This paper presents evidence of the impact of a five-year package of interconnected interventions intended to improve learning environments in eight disadvantaged districts in Malawi. The intervention, which was implemented over five years, provided additional finance to schools to support the hiring of additional teachers and construction of learning shelters to improve class sizes in lower primary, along with constructing classrooms and providing results-based finance to reward improvements in staffing. The interventions were targeted to eight districts with longstanding disadvantages in staffing, learning environments, and learning outcomes, particularly for girls. Employing administrative data and data from a nationally representative independent sample of public primary schools, the analysis finds that these investments closed the gap in learning outcomes between the targeted districts and the rest of Malawi. There is also suggestive evidence that the program reduced learning gaps between girls and boys. The findings suggest that even in a low-income environment with significant constraints, targeted efforts to reduce class sizes can close district-level gaps in learning.
Authors
- Citation
- “ Asim, Salman ; Gera, Ravinder Casley . 2024 . Are Short-Term Gains in Learning Outcomes Possible? Evidence from the Malawi Education Sector Improvement Project . Policy Research Working Paper; 10845 . © Washington, DC: World Bank . http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41884 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO . ”
- Collection(s)
- Policy Research Working Papers
- DOI
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-10845
- Identifier externaldocumentum
- 34362921
- Identifier internaldocumentum
- 34362921
- Pages
- 36
- Published in
- United States of America
- Region country
- Malawi
- RelationisPartofseries
- Policy Research Working Paper; 10845
- Report
- WPS10845
- Rights
- CC BY 3.0 IGO
- Rights Holder
- World Bank
- Rights URI
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/
- UNIT
- Education AFR 1 (HAEE1)
- URI
- https://hdl.handle.net/10986/41884
- date disclosure
- 2024-07-17
- region administrative
- Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE)
- theme
- Disaster Risk Management,Disaster Response and Recovery,Disability,Gender,Human Development and Gender,Education Facilities,Social Protection,Social Development and Protection,Access to Education,Education Financing,Urban and Rural Development,Teachers,Education Governance, School-Based Management,Education
Files
Table of Contents
- Introduction 4
- Design 7
- Research Questions and General Hypotheses 7
- Context 7
- Intervention 11
- Theory of Change 13
- Identification Strategy 14
- Outcomes of interest 14
- Data 16
- Sample 17
- District sample 17
- School Sample 17
- Student Sample 18
- Attrition 18
- Summary statistics 18
- Results 18
- Implementation of MESIP 18
- Difference-in-difference analysis: Intermediate outcomes 19
- Difference-in-difference analysis: Outcomes 20
- Repetition 20
- Test scores 21
- Gender 21
- Conclusions 21
- References 23
- Tables 25
- Appendices 35
- A. Malawi Longitudinal School Survey 35
- Instruments 35
- Sampling 36
- B. Supplementary Data 36
