: demand for educated workers is high and this does not necessarily
translate to demand for education
o Supply-side vs demand-side issues
Majority of policy makers believe the problem lies in the supply of
schooling
SDG: Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education
National governments emphasize supply of education
o LOOK AT STATS IN THE SLIDE
Issues with the supply focus of school
Enrollment does not equal learning
Policy assumption: learnings follows enrollment. But this is
incorrect because learning does not follow education
But there are problems with absenteeism and quality of
education:
o World Bank survey of 6 development countries
Teachers miss 1 out of 5 days of work
Techers when they are in school, they are not
teaching
o India’s state of education report
35% of children in 7-14 age group cannot read a
simple paragraph and 60% cannot read a simple
story
Maybe the problem is driven by lack of demand for education. How?
High absenteeism and low quality of education may be driven by
parents not caring
o They may believe that the ROI of education isn’t high
enough
The outcome of the ROI (Higher wages) should be “marketed” or
communicating the value of education can help increase demand
for education
If education is another form of investment, what problems can occur?
Benefits are in the future and for the children (not the parents)
LOOK AT SLIDE
An investment in education has large number of uncertainty
Some governments have made school attendance mandatory for kids
Some governments have introduced incentives for the parents
Conditional cash transfers: giving parents money when child
attends school
Even tho the demand for school is important, supply is also important
Especially when parents can’t pay for the schools, and increase in
free schools can have a major positive impact
Man-made poverty
o Man made poverty trap consists of the actual vs perceived value of education
o The actual returns are constant (LOOOK AT PERSEIVED VS ACTUAL GRAPH)
o Some parents think that the value of primary education is low so they may just
send 1 child