Latest estimates by UNESCO show that, in 2022, only 46%-28% of students complete lower and upper secondary in the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region. One of the reasons behind low completion rates is the poor transition across secondary school due to the significant impact of factors at the individual, household and community levels shaping demand and supply constraints. In this paper, by using two transition rates for 29 SSA countries (i.e., from lower to upper secondary, and a newly defined indicator: transition from upper secondary to higher education) for 54,367 (21,367) individuals from 11,997 (8,029) communities, we employ a three-level multilevel logit to investigate the key determinants for transitions and their variability across countries and communities, and whether less wealth inequality is at odds with increasing countries and communities performances. We find that variation on transition rates is 40%-50% larger in communities within countries than in countries themselves and heterogeneity is larger for upper secondary transition. Leading sources of inequality are wealth, gender and the community prevalence of early marriage. We also find that the trade-off equity and performance does not hold across countries, but it does at the community level where communities with stronger rates of transitions are more unequal. Our analysis suggests policies to improve SSA youth chances to move-up to the next level at secondary, starting for narrowing heterogeneity across communities, boosting chances for the poorest groups and female youth living in communities with weak social norms, and measures to diminish community wealth impacts on their transition performance.

The efficiency of schools can be defined and measured as the ratio between the outputs produced (for example, achievement and competences) and the inputs utilized (human and technical resources). Technology holds the promise of increasing the efficiency of schools’ operations, although empirical evidence on this actual ability is still scarce. This paper explores whether the ICT availability and use in 2,757 schools from 10 Latin American countries is associated with higher efficiency, using OECD PISA 2018 as source of data. A method based on a double-bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is employed. The results highlight that the availability of ICT is positively correlated with higher school efficiency. This evidence is relevant for policy implications in setting the post-COVID priorities for educational systems in the region.

Combinando distintas bases de datos, dos a nivel del estudiante (matricula y abandono) y dos a nivel de las escuelas (a nivel secundario y escuelas primarias de procedencia) para la provincia de Mendoza, el presente informe ofrece un diagnóstico del abandono a nivel secundario durante el año lectivo 2019. El diagnóstico está basado, por un lado, en un análisis descriptivo de la tasa de abandono y sus precursores por género, curso y tipo/ubicación de las escuelas, como así también el rendimiento en las escuelas primarias de procedencia y, por el otro lado, en un análisis empírico a nivel del estudiante donde incluimos características de los estudiantes y de sus escuelas además de los precursores mediante regresiones Logit multinivel que controlan por efectos no observados a nivel de las escuelas. Los resultados de estos análisis permiten conocer de forma detallada como se configura el abandono y, de este modo, identificar elementos para un sistema de alerta temprana que pueda contrapesar las chances de abandono de estudiantes con desventajas contextuales. El análisis registra varios desafíos del sistema educativo secundario de Mendoza, en donde sobresalen: una alta tasa de sobreedad y una gran dispersión por tipo de establecimientos educativos en precursores; un diferencial por género en contra de los varones en el abandono concentrado en los últimos cursos del secundario; un importante impacto del bajo rendimiento a nivel secundario en la deserción y también el bajo rendimiento primario con una gran disparidad entre los departamentos provinciales, afectando principalmente estudiantes de escuelas púbicas urbanas que se ubican en zonas de mayor marginalidad

Basándonos en datos del Relevamiento Anual y la base de datos Aprender para la provincia de Entre Ríos (ER), el presente informe ofrece un diagnóstico del abandono a nivel secundario en la provincia. En particular, presentamos un análisis descriptivo de las tasas de abandono escolar por género, grado y tipo de escuela y, en segundo término, un análisis empírico a nivel de la escuela donde incluimos determinantes agregados de los estudiantes y sus familias y características de los establecimientos educativos por medio de regresiones (OLS y Logit). Los resultados de estos análisis son esenciales para conocer de manera detallada como se configura el abandono y, de este modo, sentar las bases para un sistema de alerta temprana que pueda contrarrestar, o al menos aminorar, las chances de abandono de estudiantes en condiciones de desventajas contextuales. El análisis apunta a varios desafíos del sistema educativo secundario de ER, en donde sobresalen: altas tasas de abandono en los primeros años del ciclo secundario, y tasas relativamente superiores para varones, y en zonas urbanas en escuelas estatales, con un gran impacto de la repitencia al comienzo del secundario y la sobreedad traccionando el abandono; así como una gran contribución en las chances de deserción escolar a través de la pobreza familiar (bajo nivel socioeducativo) y la baja infraestructura escolar los cuales afectan de manera preponderante a la probabilidad de abandono promedio en una escuela

This paper provides new evidence on the association between mothers empowerment and educational gender gaps in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), for a range of empowerment indicators related to women’s mobility, violence, early marriage, and power in household expenditures based on data from 34 SSA countries. Also, I investigate the role of community lack of empowerment on educational transfers. Estimates indicate that gender inequality is still a significant barrier in SSA compounded by weak mother’s empowerment for educational access for girls in comparison to boys, with low empowerment at the community having detrimental effects on intergenerational education transfer from mothers to daughters. The analysis underlines the need to tackle different barriers behind weak women agency to boost gender inequality within SDG4.

A robust assessment of the gender educational gap addressing all channels behind gender discrimination is necessary. Using data for over 30 sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries and household and twin fixed-effects approaches, I estimate this inequality across the lifecourse, controlling for variables that are the same within households or twins, yielding a better understanding of the association of gender with education outcomes. Estimates show that gender inequality is still a significant barrier in SSA, but its extent is somewhat over-estimated by monitoring platforms of SGD4. The analysis indicates that more emphasis should be placed on investigating unobserved factors behind gender discrimination.

Despite the renewed emphasis in equity for SDG4, Indigenous learning gaps persist. Indigenous barriers for learning are intersectional –a combination of multi-layered and heterogeneous causes. In this paper, we use data from PISA for Development to estimate the Indigenous learning gap in Guatemala, Paraguay and Senegal for out and in school samples. We employ machine learning which allows to employ numerous controls and their interactions, accounting for intersectionality. We find that negative learning gaps remain for both samples (with some differences by level by of performance) even after controlling for around 66-217 covariates, showing the extent of Indigenous-driven inequality and discrimination.

This is the final report of a multi-phased, eighteen-month-long research project assessing how educational interventions in Jordan have enabled access to quality education for Syrian and Jordanian students. The final report examines social cohesion in Ministry of Education (MoE) formal schools1 and non-formal settings in Jordan.

Overview: This report is concerned with Ministry of Education (MoE) run public schools. Drawing on quantitative evidence from the EMIS (2016/2017) and EGRA/EGMA (2017/2018) the report highlights findings across test performance and student resources in their home and school environments.

In many low- and lower-middle-income countries, key barriers to girls’ secondary school access and learning include poverty, school inaccessibility, poor school quality and lack of gender-sensitive practices in the classroom. The non-governmental organisation, Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), provides a range of financial, pedagogical, and community-supported interventions aimed at removing these barriers in government secondary schools in Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Using longitudinal data, we adopt quasi-experimental methods to examine the impact of the CAMFED programme on reducing secondary school dropout and improving test scores in English and mathematics. Results suggest that the CAMFED programme has a significant effect on both improving access and learning for the most disadvantaged adolescent girls. However, low-performing learners remain particularly at risk of dropout, necessitating further consideration and support for these girls

This study provides new evidence on bottlenecks of progression across six zones of exclusion from primary to secondary education for out-of-school youth of five poorer countries (Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Senegal) using the recent out-of-school assessment from PISA-D. We also investigate whether these barriers have gendered dimensions and which policies can boost progression. We find that barriers have differential impacts across exclusion zones, with low parental education and involvement in education and local language being leading determinants, and some of these barriers having a larger impact for girls. We also find that policies linking financial support to attendance, raising teaching quality and tackling discrimination push up youth cohorts to top zones of exclusion, thereby allowing them to gain more education.

This report consists of a large data exercise based upon a household survey, yielding education indicators for an array of countries, at both national and sub-national levels. Specifically, the expected total intake into primary school at different ages, as well as repetition and dropout rates and survival rates for each grade are calculated, allowing the reconstruction of the expected path of children entering the education system. Because schooling profiles may vary significantly by children's background, disaggregated calculations are also obtained for dimensions within a country (e.g., gender, wealth, regions, ethnicity), as well as overlapping dimensions (e.g., wealth and gender). The reconstructed cohort model is adopted for this exercise. Furthermore, a preliminary analysis of the main drivers of expected cohort completion rates is included.

Even though Indigenous exclusion in education is well understood, there is a lack of comparable evidence across-regions on the extent of the learning gap and challenges faced by Indigenous students and, in turn, which policies may mitigate them. In this paper, I use the new PISA-D learning survey for seventh grade students and I first estimate the learning gap of Indigenous students in Guatemala, Paraguay, Senegal, and Zambia through quantile treatment effects and, then, I assess whether earlier literacy exposure in the mother-tongue language can help towards lessening achievement gaps for Indigenous students. After accounting for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students background differences, I found that the unexplained learning gap can be substantially reduced and turn out to be insignificant if Indigenous students had previous exposure to home language at primary school, especially for low achievers. Thus, school policies providing learning skills in the home language could be an important leveller when transition to the main language at later education stages, boosting equity in line with equity targets of the sustainable development agenda.

Using the recent PISA for Development (2017) learning survey, we offer new evidence on whether there is a private-public schools efficiency gap in Latin America and the role of distinct barriers and inequality on efficiency. We obtain school efficiency scores using Data Envelopment Analysis from 705 schools in four countries –Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Paraguay. We find that the private schools efficiency is 0.88 whereas it is lower for public schools (at 0.82). Thus, there is a positive efficiency gap for private schools, with the lower efficiency in public schools may be explained by the additional obstacles they face (such as higher prevalence of student work). However, there is a greater scope in public schools of boosting efficiency by decreasing inequality and the provision of remedial classes. Whole sample results seems to be driven by two countries: Ecuador and Paraguay.

Cost-effectiveness studies rarely pay explicit attention to whether resources are used effectively to benefit the most marginalised. By linking a quasi-experimental design with detailed financial information, we analyse the cost-effectiveness of the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED)’s programme in Tanzania. The programme provides targeted, multi-dimensional support to marginalised girls in government secondary schools in deprived rural areas. We find the cost-effectiveness of CAMFED’s programme to be similar to interventions designed for more advantaged populations who are easier (and less costly) to reach. There is further evidence of positive spill-over effects to boys in the schools supported by CAMFED.

This study provides new evidence on school efficiency for low and middle income countries. We use data from PISA for Development (2017) for seven countries to obtain estimates on school efficiency using data envelopment analysis, both for cognitive and non-cognitive outputs, and their determinants. We find that there is a scope to increase efficiency by 20–22% via boosting both types of educational outputs and by reducing within-country disparity on schools’ efficiency scores by weakening the impact of students’ disadvantages. Our results suggest that schools cognitive inequality can be reduced alongside inefficiency. Cross-country results suggest similar drivers of efficiency across countries, at least for students’ school determinants, though we find more nuanced results on teachers and policies determinants for efficiency.

There is limited comparable and robust research on the effect of children's work on learning for developing countries. We use matching techniques relying on rich information from the Third Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study (TERCE) for 15 Latin American countries and a bounding approach to account for unobservables. We find that work leads to 9 (math) and 13 (reading) points less in achievement for sixth grade students, with a significant variation within the learning distribution and between countries. Policies should prioritise low achievers, those in paid employment living in large urban areas, and factors driving work allocations within families.

This report is based on the EGRA dataset (grade 2 and 3) of the MoE provided by the QRF to assess the education situation of Syrian refugees in Jordan primary schools. The analysis identify gaps and challenges relevant to refugees’ education in Jordan and importantly it looks at the effect of the intervention put in place by Jordan government to narrow learning gaps across refugees and non-refugees students. This report also aims to help guide and contextualise qualitative research on social cohesion as it related to refugee education in Jordan but, at the same time, it is a standalone piece of research based on this data. Our analysis shows that Syrian students are faced with a wide range of family and school barriers which hampers their achievement. We found mixed evidence, both in terms of a refugee learning gap which varies by subject (holding for language), and the effectiveness of the intervention. Yet the intervention helps to narrow an important driver of inequality given by ability – being more helpful for low achievers on less demanding task related to the learning assessment. Social cohesion (proxy) as expected differs by contextual disadvantage and it helps to boost refugees’ learning levels.

Though mechanisms of Indigenous’ exclusion in education due resources is well understood, there is a lack of evidence on role of educational expectations as an additional barrier for Indigenous children learning. In this paper, I use a recent Latin American learning survey (TERCE) for sixth grade students covering 12 countries to assess whether Indigenous families have lower educational expectations than non-Indigenous families and whether lower Indigenous parental schooling expectations are also linked to lower learning of their children. I found the that the context (the external channel) matters on the formation and transition of educational expectations for Indigenous children learning.

This note provides an overview of the methodological approach being taken to analyse costeffectiveness of Camfed’s programme in Tanzania and Zimbabwe.i It highlights the association between Value for Money and cost-effectiveness, and pays particular attention to the importance of measuring cost-effectiveness from an equity perspective. It further identifies the implications of calculating cost-effectiveness with consideration of sustainability, scalability and replicability of Camfed’s programme.

We use measures of competitive pressure, administrative autonomy and staffing practices to explain the private-public performance difference in Australia, Portugal and Spain using the TALIS-PISA dataset. We employ OLS regression and counterfactual decomposition analysis on matched sub-samples. These school factors do not explain the overall private-public performance gap in the three countries except at the higher-end of the distribution. In other words, these factors appear to benefit only the high-performers in private schools in Australia and Spain. The results point to the potential limits of adopting private school practices for improving learning across the performance distribution especially for low-performing students.

Background.
Age of marriage is a barrier to mother’s health care around pregnancy and children health outcomes. Objective. We provide evidence on the health benefits of postponing early marriage among young wives (from age 10-14 to age 15-17) on women’s health care and children’s health for Saharan Africa (SSA) and South West Asia (SWA).

Methods.
We use data for 39 countries (Demographic and Health Surveys) to estimate the effects of postponing early marriage for women’s health care and children’s health outcomes and immunisation using matching techniques. We also assess if women's health empowerment and health constraints are additional barriers.

Findings.
We found that in SSA, delaying the age of marriage from age 10-14 to age 15-17 and from age 15-17 to age 18 or above leads to an increase of maternal neotetanus vaccinations of 2.4% and 3.2% respectively, while gains on the likelihood of postnatal checks is larger for delaying marriage among the youngest wives (age 10- 14). In SWA, the number of antenatal visits increases by 34%, while the likelihood of having a skilled birth attendant goes up to 4.1% if young wives postpone marriage. In SSA, the probability of children receiving basic vaccinations is twice as large and their neonatal mortality reduction is nearly double if their mothers had married between age 15-17 instead of at age 10-14. The extent of these benefits is also shaped by supply constraints and cultural factors. For instance, we found that weak bargaining power on health decisions for young wives leads to 11% (SWA) fewer antenatal visits and 13% less chances (SSA) of attending postnatal checks.

Conclusion.
Delaying age of marriage among young wives can lead to considerable gains in health care utilisation and children health in SSA and SWA if supported by policies that lessen supply constraints and raise women's health empowerment.

This chapter provides a short overview on the history of global Education For All (EFA) efforts, progress in achieving the six EFA goals, and international aid for EFA policies. It shows that, despite modest movement in achieving the EFA goals, some of it due to explicit policies and actions undertaken by governments, international agencies, donors and non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) since Dakar, the progress has been uneven. Much of the broad EFA agenda remains unfinished, as none of the goals was reached. The global EFA mechanisms that did work often did so despite, rather than because of, international attempts to coordinate EFA. Much hope had been placed on external financing to accelerate EFA progress. While aid did increase, the overall volume of external assistance fell well short of the assessed need, was insufficiently targeted to countries most in need, declined as a share of recipient governments’ budgets over the period, and was not always delivered effectively.

This article provides a brief overview of global progress towards the six EFA objectives and international assistance to EFA strategies. It shows that, despite modest moves toward EFA achievement – some of them through explicit policies and actions by governments, international organizations, donors, and NGOs – progress since Dakar has been uneven. Much of the broad EFA agenda remains unfinished, as none of the objectives have been achieved. The global EFA mechanisms worked despite, not because of international EFA coordination efforts. Much hope had been placed on the external financing of EFA in order to accelerate EFA progress. While aid has increased, the total volume of external aid has
fallen well below what has been identified as necessary, has been insufficiently focused in the most needy countries, has decreased as a proportion of recipient governments' budgets for the period and has not always been delivered effectively.

This paper examines the evolution of the impact of the within and between school wealth inequalities on learning for six Latin American countries since Dakar by using PISA data for 2000 and 2012. We employ a multilevel analysis to assess the variability of achievement accounted for student and school factors and the heterogeneity of between school inequalities across schools and time. We also estimate changes on the level and strength of school wealth gradients for poor schools. We find that of the total variation, around 40% was attributable to school wealth composition and a further 10% to additional individual and school factors. Between school wealth inequality is the strongest determinant on achievement in both waves. Among poorest schools, we find some progress on the level and lower strength of school wealth inequality for reading. Results for the whole region show a convergence on the levels of gradients and countries’ average performance, with a noticeable trade-off between larger performance and more inequality for math but not for reading. On the policy front, our results suggest that education policies increasing access alone are insufficient to achieve EFA’s learning goal and should be accompanied by measures tackling wealth inequalities among poorer schools.

Education is essential to economic growth, poverty reduction, gender equality, public health, conflict resolution and the transformation to sustainable production and consumption. Ensuring equality in education can further accelerate the achievement of these and other Sustainable Development Goals. This article discusses how to monitor progress toward reducing inequality in education, which indicators can be used and what the challenges are for communicating these results.

We examine the impact of bullying on learning and non-cognitive outcomes for sixth grade students in 15 Latin America countries using data from the Third Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study (TERCE) learning survey. We apply OLS and propensity score matching to attenuate the impact of confounding factors. Matching results show that students being bullied achieve between 9.6 and 18.4 points less in math than their non-bullied peers whilst in reading between 5.8 and 19.4 lower scores, a 0.07-0.22 reduction in the standard deviation of test scores. Thus, substantial learning gains could be accomplished by anti-bullying policies in the region.

This paper analyses the evolution of the effects on educational inequality of early marriage by looking at the impact of whether women had married young on their children's schooling outcomes for 25-32 countries (Demographic and Health Surveys) in 2000 and 2010 for Sub Saharan Africa. We also explore indirect pathways −mother's education, health and empowerment as well as community channels− operating from early marriage to child schooling and assess the presence of negative externalities for non early married mothers and their children on education transmission in communities with large rates of child marriage. In our econometric analysis we employ OLS, matching, instrumental variables and pseudo-panel for a better understanding of changes over time. Our results show that early marriage is still a significant source of inequality, though its impact has decreased across time: girls born to early married mothers are between 6%-11% more likely to never been to school and 1.6%-1.7% to enter late, and 3.3%-5.1% less likely to complete primary school, whereas boys are between 5.2%-8.8% more likely to never been to school and 1%-1.9% to enter late, and 2.3%-5.5% less likely to complete primary school. Second, child marriage increases gender inequality within household’s with girls losing an additional 0.07 years of schooling as compared to boys if born to early married mothers. Third, our estimates show that mother's education and health mediate some of the effect of early marriage and that the large prevalence of child marriage in a community also impairs educational transmission for non-early married mothers. Fourth, empowering of young wives can weaken other channels of transmission of education inequalities. Overall, our findings highlight the need to target these children with the appropriate interventions and support to achieve the greater focus on equity in the global post-2015 education agenda.

This paper examines the effect of age of marriage on women's schooling outcomes for 36 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa and South West Asia. We employ an instrumental variable approach to account for the endogeneity of early marriage driven by socio-economic and cultural factors. Our results show that delaying early marriage by one year is associated with an increase of half a year of education in Sub-Saharan Africa and nearly one third of a year of education in South West Asia as well as a lower likelihood of dropping out from secondary school of 5.5% in South West Asia.

This paper investigates how preschool attendance is shaped by individual and community factors for 71,806 children from 14,303 communities in 21 low-to middle-income countries using a multilevel analysis. We assess how these mechanisms vary by community and country wealth and the extent to which the variation of preschool uptake can be explained by the characteristics of children living in these communities. We find that of the total variation, 36% was attributable to communities and 12% to countries, with childrens demographic and socioeconomics characteristics explaining 23% of the between community variation. Community wealth and health are crucial determinants; in poor communities with high stunting rates, the chances of preschool attendance are at least halved. Our results suggest that the effect of community on preschool attendance is stronger in poorer countries with greater inequality between communities.