Impact Evaluation and Policy Research

[Impact Evaluation] This paper evaluates a primary school scholarship program in Cambodia with two different targeting mechanisms, one based on poverty level and the other on baseline test scores ("merit"). Both targeting mechanisms increased enrollment and attendance. However, only the merit-based targeting induced positive effects on test scores. The paper shows that the asymmetry of response is unlikely to have been driven by differences between recipients' characteristics.

[Impact Evaluation] Scaling up early childhood development services has the potential to increase children's cognitive and socio-emotional development and promote school readiness in a large segment of the population. This study used a randomized controlled trial approach to evaluate three scaled-up programs designed to widen access to early childhood development services: formal preschools, community preschools, and home-based services. The impacts of all three programs fell short of expectations because of two key flaws in how they were scaled up.

Zambia?s economy has experienced steady growth over the past years, and the Ministry of Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education (MESVTEE) continues to maintain the highest share of government expenditure. As government education expenditure grew, student enrollment and some education inputs improved in general education. More schools now have a library, science laboratory, electricity, and latrines than in 2006, when the last Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS), Quantitative Service Delivery Survey (QSDS) was conducted.

Zambia has seen remarkable improvement in almost all economic sectors as a result of sustained favorable economic policy in the past decade or so. The education sector is one of the sectors that has benefited from the economic boom.

The productive potential of adolescent girls in Uganda is critically limited by the reciprocal relationship between low health, education and employment indicators. With little incentive to attain relevant skills training, girls choose to have children early and become engaged in risky behavior, further hampering their ability to generate income. To address these challenges, we evaluated the impact of a BRAC program that simultaneously provided livelihoods training to run small-scale enterprises, and education on health and risky behaviors.

The Service Delivery Indicators (SDI) initiative provides a set of metrics for benchmarking service delivery performance in education and health in Africa. These metrics fall into the following three categories, or indicators: (i) the availability of key infrastructure and inputs, (ii) the effort exerted by providers, and (iii) the knowledge of providers. Uganda is the second country where a full-fledged SDI has been implemented, following Kenya and a piloted program in Tanzania and Senegal.

[Impact Evaluation, SIEF] Timeline: September 2012 to July 2015. Evaluation: In Uganda, enrollment in primary and secondary schools is increasing rapidly without corresponding increases in the number of teachers. Researchers will study the impact of class size on teaching quality and learning through pilot programs that reduce the number of students in classes by running separate and shorter teaching shifts and give performance-based incentives, teaching tips and feedback to teachers.

[Impact Evaluation, SIEF] Timeline: July 2014- June 2017. Evaluation: In 2007, Uganda became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to implement a universal secondary education program, and since then, enrollment has jumped by 400 percent. To accommodate the surge in student numbers, the Government began building public-private partnerships and providing financing to private schools. Despite the increasing importance of private schools, however, little analysis has been done on the quality of education they deliver.

Measures of child marriage are high in Uganda. The share of women ages 18-22 who married as children is 36.5 percent, but it has declined over time. The share of girls marrying very early, before the age of 15, has also declined. Child marriage is associated with lower wealth, lower education levels, and higher labor force participation. These are however only correlations, not necessarily causal effects. This brief has provided a basic profile of child marriage in Uganda. Measures of child marriage are high.

[Impact Evaluation, SIEF] Timeline: September 2012 to July 2015. Evaluation: In Tanzania, student learning has been hampered by high rates of teacher absenteeism. The Government of Tanzania seeks to address these problems through non-financial performance-based incentives for teachers and improved information to community members and families on student and school performance. Researchers will evaluate the effectiveness of these approaches.