Data from sub-Saharan Africa show that many students leave school without the skills they need. To address this issue, it is important to understand what factors influence learning. According to the Heyneman and Loxley effect established in 1983, in low income countries school quality influences how much students learn more than those students'…

Sub-Saharan African countries have realized that the biggest challenge facing their education system was not enrollment deficit as they were led to believe for many decades. Rather, it was the lack of appropriate technology that left them behind and widened the education gap between Western and African countries. In Senegal, much progress has been…

This book highlights the experience of Liberia in both assessing and improving reading in primary schools. As a result of an Early Grade Reading Assessment, the Ministry of Education and partners, including the United States Agency for International Development, came together to identify and develop strategies for improving reading in schools.…

Education is not easily converted into human capital and well-being in low-income countries, because these countries do not have a high degree of economic and labour market differentiation that makes it possible to convert acquired knowledge and skills. Consequently, to have completed primary or even secondary education does not necessarily lead…

It is generally agreed that spending on education and health is key to poverty reduction, but simply allocating more resources to these sectors does not ensure that poverty actually declines. On the basis of four in-depth case studies (on Indonesia, Madagascar, Peru and Tanzania) and three Technical Papers on malnutrition and primary education in…