The paper argues that in many developing countries there is a set of linked symptoms in education systems that cohere into what we call a weak foundations syndrome. Multi-source evidence is presented to illustrate how weak foundations through the early years of schooling lead to low primary school completion. Symptoms of the syndrome include (1)…

For decades, the international education community has focused on schools as the primary vehicle of learning. However, learning assessments in dozens of developing nations show that repeated attempts to affect student learning in schools have largely failed. Because students with perfect attendance in low-resource settings spend less than 25…