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

Abstract

It includes studies assessing the impact of 216 programmes implemented across 52 low- and middle-income countries. And it moves beyond examining whether a programme works or doesn’t work. By examining the multiple factors that influence the effectiveness of education programmes and by getting into the black box of programme operations, it offers many valuable lessons for all those who are working in the education sector across the world. Having access to evidence on how education policies can be made to work better is critical evidence for a host of government actors. The Ministry of Education in Peru strongly believes in using evidence for informing its policies. A range of different programmes address barriers and constraints to school participation and learning faced by children and households. These programmes typically aim to address the constraints that children face due to poor health and malnutrition, by providing material incentives for schooling for children and/or parents or by reducing the cost of schooling. Some programmes are designed to address multiple barriers to education, such as school-feeding, which aim to both improve nutrition and reduce the cost of schooling. The results, based on evidence from 107 studies, show that programmes that address child and household constraints to children’s education may be particularly effective at improving participation outcomes. Cash transfers are most effective in improving school participation, while merit-based scholarships have been more successful in improving learning outcomes. School-feeding is a promising intervention for improving both school participation and test scores. Despite being widely implemented, the effects of providing information to children and/or parents, reducing user fees and school-based health programmes are not clear because few studies have been conducted.