Transcript Education Sector Analysis

IIEP/WGESA/2002/INF. 4
Education Sector Analysis
ADEA Working Group on
Education Sector Analysis (ESA)
Presented by:
Richard SACK
Windhoek, 21 Nov. 02
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Objectives
• A brief, one-day overview of the purposes,
uses and utility of ESA
• Participants are expected to gain a general
understanding of why ESA is useful and
how it is done
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Context & background
• Sector analysis = policy analysis, which has been
around for years
• Underlying assumptions:
– Effective policy needs empirical grounding & rational
analyses
– ESA can produce framework for assigning objectives,
targets, criteria, priorities
– This will promote stakeholder confidence, including
that of external financing agencies
– Ideally, ESA is a process that develops both
knowledge & capacity, together (I.e., the process is
part of the product) return
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Ambitions & objectives
• Promote dialogue on goals, objectives, needs,
methods, resources & constraints
• Provide thorough knowledge of status of the
sector & the impact of government policies
• Identify strengths & weaknesses, resources &
constraints, demands & needs
• Establish database & methodology for planning
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Ambitions & objectives
• Specify (i) areas for investments & (ii)
reallocations of existing resources for improved
cost-effectiveness & performance
• Monitor system performance
• Provide basis for long-term improvements in
planning, implementation & monitoring of the
system
• Identify methods & means for improved
management & implementation
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Who promotes ESA
• In Africa, mostly the development agencies
• Models for ESA have, largely, come from
the World Bank
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Issues
• Are assumptions realistic?
• How & by whom is the ESA agenda
determined?
• Who benefits?
• Capacity building: for doing ESA & for
policy formulation
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Tools and skills: data
• First of all, identify, find & exploit the raw
information—the DATA on
– Numbers of: students (attendance, age) by grade;
teachers; schools, classrooms
– Costs: teacher salary & career structure; books &
other materials; buildings; other
– Financing: who pays what & how much; ‘who’ =
parents, students, communities, local & national
governments
– Outcomes: learning results
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Tools and skills: data
• Where to find the data?
• Is there an EMIS?
• Is there an assessment system (e.g.,
SACMEQ)?
• What do you know about the quality of the
data?
• Level of disaggregation?
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Flows & quantities
• Student flow analyses  projections, forecasting
– This is the traditional tool of education planners
(cohort analyses, etc.)
• Financial (computer) simulation models 
projections, forecasting
– Same starting logic as flow analyses, but capable of
simulating costs, depending of assumptions & data
quality
• It’s all quite mechanical—conceptually
straightforward & mathematically complex
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Demand for education
• Assessing demand using household
surveys
• Identifying factors that influence demand
– This will be very helpful for developing
policies aimed at increasing demand
– Policies for EFA, girls could benefit from this
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Learning outcomes & improving quality
• Learning assessment studies, such as
SACMEQ
• Quantitative approaches that assess
achievement levels & contributing factors
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Processes: Management &
implementation
• If policy is as implementation does
• And implementation depends on ability
(capacity, willingness) to get the work
done
• Then, attainment of policy goals will
greatly depend on the existing institutional
capacities
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and, Therefore
• Institutional capacities are crucial for
successful implementation of the complex
tasks (processes) of the education system
• Successful implementation requires
capable institutions
• Which requires understanding how they
work, or don’t (their dysfunctionalities)
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Operational Conclusion
Careful analysis of
institutional capacities
is key to
getting the policy right
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Issues
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Data reliability, quality
Accessibility of the tools
Building capacities, learning-by-doing
Who does the work
Replicability
Usability by policymakers
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Finding the information
• The usual places
– Within the education system: Statistics on
enrollments, teachers, examination results
– Elsewhere: Ministry of Finance for salary
information; Civil service commission for
teacher career info.
• Unusual places: Faculties of education &
libraries for research
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Issues
• What is ‘valued’ knowledge, what information &
knowledge have ‘currency’?
– Locally developed research? Research done by
external bodies & people, by powerful institutions?
– Does some knowledge/information have greater
legitimacy than other?
• What/whose knowledge speaks to power?
What/whose knowledge does power listen to?
• Is there knowledge that is “overlooked and
undervalued”?
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Capacity building
• Two major issues:
– Capacity to do/perform ESA (the “supply
side”).
– Capacity to use it in policy formulation (the
“demand side”).
• Capacity is required on each side
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Skills for ESA:
on the “supply side”
• Quantitative skills
– Statistics: understanding data collection,
quality & analysis
– Research design
• Qualitative skills
– Functional analysis of institutions
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“Skills” for ESA:
on the “demand side”
• Willingness to base policy on empirical
analysis
• Ability to absorb the logic and rationale of
ESA analyses
• Ability to reconcile technical analyses and
political imperatives and pressures
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Skills for ESA:
between the supply & demand sides
Communication capabilities that include
– Presentational skills (writing, graphics,
avoiding presentations that nobody
understands…)
– Willingness & ability to make the analytical
results known to, and understood by, all
stakeholders
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Strategic options for
Capacity building
• From the beginning, ESA conceived as a capacity
building exercise
• External experts focus on capacity building &
skills development
• Extensive use of local expertise linked to
education sector (I.e., avoid the ‘commando’
approach)
• Learning-by-doing
• Tools & methods that are not overly sophisticated
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