Jee-Peng Tan

The International Flow of Third Level Lesser Developed Country Students to Developed Countries: Determinants and Implications.

This study analyses the international flow of third level developing country students to advanced countries from the perspective of sending authorities in developing countries. The magnitude of this flow can hardly be overemphasized; on the basis of a conservative estimate made in the article, the annual loss of foreign exchange entailed by this flow amounted to 17 percent of the interest repayment on total external debts of the lesser developed countries (LDCs) in 1979, a sum which the developing countries themselves can hardly ignore.On an aggregate basis, our principal hypothesis is that the outflow of students is determined primarily by excess demand for third level education in developing countries. The empirical results support this hypothesis, while pointing to the importance of other factors. Excess demand for third level education in the developing countries is one of the most important determinants of the flow of developing country students to the advanced countries.On the whole, expansion of developing country tertiary education, at the national or regional levels, could effectively divert some of the flow to local institutions. Aside from this, expansion can also be argued on the basis of the high returns to third level education in developing countries compared to the returns to physical capital, as well as the considerable economies of scale associated with this level of instruction. Further, given the willingness/ability of the students to pay, as witnessed by the fact that the vast majority of developing country students finance privately their education abroad, the expansion of third level education in LDCs could be funded substantially via user charges and student loan schemes.

On Equity in Education Again: An International Comparison

This article proposes an approach to answering two questions: first, does investment in education help growth; second, does the allocation of investment in education matter? I develop a model where individual ability is heterogeneous and education both ...

The Mechanics of Progress in Education: Evidence from Cross-Country Data

The authors explore differences in education in rich and poor countries by first systematically documenting the relationship between per capita GNP and various indicators of educational development. They then exploit a simple accounting identity relating the availability of resources to their expenditure, to clarify the sources of rich countries advantage in education. Data for a sample for 125 countries in 1993 confirm the expected favorable relationship between per capita GNP and each of the following dimensions of educational development: a) The sector context (as reflected by the demographic burden on the education system, the governments fiscal capacity, and so on). b) The production of education services, including such factors as public spending on education and the composition of spending. c) Education outcomes, in terms of coverage and student learning. d) Efficiency of sector operations. e) Equity in access and distribution of public spending on education. One appealing explanation for why richer countries achieve better results is that they have more resources for their education systems. But bigger budget allocations to education contribute relatively little to differences in resources. Lighter demographic burdens in richer countries is also a relatively modest factor. By far the most important factor is the decline of teacher salaries relative to per capita GNP, which accounts for at least half of any educational advantage at all stages of economic development. The extra resources for education associated with income growth allows a country to expand enrollments and improve classroom conditions by reducing the pupil-teacher ratio. Early in income growth, countries allocate more of the extra resources to expand coverage; later they shift toward reducing the pupil-teacher ratio. But, contend the authors, so long as coverage is not yet universal a more efficient strategy for educational development is to emphasize continued expansion of coverage rather than a rapid reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio. In the long run, lower levels of educational attainment among tomorrows adults is likely to diminish learning achievement among tomorrows children.

Who Profits from the Public Funding of Education: A Comparison of World Regions

Several approaches can be taken to analyze equity in the educational sector. In general, three main approaches can be distinguished. The first takes the school as a given good and analyzes the access to given levels of education by various population subgroups. Under this genre of analysis, researchers have also delved into the relationship between student achievement and students personal and social backgrounds, as well as their access to school resources. The second approach starts by first making explicit the gains that are associated with access to a particular level of education. Two aspects can be considered: (1) the appropriation of public resources that have been used to subsidize the provision of education,2 and (2) the anticipation of higher future earnings.3 Finally, in the third approach the issue of equity is addressed by comparing the gains accruing to various groups in the population with the financial (tax) contribution made by these groups to overall government revenue.4 In this article, we take the second of these approaches and shall focus on equity in the distribution of public resources for education. As we have shown in an earlier paper,5 the outcome depends on two complementary factors: (1) the distribution of public resources for education among members of a given generation according to their terminal level of schooling, and (2) the characteristics (socioeconomic, sex, ethnic or

Financing public higher education in developing countries

The financing of education has emerged as a major topic of discussion among policy makers in recent years. There is evidence that in many developing countries, governments can no longer continue to increase spending on education at the high rates characteristic in the 1960s and 1970s. The macroeconomic environment has worsened, and there is keen intersectoral competition for public funds. Thus unless educational development moves away from its present heavy dependence on public funds, the expansion of education would be frustrated. One policy option is to increase the private financing of education. In this paper, we evaluate the potential effectiveness of loans schemes as a cost recovery instrument in higher education. Essentially, loans permit students to finance the cost of their education from future income. So the effectiveness of loans would depend on the relation between costs and students future income. It also depends on the incidence of repetition, dropout, and default, as well as on whether or not a grace period is incorporated in the loan scheme. Our simulations show that in Asia and Latin America, the potential rate of cost recovery is substantial under what appears to be bearable terms of repayment. In Francophone Africa and Anglophone Africa, however, loans schemes are unlikely to perform as well, but they would still permit a shift toward greater private financing of higher education.

The economic returns to investment in project-related training: Some empirical evidence

This paper assesses the efficiency of investing in project related training (PRT) to overcome skill deficiencies that are identified in project populations. Data for the analysis comes from 115 World Bank agricultural and non-agricultural projects (transportation, urban, chemicals, and manufacturing). Unlike most other studies, this paper does not rely on earnings data to derive the relevant rates of return, using instead project success as the outcome measure. The results indicate that PRT yields high economic returns in both agricultural and non-agricultural projects, even under conservative assumptions. However, they also underline that training investment achieves high returns only when the educational base of a country is sufficiently developed. In the absence of this condition, PRT — as it is currently designed and implemented — is an uneconomic investment. The results suggest the following implications: (a) expand PRT investment, particularly in agriculture projects, when a sufficiently high proportion of the population is literate; (b) in countries with a weak educational base, make significant efforts to adapt the design and management of PRT to overcome effectively the existing skill deficiencies in the project population; and (c) in countries where education is poorly developed, overall long run development strategy should probably stress investment in basic education so as to create the conditions for other investments to achieve economic protitability.ZusammenfassungIn diesem Bericht wird geprüft, wie wirksam es ist, Mittel in projektgebundene Ausbildung (PRT) zu investieren, um die Leistungsdefizite zu überwinden, die in einer an einem Projekt beteiligten Bevölkerung festgestellt werden. Die Daten für diese Analyse wurden von 115 von der Weltbank geförderten landwirtschaftlichen und nicht-landwirtschaftlichen Projekten (Transport, urban, Chemikalien und Herstellung) erstellt. Im Gegensatz zu den meisten anderen Untersuchungen stützt sich dieser Bericht nicht auf das Einkommen betreffende Daten um die einschlägigen Ertragsraten zu erhalten, sondern auf den Projekterfolg als Maßstab für das Ergebnis. Die Ergebnisse zeigen an, daß PRT hohe wirtschaftliche Erträge sowohl in landwirtschaftlichen als auch in nicht-landwirtschaftlichen Projekten sogar unter konservativen Voraussetzungen erzielt. Zie zeigen jedoch auch, daß Investitionen in die Ausbildung nur dann hohe Erträge erzielen, wenn die Basis des Erziehungswesens eines Landes ausreichend entwickelt ist. Wenn diese Grundlage nicht gegeben ist, stellt PRT in der Form, wie sie derzeitig geplant und angewandt wird, eine unwirtschaftliche Investition dar. Die Ergebnisse führen zu den folgenden Konsequenzen: (a) zum Ausbau der PRT-Investitionen, besonders in Landwirtschaftsprojekten, wenn ein ausreichend großer Anteil der Bevölkerung alphabetisiert ist; (b) in Ländern mit einer schwachen Basis des Erziehungswesens zu einschneidenden Bemühungen, die Planung und die Verwaltung von PRT zu adaptieren, um auf wirksame Art die bestehenden Leistungsdefizite in der am Projekt beteiligten Bevölkerung zu überwinden; und (c) in Ländern, in denen das Bildungswesen nur sehr wenig entwickelt ist, sollten langfristige umfassende Entwicklungsstrategien möglichtst die Investition in die elementarbildung betonen, damit Bedingungen geschaffen werden, so daß andere Investitionen einen wirtschaftlichen Profit erzielen.RésuméCet article évalue lefficacité des investissements dans la formation axée sur un projet (FAP) en vue de combler le manque de compétences techniques constaté au sein des populations de projet. Les données servant à lanalyse proviennent de 115 études de la Banque Mondiale de projets agricoles ou autres (transport, vie urbaine, produits chimiques, manufacture). Contrairement à de nombreuses autres études, larticle présent ne se base pas sur les données relatives aux salaires pour calculer les taux pertinents de rentabilité, utilisant plutôt le succès dun projet pour en mesurer les acquis. Ces derniers indiquent que la FAP rapporte dimportants bénéfices dans les projets agricoles ou autres, même sur la base destimations prudentes. Cependant, ils·révèlent également que les investissements en matière de formation ne rapportent de bénéfices raisonnables que lorsque la base éducative dun pays est suffisamment développée. Lorsque cette condition nest pas remplie, la FAP telle quelle est conçue et mise en oeuvre actuellement — est un investissement non rentable. Ces résultats suggèrent: (a) daugmenter les investissements en FAP, en particulier dans les projets agricoles, lorsquune proportion élevée de la population est alphabétisée; (b) de fournir des efforts importants, dans les pays à faible base éducative, afin dadapter la conception et la direction de la FAP pour pouvoir mettre fin efficacement au manque de compétences techniques que connaît la population concernée par un projet; et (c) pour les pays dans lesquels léducation en est à un stade rudimentaire, de mettre en place une stratégie de développement général à long terme qui accorde une priorité aux investissements en éducation de base afin de créer les conditions favorables à dautres investissements qui soient économiquement rentables.

The evolving regulatory context for private education in emerging economies : discussion paper and case studies

The approach to regulating private sector education is as unique as the countries in which the institutions are located. Governments are under considerable pressure as they endeavor to meet access to education targets at all levels, from basic to tertiary. Increasingly, governments are recognizing that they are unable to meet these demands without investment from private providers and thus are eager to ensure that providers and investors are of the highest possible quality. Many governments are endeavoring to determine the most appropriate policy framework that will enable the private sector to contribute to national education goals. Regulation of private education is an issue of critical importance for all stakeholders involved: government, providers, investors, parents, and students. How the government frames its regulatory policies will determine the ease, or difficulty, for private providers to enter the market. At their best, regulations can be welcome guidelines to enable quality providers to understand the requirements for working in a given jurisdiction. When regulations are transparent and appropriately applied, they can provide information for parents and students in enabling them to make rational decisions on education choice. This paper briefly examines the international experience concerning the regulation of private education at the school and higher education level.

Workforce Development in Emerging Economies

Investing in skills has risen to the top of the policy agenda today in rich and poor countries alike. The World Bank supports its partner countries on this agenda in multiple ways: development finance, research and analysis, global knowledge exchange, and technical assistance. This report was originally conceived as a contribution to this catalog of the World Bank’s work, but its topic and findings are relevant to all policy makers and analysts interested in skills-building to drive economic growth and improve human well-being. The book examines workforce development (WfD) systems in emerging economies around the world and presents novel systems-level data generated by the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)-WfD benchmarking tool, which was created to implement the World Bank’s 10-year Education Sector Strategy launched in 2012. A key theme in the book is that WfD entails a multi-layered engagement involving high-level policy makers, system-level managers, as well as leaders at individual institutions. Too often, the conversation and actions are fragmented by intellectual, administrative and operational silos which undermine effective cooperation to solve the deep challenges of building job-relevant skills. The book’s findings, based on cross-sectional data for nearly 30 countries and time-series data for five countries, identify successes and common issues across countries in the sample. In lagging countries, the biggest difficulties relate to: forming and sustaining strategic partnerships with employers; ensuring equitable and efficient funding for vocational education; and putting in place mechanisms to enhance training providers? accountability for results defined by their trainees? job market performance. By framing WfD in the broader skills-for-growth context and drawing on lessons from countries where well-designed WfD strategies have helped to drive sustained growth, this book offers clear guidance on how to enable a more effective approach to the inevitably complex challenges of workforce development in emerging economies.

Evolution du contexte reglementaire pour I' enseignement prive dans les economies emergentes : avant-projet et documents des pays

The approach to regulating private sector education is as unique as the countries in which the institutions are located. Governments are under considerable pressure as they endeavor to meet access to education targets at all levels, from basic to tertiary. Increasingly, governments are recognizing that they are unable to meet these demands without investment from private providers and thus are eager to ensure that providers and investors are of the highest possible quality. Many governments are endeavoring to determine the most appropriate policy framework that will enable the private sector to contribute to national education goals. Regulation of private education is an issue of critical importance for all stakeholders involved: government, providers, investors, parents, and students. How the government frames its regulatory policies will determine the ease, or difficulty, for private providers to enter the market. At their best, regulations can be welcome guidelines to enable quality providers to understand the requirements for working in a given jurisdiction. When regulations are transparent and appropriately applied, they can provide information for parents and students in enabling them to make rational decisions on education choice. This paper briefly examines the international experience concerning the regulation of private education at the school and higher education level.