Willing but Unable? : Short-Term Experimental Evidence on Parent Empowerment and School Quality
Giving power over school management and spending decisions to communities has been a favored strategy to increase school quality, but its effectiveness may depend on local capacity. Grants are one form of such a transfer of power. Short-term respon...
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/982571498578771789/Willing-but-unable-short-term-experimental-evidence-on-parent-empowerment-and-school-quality http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27628 |
| Summary: | Giving power over school management and
spending decisions to communities has been a favored
strategy to increase school quality, but its effectiveness
may depend on local capacity. Grants are one form of such a
transfer of power. Short-term responses of a grant to school
committees in Niger show that parents increased
participation and responsibility, but these efforts did not
improve quality on average. Enrollment at the lowest grades
increased and school resources improved, but teacher
absenteeism increased, and there was no measured impact on
test scores. An analysis of heterogeneous impacts and
spending decisions provides additional insight into these
dynamics. Overall, the findings suggest that programs based
on parent participation should take levels of community
capacity into account: even when communities are willing to
work to improve their schools, they may not be able to do
so. The short-term nature of the experiment reduces the
extent to which the results can be generalized. |
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