Donald Rey Baum

Gender Equity and Women Empowerment in Africa: The Education and Economic Globalization Nexus

The Millennium Declaration resolves to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as a basic human right. The Declaration also maintains that giving women their fair share is the only way to effectively combat poverty, hunger, and disease and to simulate development that is truly sustainable. Progress towards this goal is assessed by measuring gender equality in three areas: education, employment and political decision-making. (United Nations, 2005, UNDP, 2004, UNESCO, 2006)

Ghana Engaging the Private Sector in Education: SABER Pilot Country Report 2015

1. Encouraging Innovation by Providers Policies allow independent private schools to make their own decisions on appointing, deploying, and dismissing teachers; schools determine teacher salary levels; schools set class size standards and determine the curricula. The only restriction placed on independent private schools requires them to follow centrally-mandated teacher certification standards to maintain active registration.

The relative effectiveness of private and public schools: evidence from Kenya

ABSTRACT This paper estimates the relative effectiveness of private and public primary schools in Kenya using data from 4,433 Grade 6 schoolchildren. Using ordinary least squares as a baseline model, we use the proportion of private schools in a district as an instrument in a Heckman two-stage correction framework, as well as propensity score matching models to correct for selection bias. There is a positive private school effect across all models. In the corrected models, we find that private school pupils outperform their public school counterparts by between .24 and .52 standard deviations.

Inequality of educational opportunity: the relationship between access, affordability, and quality of private schools in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract Using data from a census of private schools in one of Lagos, Nigeria’s administrative jurisdictions, this paper explores the linkages between a heterogeneous sector of private schools and issues of school access, affordability, quality, and ultimately social mobility for households at the bottom of the income distribution. Although a large private education market has buoyed Lagos’s growth towards near-universal primary enrolment, this heterogeneous school sector appears to be providing socially stratifying paths towards educational attainment. We apply Lucas’s theory of effectively maintained inequality to assess the extent to which access to higher quality education services within the private sector is determined by cost. We find that higher-cost private schools provide students with greater opportunities to study in institutions with higher quality inputs and increased potential for progression within the educational system. As such, it is highly likely that these schools are primarily accessible to students at the upper ends of the income distribution.

The Preferred Perceptual Learning Styles of Hispanic Higher Education Students

This article addresses the question of whether higher education Hispanic students of different nationalities have different perceptual learning style preferences. Independent samples t test results suggest students of non-Mexican heritage prefer visual learning styles more than students of Mexican heritage. ANOVA results show older students and students from families with greater levels of education have greater preference for visual learning, and higher household income is related to lower preferences for group learning style, and vice versa.

The Role of the Private Sector in Lagos, Nigeria

Private schools are currently educating the majority of primary and secondary education students in Lagos State, Nigeria. As such, Lagos is one of the largest private school markets in the world. Notwithstanding the influence of this sector, not enough is known about the operations of private schools in Lagos State, their impact on student learning opportunities, and their overall implications for the economic and social development of Nigeria. This report presents results from analyses of: (i) the regulatory environment governing private education provision; (ii) implementation of existing regulations; and (iii) the provision of private school services in Lagos. The results of this research can be used to inform the government on how to effectively regulate and engage with the private education sector.

Malawi Engaging the Private Sector in Education: SABER Country Report 2015

3. Empowering All Parents, Students, and Communities Examination results are published in terms of pass and fail percentages. There is no systematic way of reviewing the whole school such as school report cards. Parents and students participate in focus groups as part of the inspection process. The government does not provide tax subsidies or cash transfers to parents for their child to attend private independent schools.

Zambia Engaging the Private Sector in Education: SABER Country Report 2016

1. Encouraging Innovation by Providers The school has the legal authority to appoint, deploy and dismiss teachers as well as set teacher salaries without review by central authorities. Schools can set their own curriculum but final review of their operational plan is carried out by the Ministry of Education. The Education Board has the legal authority over how resources are allocated to classrooms with final review from central authorities.

The Role of the Private Sector in Providing Basic Education Services in Kasoa, Ghana

Despite significant government investments in the public education system, population growth and migration have led to an undersupply of school places, especially in urban centers, leading to an increase in private education enrollments in Ghana. Ghana has nearly doubled enrollment at the primary and junior high school levels since the introduction of free and compulsory universal basic education. Ghana’s primary net enrollment rate of 86.8 percent in 2013 is still slightly below the average for lower-middle-income countries, which was 87.3 percent. Its net rate of secondary enrollment (including junior and senior high school), 51 percent, is also lower than the 58 percent average for lower-middle-income countries (EdStats). Ghana’s public spending on education is comparable to that of other middle-income countries and the government is currently focusing its attention on upper secondary education (senior high school), with plans to build more schools to increase access. Rising enrollment rates have not been accompanied by gains in student learning; some parents are choosing private schools due to their perceived higher quality. The education system in Ghana is currently facing fiscal pressures due to low levels of accountability, inefficient allocation of resources, and plans to expand upper secondary provision. Although the Ghanaian government has made progress in improving equitable access to education through new programs and policies, government resources are currently unevenly distributed across regions in terms of spending per pupil as well as the allocation of teachers. Ghana currently has a budget deficit, with teacher salaries forming a large part of recurrent costs in education. The country also plans to expand education at the senior secondary level to meet the needs of the economy. The construction of 200 schools will put further pressure on government budgets.