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This briefing sheet highlights a number of notable conclusions from eight recent World Bank working papers in education (2001-2004) that are of direct relevance to discussions and planning related to potential uses of ICTs to benefit Education for All and the education-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

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1. Michael Kremer, and Christel Vermeersch (February 11, 2005 ). School Meals, Educational Achievement, and School Competition: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation. World Bank Working Paper No. 3523.

Overview:

• This study examines the effects of subsidized school meals on school participation,
  educational achievement, and school finance in a developing country setting.

Relevant Conclusions:

• Children’s school participation was 30 percent higher in the treatment group than in the comparison group.
• Participation correlated to higher curriculum test scores, but only in schools where the teacher was relatively experienced prior to the program.
• School meals displaced teaching time and led to larger class sizes.
• Despite improved incentives, teacher absenteeism remained at a high level of 30 percent.

Comments:

• This study calls into question whether monies spent on ICTs to benefit EFA aren’t perhaps more effectively spent on more basic needs, like the provision of free/subsidized school lunches.

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2. Deon Filmer (June 10, 2004). If You Build It, Will They Come? School Availability and School Enrollment
in 21 Poor Countries. World Bank Working Paper No. 3340.

Overview:

• This study examines the link between school availability (the number of schools, and how far they are from the children they are to serve) and student enrollment.

Relevant Conclusions:

• Simulating big reductions in distance yields only small increases in average school participation, and only small reductions in within-country inequality.
• Other interventions, such as those geared toward increasing the demand for schooling or increasing the quality of schooling should be prioritized.

Comments:

• Many Ministries of Education find the most immediately useful application of ICTs to help them meet Education For All goals is related to the use of GIS (geographic information systems) tools, especially where GIS can help direct the building of schools in the areas currently the most underserved by access to primary and countries is not in doubt, this paper calls into question whether investments in
  school construction (and the related planning tools, like GIS, that go along with such activities) should be not be given a lower priority than other types of investments, especially on the demand side, that may more directly benefit Education For All.

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3. Derek H. C. Chen (April 21, 2004). Gender Equality and Economic Development: The Role for Information and Communication Technologies. World Bank Working Paper No. 3285.

Overview:

• This study examines the relationship between ICT available/use and gender issues as they related to economic development.

Conclusions:

• Increases in the level of ICT infrastructure tend to improve gender equality in education and employment.
• Gender equality in education is an important contributor to gender equality in employment.

Comments:

• This study lends credence to the view that exposure to girls in formal school settings enhances women’s subsequent employment possibilities, a key component of the Millennium Development Goal related to girl’s education and gender equity.

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4. Mark Gradstein, and Denis Nikitin (March 17, 2004). Educational Expansion: Evidence and Interpretation. World Bank Working Paper No. 3245.

Overview:

• This study examines the great expansion of schooling over the past several decades.

Conclusions:

• Trends can be attributed to the inter-temporal expansion of the world technological frontier, which enhances the demand for schooling.
• Educational expansion has occurred because of the increase in demand, especially in open economies, and not because of cost-reducing improvements in the education sector.

Comments:

• ICTs can be used to help meet many goals in an education system. At least initially, ICTs are often seen as tools to help increase efficiencies. This study suggest that perhaps more thought should be given to the potential roles and usefulness of ICTs to help meet other EFA-related goals, namely stimulating demand for school.

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5. Ritva Reinikka, and Jakob Svensson (March 12, 2004). The Power of Information: Evidence from a Newspaper Campaign to Reduce Capture. World Bank Working Paper No. 3239.

Overview:

• This study examines an unusual policy experiment to evaluate the effects of increased public access to information via newspapers as a tool to reduce capture and corruption of public funds.

Conclusions:

• Proximity to a newspaper outlet is positively correlated with the head teachers’ knowledge about rules governing the grant program and the timing of releases of funds from the center, but uncorrelated with test scores of general ability.

Comments:

• This study demonstrates how local media – specifically newspapers -- can be used to help reduce corruption in the education sector. Given improving connectivity in many places, can schools, community centers and Internet cafes connected to the Internet be utilized to expand the reach of such media? Because of its broad reach and lower fixed costs, radio appears to offer special promise in this regard.

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6. Chris N. Sakellariou, and Harry Anthony Patrinos (March 20, 2003). Technology, Computers, and Wages: Evidence from a Developing Economy. World Bank Working Paper No. 3008.

Overview:

• This study reviews the literature and uses data from a survey of higher education graduates in Vietnam to examine the relationships between technology use and wages.

Conclusions:

• Computer skills by themselves do not command a wage premium.
  Given the scarcity of computers in low-income countries, an operational strategy of increasing computer availability and skills would seem to offer considerable hope for increasing the incomes of the poor.

Comments:

• Results from this study caution against the simple equivalence of more computer skills = better jobs, which is fundamental to many ICT literacy initiatives in schools. This
  not to say that such efforts are ineffectual, but that efforts to improve workforce participation and quality are more complicated than simply providing more ICTrelated
  skills training.

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7. Nga Nguyet Nguyen (September 23, 2002). Trends in the Education Sector from 1993–98. World Bank Working Paper No. 2891.

Overview:

• This study analyzes changes in enrollment and education finance in Vietnam from
  1993–98.

Conclusions:

• Although school fees were no longer compulsory at the primary level, households paid for many other school-related items, such as books, uniforms, private tutors,
  lunch, and transportation. These costs are a significant financial burden on the poor.

Comments:

• Eliminating school fees – one of the major recommended steps to help achieve Education For All – does not eliminate the financial impediments to school attendance. Poor people still face significant financial burdens event without having to pay school fees, and the imposition of a user fee to support the purchase and maintenance of ICT equipment (a cost recovery mechanism in place in many schools that have ICTs) may well increase such burdens.

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8. Ayesha Yaqub Vawda, Harry Anthony Patrinos, J. Price Gittinger, and Peter Moock (February 26, 2001). Economic Analysis of World Bank Education Projects and Project Outcomes. World Bank Working Paper No.: 2564.

Overview:

• This study examines lessons learned from a review of the World Bank education portfolio.

Conclusions:

• Outcomes on World Bank education projects are better when the quality of project appraisal is good.

Comments:

• This conclusion seems like common sense (and indeed it is.) However, evidence suggests that projects with ICT components are even more difficult to plan and appraise than those that do not utilize ICTs, and thus projects with ICT components may be more at risk of failure.