Madagascar

This report reviews the tools and mechanisms which could contribute to offsetting the negative effects of the current crisis on primary school outcomes in Madagascar. In a context of rapid deterioration of key education indicators, including enrollment and survival, key education stakeholders are faced with the challenging task of identifying tools and mechanisms that may contribute to rapidly restoring access to education. While a variety of programs have been implemented in the past, limited evidence exists on their potential impact on key factors influencing school outcomes.

The Malagasy population has undergone a severe political and economic crisis since 2009, whose impact on children's enrollment is little documented. The stagnation of primary school enrollment in a context of sustained demographic growth points to a rapid deterioration in the access to basic education services. The objective of this study is thus to evaluate the effects of the current crisis on household education choices, to orient education policy decisions over the short and medium term.

This brief summarizes the information, role models and perceived returns to education experimental evidence from Madagascar. This paper shows that increasing perceived returns to education strengthens incentives for schooling when agents underestimate the actual returns. The author conducted a field experiment in Madagascar to study alternative ways to provide additional information about the returns to education: simply providing statistics versus using a role model, an actual person sharing his and her success story.