The development objective of the Higher Education Quality Improvement Project for Peru is to improve Peru’s higher education quality assurance system through the promotion of self and external evaluations, the financing of improvement plans, and the provision of information.
... See More + The restructuring will bring the following changes: (i) higher council of the national system for evaluation, accreditation, and certification of the quality of education (COSUSUSINEACE) will be replaced for national system for evaluation, accreditation, and certification of the quality of education (SINEACE) to reflect current institutional arrangements following the university law; (ii) all indicators that had mention to council for the evaluation, accreditation, and certification of university higher education (CONEAU) and council for the evaluation, accreditation, and certification of non-university higher education (CONEACES) will be revised (both in the indicators’ phrasing and in their descriptions) and replaced with wording that includes all public entities in charge of higher education quality assurance. Project development objective (PDO) indicator four will be revised so as to follow-up on the broader higher education information system (SIES). Four intermediate result indicators are dropped, one (former IRI 1) because it will now be captured in the direct beneficiaries core indicator, and the other three (former IRI 2, 3, and 4) because they will be merged into a new indicator that measures a broader set of capacity building project activities from which higher education institutions (HEI) may benefit. A new intermediate results indicator will be added to reflect relevant progress by the project in supporting the development and implementation of the new higher education quality model, because this is key to have an operating framework for all public entities in charge of higher education quality assurance. Former IRI 5 and 6 will be modified to reflect changes in subcomponents 2.1 and 2.2. Target values of indicators will be revised to reflect progress so far and projections based on current trends and planned activities; (iii) legal covenants will be revised to replace COSUSUSINEACE for SINEACE, and COSUSINEACE - project coordination unit (UCP) to UCP in order to reflect current institutional arrangements following the university law. The due date on the legal covenant referring to the external advisory council (CAE) will be revised to allow the UCP to hire the corresponding committee; (iv) disbursement estimates will be formally revised to reflect progress so far, as well as the revised operational plan based on the scope of this restructuring process; (v) component 1 and its sub-components will be modified to reflect the abovementioned institutional changes introduced, replacing CONEAU and CONEACES by public entities in charge of higher education quality assurance and eliminating the evaluating entities for accreditation purposes because their role is currently under revision and the government is evaluating the option of promoting the participation of academic peers and independent accreditation agencies instead. Component 2 and its sub-components will be modified to support the provision of knowledge and information about higher education because the systems originally supported by the project were replaced by new systems with similar objectives and a new integrated information system is being developed and could benefit from the project’s support; (vi) the names of the units involved in the project will be updated according to the new university law and to reflect changes in Ministry of Education (MINEDU’s) organizational rulebook; and (vii) institutional capacity for implementation risk will be revised from moderate to high due to the fact that the higher education reforms are still ongoing and new institutional changes can affect project implementation.
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The impact of the growth of the local supply of public schools in the post-Colonial period on intergenerational mobility in education is a first-order question in the Arab World.
... See More + This question is examined in Jordan using a unique dataset that links individual data on own schooling and parents' schooling for adults, from a household survey, with the supply of schools in the subdistrict of birth at the time the individual was of age to enroll, from a school census. The identification strategy exploits the variation in the supply of basic and secondary public schools across cohorts and subdistricts of birth in Jordan, controlling for year and subdistrict-of-birth fixed effects and interactions of governorate and year-of-birth fixed effects. The findings show that the local availability of basic public schools does, in fact, increase intergenerational mobility in education. For instance, a one standard deviation increase in the supply of basic public schools per 1,000 people reduces the father-son and mother-son associations of schooling by 18-20 percent and the father-daughter and mother-daughter associations by 33-44 percent. However, an increase in the local supply of secondary public schools does not seem to have an effect on the intergenerational mobility in education.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7825 SEP 15, 2016
This paper introduces a variety of concepts and methods to examine living standards improvements in Nepal in a dynamic perspective. Using data from three rounds of Nepal Living Standards Surveys conducted in the past two decades, together with data from a nationally representative survey that was implemented in 2014 specifically to collect information on social and economic mobility, the paper presents novel statistics on the extent of inter- and intra-generational mobility in Nepal.
... See More + The findings suggest that there has been appreciable upward mobility in education; that is, Nepalis today are increasingly more likely to be better educated than their parents. However, inter-generational mobility of occupations has been much more muted, with 47 percent of Nepal today remaining in the same occupation as their parents. Upward mobility is higher for younger cohorts and for individuals who move from their rural areas of birth to an urban area. There are also significant differences in mobility by social groups, with Dalits and Terai caste groups having lower upward mobility odds. Examining mobility within generations using synthetic panel techniques, the paper finds that: (a) for every two people who escape poverty, one slides back, suggesting significant churning around the poverty line; (b) a large fraction of those who have escaped poverty remain vulnerable to falling back, with an overall vulnerable population of 45 percent; and (c) the share of the middle class—defined as those with sufficiently low likelihood of falling back into poverty—has increased steadily over the past two decades, reaching 22 percent in 2010–11. However, triangulating subjective well-being data from Gallup, it appears that a majority of even those who constitute the middle class are fundamentally insecure about their economic futures. The prevalence of a large vulnerable population and a nascent, growing but struggling middle class represents a key challenge to consolidating recent gains in moving people out of poverty.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7824 SEP 15, 2016
The study uses a cluster-randomized trial among 1,578 children from 979 households in rural El Salvador to test the impacts of TOMS shoe donations on children's time allocation, school attendance, health, self-esteem, and aid dependency.
... See More + Results indicate high levels of usage and approval of the shoes by children in the treatment group, and time diaries show modest evidence that the donated shoes allocated children's time toward outdoor activities. Difference-in-difference and ANCOVA estimates find generally insignificant impacts on overall health, foot health, and self-esteem but small positive impacts on school attendance for boys. Children receiving the shoes were significantly more likely to state that outsiders should provide for the needs of their family. Thus, in a context where most children already own at least one pair of shoes, the overall impact of the shoe donation program appears to be negligible, illustrating the importance of more careful targeting of in-kind donation programs.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7822 SEP 14, 2016
This paper evaluates a government program in Malawi, which aimed to improve quality at community-based childcare centers and complemented these efforts with a group-based parenting support program.
... See More + Children in the integrated intervention arm (teacher training and parenting) had significantly higher scores in measures of language and socio-emotional development than children in centers receiving teacher training alone at the 18-month follow-up. However, the study finds no effects on child assessments at the 36-month follow-up. Significant improvements at the centers relating to classroom organization and teacher behavior in the teacher-training only arm did not translate into improvements in child outcomes at either follow-up. The findings suggest that, in resource-poor settings with informal preschools, programs that integrate parenting support within preschools may be more effective than programs that simply improve classroom quality.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7817 SEP 12, 2016
The objective of the Second Phase of the Education for All Project for Haiti is to support the strategy for rebuilding the education system through the implementation ofsustainable programs to improve: (a) access, particularly of under-served populations, to primary education; (b) quality of primary education; and (c) the institutional capacity in the Recipient's education sector.
... See More + The only change proposed under this restructuring is an extension of the closing date of the Haiti Reconstruction Fund Grant TF017666 from September 30, 2016 to June 30, 2017 in order to ensure the continuity of the school feeding program (component 2.3) for the 2016-2017 school year. The extension will enable the project to disburse the remaining grant funds of $2.82 million, and will also align the grant closing date with the project closing date of June 30, 2017. Consequent adjustments to the 2016-2017 school-feeding indicator targets will be revised upward as part of a more thorough restructuring planned for September 2016.
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The development objective of the Higher Education Quality Improvement Project for Peru is to improve Peru’s higher education quality assurance system through the promotion of self and external evaluations, the financing of improvement plans, and the provision of information.
... See More + The restructuring will bring the following changes: (i) higher council of the national system for evaluation, accreditation, and certification of the quality of education (COSUSUSINEACE) will be replaced for national system for evaluation, accreditation, and certification of the quality of education (SINEACE) to reflect current institutional arrangements following the university law; (ii) all indicators that had mention to council for the evaluation, accreditation, and certification of university higher education (CONEAU) and council for the evaluation, accreditation, and certification of non-university higher education (CONEACES) will be revised (both in the indicators’ phrasing and in their descriptions) and replaced with wording that includes all public entities in charge of higher education quality assurance. Project development objective (PDO) indicator four will be revised so as to follow-up on the broader higher education information system (SIES). Four intermediate result indicators are dropped, one (former IRI 1) because it will now be captured in the direct beneficiaries core indicator, and the other three (former IRI 2, 3, and 4) because they will be merged into a new indicator that measures a broader set of capacity building project activities from which higher education institutions (HEI) may benefit. A new intermediate results indicator will be added to reflect relevant progress by the project in supporting the development and implementation of the new higher education quality model, because this is key to have an operating framework for all public entities in charge of higher education quality assurance. Former IRI 5 and 6 will be modified to reflect changes in subcomponents 2.1 and 2.2. Target values of indicators will be revised to reflect progress so far and projections based on current trends and planned activities; (iii) legal covenants will be revised to replace COSUSUSINEACE for SINEACE, and COSUSINEACE - project coordination unit (UCP) to UCP in order to reflect current institutional arrangements following the university law. The due date on the legal covenant referring to the external advisory council (CAE) will be revised to allow the UCP to hire the corresponding committee; (iv) disbursement estimates will be formally revised to reflect progress so far, as well as the revised operational plan based on the scope of this restructuring process; (v) component 1 and its sub-components will be modified to reflect the abovementioned institutional changes introduced, replacing CONEAU and CONEACES by public entities in charge of higher education quality assurance and eliminating the evaluating entities for accreditation purposes because their role is currently under revision and the government is evaluating the option of promoting the participation of academic peers and independent accreditation agencies instead. Component 2 and its sub-components will be modified to support the provision of knowledge and information about higher education because the systems originally supported by the project were replaced by new systems with similar objectives and a new integrated information system is being developed and could benefit from the project’s support; (vi) the names of the units involved in the project will be updated according to the new university law and to reflect changes in Ministry of Education (MINEDU’s) organizational rulebook; and (vii) institutional capacity for implementation risk will be revised from moderate to high due to the fact that the higher education reforms are still ongoing and new institutional changes can affect project implementation.
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Ratings for the Science, Technology and Innovation Program Project for Colombia outcomes were moderately satisfactory, the risk to development outcome was moderate, the Bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and the Borrower performance was also moderately satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included : The role of Administrative Department of Science, Technology and Innovation ( COLCIENCIAS) as coordinator of the Science Technology and Innovation (STI) policy in the country will benefit from a sharper definition, and increased consistency between its functions and the resources assigned. selectivity and prioritization of STI programs will be important in moving forward. step-by-step articulation of financing and specialized technical assistance are keyfor successful STI programs, particularly innovation subsidies. The Project was best practice in its ability to widen the outreach of STI activities to actors beyond the traditional science and innovation community. The Bank involvement was crucial to ensure some degree of continuity in the operational lines financed by COLCIENCIAS, in providing concrete examples and guidelines for institutional strengthening, and in helping manage innovative programs. institutional changes during the Project's life provide some interesting examplesof good incentives for institutional coordination.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR2635 AUG 24, 2016
To stimulate economic advancement, low- and middle-income countries need well-educated and trained workforces to fill the types of skilled jobs that drive economic growth.
... See More + Improving educational quality and attainment and providing better training are all rightly put forth as policy recommendations to leverage economic growth and job creation. However, new findings based on large scale surveys of adult skills fromthe World Bank Group’s STEP (Skills Toward Employment and Productivity) Skills Measurement Program suggest that many workers are over qualified for their current jobs (based on the education those jobs require). The results of this study suggest that countries may not reap as much benefit from their investments in quality education and training if weak job creation leaves workers’ skills under utilized. Most of the literature on mismatch focuses on higher-income countries and rates of over-education among college graduates. Accounting for Mismatch in Low- and Middle-Income Countries uses new STEP Skills Survey data from 12 low- and middle-income countries, representing a range of economic and educational and training climates, to better understand the scope and patterns of education and skills mismatch. STEP collects information not only on workers’ level of education and employment status, but also on the types,frequency, and durations of tasks they carry out at their jobs as well as some of the cognitive skills they use.The study also explores additional factors such as gender, health, career stage, and participation in the informal labor sector that may help explain the degree of mismatch rates. The study’s findings indicate thatover-education is common in low and middle income countries with both lower and higher rates of educational attainment. There is also evidence that over-educated tertiary workers do not use all of theirskills, potentially wasting valuable human capital and educational resources. Aimed at policy makers, business and education leaders, and employers, Accounting for Mismatch in Low- and Middle-Income Countries suggests that job growth must go hand-in-hand with investments in education and training.
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