deteriorating quality of education essay

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Lack of Education: Causes, Effects, and Solutions

Categories: Education Inequality

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Published: Sep 12, 2023

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Causes of lack of education, effects of lack of education, benefits of education, addressing the effects of lack of education.

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The Politics of Education in Developing Countries: From Schooling to Learning

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1 The Problem of Education Quality in Developing Countries

Published: March 2019
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The universalization of basic education was set to be one of the great policy successes of the twentieth century, yet millions are still unenrolled, and many of those who attended school learned little. The ‘learning crisis’ now dominates the global education policy agenda, yet little is understood of why education quality reforms have had so little success compared to earlier expansionary reforms. This chapter sets out the rationale for this book, which is to explore how the nature of the political settlement or distribution of power between contending social groups in a given country shapes efforts to get learning reforms on the policy agenda, how they are implemented, and what difference they make to what children learn. It discusses debates about the sources and determinants of the learning crisis, examining its extent and nature and providing a rationale for the key themes the book takes up in subsequent theoretical, empirical, and comparative chapters.

Introduction

Universal basic education was set to be one of the great development successes of the twentieth century, as countries all around the world enthusiastically expanded provision, enrolling ever more of their young in primary and secondary schools. Yet by the early 2000s, it was already evident that not only were millions still out of school, but that a majority dropped out early, attended sporadically, or learned little while there (UNESCO 2014 ). As one observer summarized it, ‘schooling ain’t learning’ (Pritchett 2013 ): there is more to learning than placing children in schools. The ‘learning crisis’ is acknowledged in the Sustainable Development Goal 4 to ‘ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning’, 1 an emphasis on quality and equality in contrast to the focus on access in Millennium Development Goal 2. This learning crisis is widely yet unevenly spread, varying between countries, classes, genders, and social groups (World Bank 2017 ). But whereas expanding primary schooling was a comparatively popular and measurably successful policy goal, addressing poor quality teaching and low levels of learning has so far proven less so (Bruns and Schneider 2016 ). A few countries have managed to expand their education systems while enhancing learning. But it is easier to build schools, abolish fees, recruit more teachers, and instruct parents to send their children, than it is to ensure that schools, teachers, and students are equipped and motivated for teaching and learning once there.

This book contributes to making sense of this global learning crisis, by exploring the conditions under which reforms likely to shift education provisioning onto a higher-quality pathway are undertaken and enacted. It takes as its starting point the view that politics is likely to matter in explaining why this is the case. As a recent review put it, education reform is:

a highly charged and politicized process; what gets implemented—and its impact—depends as much or more on the politics of the reform process as the technical design of the reform. (Bruns and Schneider 2016 , 5)

There are good reasons to believe that variations in how countries adopt and implement reforms necessary to promote learning relate to differences in their political economies. These differences may play out in the design of reforms that are attempted and adopted, and in what gets implemented—including that it is more politically popular and less taxing of often weak state capacities to expand school provision than to improve learning outcomes. Yet, barring some notable exceptions (e.g. Grindle 2004 ), there has been little political analysis of education in general (Busemeyer and Trampusch 2011 ; Gift and Wibbels 2014 ), and still less on the political economy of education quality in developing countries—a gap that has been noted and bemoaned in several recent reviews (Kingdon et al. 2014 ; Nicolai et al. 2014 ; Wales, Magee, and Nicolai 2016 ; Bruns and Schneider 2016 ). As a contribution to filling this critical gap, this book sets out and tests hypotheses about how different types of political context interact with the education policy domain in ways that shape the uptake and implementation of reforms designed to improve learning outcomes.

The book features comparative analysis of the politics of education quality reforms across six low- to middle-income countries—Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda—all of which were relatively successful at rapidly expanding access to primary schooling, but which have all found it much harder to improve learning outcomes, in part (we suggest) because of the variable levels of political commitment that exist in each context for reforms aimed at improving the quality of education. In this volume, we understand political commitment to reflect the incentives and ideas that predominate amongst political elites, and which are shaped by the underlying character of politics and power in specific contexts. The concept we use to describe ‘the balance or distribution of power between contending social groups and social classes, on which any state is based’ (di John and Putzel 2009, 4) is a ‘political settlement’, and we have chosen our cases to represent different types of these settlements.

The comparison explores how different distributions of power shaped incentives and ideas around education quality reforms and the institutions and processes of implementation, tracing the politics of reform from the political centre down through different levels of governance to the school, taking into account the impact of the external environment (for example, aid) and the policy legacies and challenges in each context. What we want to examine here is less the broad question of ‘how politics shapes educational outcomes’ per se, than the ways in which politics shapes the commitment and capacity of elites and governments in developing countries to promote reforms that are aimed at improving learning outcomes. In particular, and following several systematic reviews of what works to improve learning outcomes in developing countries (e.g. Glewwe et al. 2011 ; Tikly and Barrett 2013 ), we focus on efforts to improve the level and management of resourcing accorded to schools, and the quality and presence of teachers through training, incentives, and oversight mechanisms.

What we know about quality reforms is that they are inherently more difficult to design and to ‘sell’ to the public: there is less certainty about ‘what works’ and results are harder to measure (Nelson 2007 ). It is easier to design and implement top-down command-and-control responses to build more schools and recruit more teachers and children than to devise workable solutions to the ‘craft’ challenge of the interpersonal, transactional nature of effective teaching and learning (Pritchett 2013 ). Strengthening local accountability is difficult. Teachers, the group whose interests are most likely to suffer from reforms to enhance their performance accountability, tend to be well-organized, influential, and equipped to resist them (Corrales 1999 , 2006 ; Moe and Wiborg 2017 ; Kingdon et al. 2014 ; Béteille, Kingdon, and Muzammil 2016 ). Parents and communities, particularly in developing countries, are often less well-equipped and informed to articulate demand for quality improvements from their political leaders or frontline providers (Dunne et al. 2007 ; Mani and Mukand 2007 ). This means that for parents and communities, both the ‘long route’ (via the process of political representation) and the ‘short route’ (via relationships with frontline providers, teachers, and schools) to accountability for the delivery of high quality education, may be obstructed or subverted (World Bank 2003 ). A recent review concluded that three features of the politics of education are particularly relevant in analysing the prospects for reform: (i) the strength of teacher unions compared with other education stakeholders or labour unions; (ii) the ‘opacity of the classroom’—the need for reforms to shape teacher behaviour in the classroom, over which direct control is impossible; and (iii) the slow or lagged nature of the results of quality reforms (compared, for example, with the abolition of fees, learning reforms will yield no instant or obvious political return) (Bruns and Schneider 2016 ).

The World Bank identifies children’s unreadiness to learn, along with teacher and school management skills, and inadequate school inputs, as the proximate determinants of the learning crisis (World Bank 2017 ). It argues that the intractability of education quality reforms is not inherently a matter of inadequate resources, although many failing systems are also under-resourced (UNESCO 2014 ; World Bank 2017 ). Instead, it is a problem of ‘misalignment’ between learning goals, policies, and practices, in which the dominant role of teacher unions and other forms of ‘unhealthy politics’ plays an important and persistent role (World Bank 2017 ). It concludes that ‘healthier’ forms of politics—in particular the use of information to increase ‘the political incentives for learning’ and broad-based pro-reform coalitions—are critical to align goals, policies, and practices around improved learning. While highlighting the significance of the politics of teacher and school management on the frontline of the learning crisis, the emphasis on ‘alignment’ sidelines the significance of contention in education reform, and fails to address the questions to which it gives rise: under what conditions do broad-based, pro-reform coalitions come about? In which political contexts does information about education performance become embedded in functioning mechanisms of accountability? Why do some states visibly devote more capacity to learning and more political resources to quality reforms than others?

This book seeks to pick up the analysis at the point where the World Development Report (WDR) 2018 leaves off, pursuing a political explanation of the misalignments and contentions that shape the uptake of learning reforms. The analysis seeks to test assumptions that political settlements where elites have shorter time-horizons (competitive and clientelistic settlements, such as those in Ghana and Bangladesh) are less likely to take up the politically intractable task of redistributing power in the education system than those (the dominant settlements of Cambodia and Rwanda) where elites are better insulated, can adopt longer-term horizons and might be more likely to take up developmentally important projects. It also seeks to explore how different political settlements interact with systems of governance within the domain of education, ranged from traditional hierarchically organized bureaucracies to multi-stakeholder models, to create a range of different outcomes in ‘the many layers within a specific sector in between the top levels of policymaking and the service provision frontline’ (Levy and Walton 2013 , 4).

Following this introductory chapter, Chapter 2 sets out the intellectual rationale for a political settlement-based approach to the analysis of education quality reforms, and establishes the theoretical framework and methodological approach used to research the politics in the cases presented here. Chapters 3 through 8 comprise the set of six country cases, each of which gives an account of the quality of basic education and its development in that country; of the political settlement and its influences on education policy and the reform agenda; and of the implementation of policies aimed at improving learning from the national level downwards through sub-national levels of governance and, in most cases, through to schools themselves. Chapter 9 draws together the theoretical, methodological, and empirical findings from the comparative analysis, and points towards areas for further conceptual development and empirical research. The book concludes with two commentaries from leading authorities in the field on the arguments and cases presented in the book.

The Global Learning Crisis

From an access point of view, progress towards universal primary education in low-income countries accelerated markedly in the past two decades (see Figure 1.1 ). Globally, 93 per cent of children now attend primary school at the appropriate age, up from 84 per cent in 1999. By 2015, 20 million more developing country children had completed primary school than would have done so had the rate of school expansion before 2000 continued. In seventeen countries, age-correct enrolment rates increased by more than 20 per cent between 1999 and 2012, implying a remarkably rapid expansion. And gains were concentrated in the poorest world regions of Sub-Saharan Africa (where the net enrolment ratio [NER] rose from 59 per cent in 1999 to 79 per cent in 2012) and South and West Asia (where it went from 78 to 94 per cent over the same period). Between 2000 and 2010, NER increased from 27 to almost 64 per cent in Niger, from 42 to 76 per cent in Guinea, and in Burundi, from less than 41 to 94 per cent in 2010. The proportion of children who had never attended school dropped in Ethiopia from 67 per cent in 2000 to 28 per cent in 2011, and in Tanzania from 47 per cent in 1999 to 12 per cent in 2010. Globally, gender parity in enrolment was achieved at primary level and almost achieved at secondary level over the period, in part due to the push on girls’ education from MDG3 on gender equality; of countries with data, 69 per cent were set to achieve gender parity at primary level, but only less than half at secondary level by 2015. 2

Primary enrolment rates worldwide, 1970–2015

However, the idea that mass education was ‘one of the successes of the MDGs’ has been tempered by ‘more sobering trends’ (Unterhalter 2014 , 181). Large numbers of children remain excluded from school, with 58 million children aged six to eleven unenrolled in 2012, many in conflict-affected regions. At least one-fifth of all children were likely to drop out before completing primary in 32 countries, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa (UNESCO 2015 ). And rural–urban location, socio-economic class, and marginalization and social exclusion continued to determine which children enrolled and stayed on in school. Despite gains in gender parity on literacy in many places, progress towards adult literacy has been slow; in fact, almost all gains have been due to the transition of schooled youth into adulthood, rather than programmes of learning for adults. About half a billion women still lacked basic literacy in 2015 (UNESCO 2015 ). And while most children in most countries can now attend school, in a great many, a minority learn as much as their governments expect them to. By their own standards, a large number of developing country school systems are failing to endow their students with even minimum competencies of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Globally, some 125 million children do not attain functional literacy or numeracy even after four years of school, while the majority—in some cases the vast majority—of primary school students in many education systems do not attain even the basic competencies in reading or arithmetic needed to continue their learning (World Bank 2017 ).

The poor quality of the education received by the majority in developing countries is of particular concern because of the potential role of good quality education in reversing—or reinforcing—economic and related inequalities. The quality of education is increasingly understood to be a more powerful driver of economic growth than the size of an education system, and higher-quality basic education is associated with more inclusive and equitable forms of growth (Hanushek 2009 ; Hanushek and Woessmann 2007 ). However, the learning crisis aggravates, and is aggravated by, social and economic inequalities of all kinds. Differences in learning attainments between lower- and higher-income regions and countries are substantial, as a comparison of PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) test scores shows: the average student in a low-income country performs worse than 95 per cent of students in OECD countries—that is, would require remedial lessons in any developed country school system. Differences within a region can also be significant: Colombian students attain basic literacy six years earlier than their Bolivian counterparts, while only 19 per cent of young Nigerian primary school completers can read, compared with 80 per cent in Tanzania (World Bank 2017 ). Girls, rural students, and children from minority or other socially marginalized groups generally learn less, compared with boys, city children, and other advantaged groups (World Bank 2017 ). This reflects how gender and class disadvantage, remote geography, and membership of marginalized social groups amplify unequal learning outcomes; these then accumulate as children transition through the education system and on into the labour market (UNESCO 2012 , 2014 ). Nonetheless, some countries outperform others on learning indicators: Vietnam, for instance, performs much better than predicted by its per capita income; students in Latvia and Albania similarly learn more than expected from their other social and economic indicators (World Bank 2017 ). This again reinforces the sense that the drivers of educational quality are not simply related to economic or cultural factors, and that political factors are likely to play a significant role here.

Roots of the Learning Crisis: Lessons from Efforts at Reform

Why is the learning crisis so pervasive and apparently stubborn, when policies of educational expansion were so rapidly and enthusiastically adopted across the developing world? Improving quality is recognized to be more expensive and more difficult than increasing school places, and there is a perceived trade-off between keeping unit costs low and maximizing learning achievement (Nicolai et al. 2014 , 2). Enabling high quality learning is particularly challenging amongst low-income populations because of: institutional or personal biases against children from poor or marginalized groups (UNESCO 2010 ); challenges in the home environment (Smith and Barrett 2011 ); the adverse cognitive effects of early and chronic malnourishment (Crookston et al. 2010 , 2013 ; World Bank 2017 ); and dropout, poor attendance, child labour, and other characteristic features of childhoods lived in extreme poverty (Rose and Dyer 2008 ). School meals tend to raise participation and attendance rates, for instance, but evidence that school meals improve learning outcomes is more mixed (Adelman, Gilligan, and Lehrer 2008 ; Snilstveit et al. 2015 ). Poverty and inequality may be the biggest obstacles to education quality (Tikly and Barrett 2013 ), but while good quality education may be the surest pathway out of poverty and towards more equitable societies, there are few simple solutions to raising education standards in such settings. There is, in any case, limited consensus about what works to improve learning, as a recent ‘review of reviews’ found (Evans and Popova 2016 ).

Under-resourced and poorly managed systems lead to persistently poor quality basic education, but more finance is not necessarily the answer. Low- and middle-income countries typically spend too little on education: only 41 of 150 countries for which data is available spend the recommended 6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on education, and 25 countries spend less than half that. Globally, the average proportion of public spending on education was only 15 per cent (against a recommended 20 per cent), a proportion that has barely changed since 1999; in some low- and middle-income countries, the share of education in public spending dropped below 5 per cent of GDP during the MDG period (UNESCO 2014 ). Under-resourcing does not explain all of the problems of education quality, but it helps to explain why fewer than 5 per cent of Tanzanian students have their own reading textbook, why 130 Malawian students cram into the average first-year classroom, and why only one in four Chad schools has a toilet (UNESCO 2014 ).

Yet the extent to which resources shape education quality is known to be highly variable, depending on how they are governed and managed at the different levels of education systems. The resources that do reach schools are often poorly deployed, usually because of over-centralized control, so that the meagre resources are inefficiently and ineffectively used, and the evidence on how more resources contribute to better learning via lower pupil–teacher ratios and more qualified teachers is mixed and context-specific (Glewwe et al. 2011 ). In their review of seventy-nine studies in developing countries, Glewwe et al. (2011, 41) concluded that a reasonably functional physical classroom tended to matter, but so did teachers with more subject knowledge, longer school days, and the provision of tuition; by contrast, teacher absence had a ‘clear negative effect’. Many teachers freelance as private tutors or find other ways to supplement their income (Bray 2006 ). Leakage is common, particularly through loss of public sector employee time (Chaudhury et al. 2004 ).

Where teachers do show up, they are often themselves too poorly educated to impart high quality learning: most new teachers in The Gambia, Botswana, Lesotho, Chad, Togo, Guinea-Bissau, and Cameroon did not even meet secondary school minimum qualifications for teachers in the 1990s (UNESCO 2004). And, despite massive investments in teacher training in the 2000s, in one-third of countries less than 75 per cent of teachers are trained even up to (often quite low) national standards (UNESCO 2014 ). Tikly and Barrett ( 2013 , 4) found that while low reading and mathematics attainments were closely linked to poverty and inequality, ‘schools can make a difference’, even more so in lower-income countries than in richer countries, particularly through effective school leadership and teacher management. As the World Bank ( 2017 ) summarized it, the four determinants of the learning crisis are: (i) children do not arrive ready to learn; (ii) teachers often lack the needed skills and motivation; (iii) school management skills are low; and (iv) school inputs have failed to keep pace with expansion. A critical lesson is that learning crises are systemic, not merely errors at the margin: entire education systems generally fail to deliver adequate levels of learning. This reflects the ‘misalignment’ of the goals and practices of the education system with the learning outcomes it needs to generate, notably on matters such as setting learning objectives and responsibilities, monitoring learning, financing, and the motivations and incentives of key actors within the system (World Bank 2017 ).

What causes these misalignments? The World Development Report 2004, Making Services Work for Poor People , undertook a political analysis of service delivery failures, linking them to weak or dysfunctional relationships of accountability between citizens and service-users (with respect to education, parents, and students) and service providers (teachers, officials, politicians) (World Bank 2003 ). Four dimensions of accountability most needed strengthening in relation to education performance: (i) voice, or how well citizens could hold the state—politicians and policymakers—accountable for performance in discharging its responsibility for education; (ii) compacts, or how well and how clearly the responsibilities and objectives of public engagement were communicated to the public, and to private organizations that provide services (Ministries of Education, school districts); (iii) management, or the actions that created effective frontline providers (teachers, administrators) within organizations; and (iv) client power, or how well citizen-clients could increase the accountability of schools and school systems (World Bank 2003 , 113). Central insights included that accountability for public service provision could be exercised via the ‘long route to accountability’, whereby citizens and civil society mandate political actors to provide education services, politicians then direct state actors to design such services, and the central state then tasks local governments and frontline service to deliver the services (and they are potentially punished electorally for failures at education service delivery); or via the ‘short route’, through which service-users hold frontline providers directly to account, through the use of their powers as consumers or rights-bearing citizens to demand services and sanction failures (World Bank 2003 ).

Recognizing the central importance of accountability, efforts to strengthen the ‘short route’ to accountable education provision took the form of interventions and experiments to promote community participation in school-based management; induce community monitoring of school quality indicators, such as enrolment, attendance, and performance; introduce vouchers and other ‘school choice’ initiatives; and efforts to monitor teacher performance, amongst others. It seems clear that teachers perform best when motivated and monitored to do so (Bruns, Filmer, and Patrinos 2011 ; Bruns and Luque 2014 ), yet efforts to enhance learning by strengthening ‘client power’ have yielded mixed results (Bruns et al. 2011 ; Carr-Hill et al. 2015 ; Snilstveit et al. 2015 ; World Bank 2017 ). Carr-Hill et al. (2015) found that community participation in school management yielded positive and large effects in middle-income countries, but smaller and more uneven results in poorer countries, where, amongst other things, community members lacked the capacities or incentives to engage with school performance (see also Dunne et al. 2007 ).

Some of these interventions, particularly the quasi-experimental efforts at information and monitoring, were introduced with limited reference to the political contexts within which they needed to operate, something which recent reviews of social accountability have found to be critical (Devarajan, Khemani, and Walton 2011 ; Hickey and King 2016 ). These ‘widgets’—pared-down tools for project intervention that failed to engage with the deeper and wider politics of school provision—had little prospect of strengthening accountability for public service delivery (Joshi and Houtzager 2012 ). Citizen power involves a transformation of political relationships, not merely the ‘teeth’ or consumer power to make choices at the frontline, but the ‘voice’ to mandate public action, and to demand accountability (Fox 2015 ). In the terms of the WDR 2004, the short route to accountability needs the ‘voice’ of political claims- and policymaking for it to be effective, while at the local level, education service delivery only has ‘teeth’—the ability to punish failures—when citizens and service-users have the capacities to demand, and receive, improved performance on the frontline (see also Westhorp et al. 2014 ).

These bottom-up pressures also need to be backed up by top-down pressure from within the political and bureaucratic system (Booth 2012 ), often through combined forms of diagonal accountability that join up oversight mechanisms in pursuit of more responsive and effective performance (Goetz and Jenkins 2005; Joshi and Houtzager 2012 ). The nature of the ‘craft’ in the interpersonal activity of teaching and learning means that effective school systems need to be organized like starfish—independently functional and responsive to differences in environment, yet connected to the whole—rather than, as most are, like spiders, directly controlled from the centre (Pritchett 2013 ). Yet central control remains an important political objective in many school systems, whether under democratic or authoritarian rule, and whether state capacity can be judged strong or weak.

These lessons have renewed attention to the politics of the ‘long route’ to accountability in education provision. In the first World Development Report on education (World Bank 2017 ) the roots of the learning crisis are framed as both technical and political. In one important example, national learning assessments are seen as vital to create ‘measures for learning [to] guide action’ as well as ‘measures of learning [to] spur action’, by increasing public participation and awareness of school performance; providing parents with evidence needed to make better choices; and raising voice via ‘the long route of accountability, where learning metrics may help citizens use the political process to hold politicians accountable for learning’ (World Bank 2017 , 94). Yet, while ‘political impetus’ has been critical to the adoption and implementation of learning reforms, powerful political incentives, including ‘unhealthy’ relationships between teacher unions and political and bureaucratic interests, can also ensure the goals and practices of the system remain misaligned with those of children’s learning (World Bank 2017 ).

Understanding the Political Economy of Education Quality Reforms

It may be true that ‘education systems are what they are, and indeed, the schools are what they are—everywhere in the world, regardless of the nation—because politics makes them that way’ (Moe and Wiborg 2017 ). Yet political science has paid little attention to education, for reasons that include lack of data and the specific disciplinary challenge (for political science) of accessing household dynamics and decision-making processes at multiple levels (Gift and Wibbels 2014 ; Busemeyer and Trampusch 2011 ; Ansell 2010 ). There has been some interest in the comparative politics of education, including in developing countries (for instance, Baum and Lake 2003 ; Brown and Hunter 2004 ), but it remains a new thematic area for the discipline, and one in which theorizing is in its infancy. The next section briefly discusses existing political science theories of education provision in light of the distinct challenges and concerns of developing countries, before moving on to the literature on the politics of education quality in developing country settings. This includes a discussion of the need to maintain a distinction between the politics of education in advanced, industrialized societies with long-established systems of mass education, and the politics of education in societies whose population includes many first-generation learners, where mass education is still a novelty and where transnational influences may be stronger.

Gift and Wibbels ( 2014 ) argue that the basis for a political science theory of education is as a function of the interaction between demand and supply: how much education a society receives is a function of: (a) the demand for skills emanating from the labour market and the economy; and (b) how, and the extent to which, those skills are supplied through the education system. Parents are assumed to ‘naturally prefer’ schools that are good for their children, and, to a greater or lesser extent, to mandate politicians to deliver them. How successfully they organize to assert their demands will determine what states provide. Ansell ( 2010 ) similarly notes that a political theory of education must rest on insights (a) that education is essentially redistributive and, depending on how resources are spent, can be progressive or otherwise; and (b) that ‘public education policy is heavily affected by the nature of the global market for educated labor’ (Ansell 2010 , 3).

Not all the assumptions made by Gift and Wibbels ( 2014 ) hold in contexts where mass formal schooling is still new. Gift and Wibbels view the outcome as a matter of magnitude, with the dependent variable being public spending on education. But if the heart of the problem is that schools and teachers are unaccountable to the parents and pupils they are supposed to serve, this implies a change in the relative political power of these groups, and not—or not only—more resources. In fact, more resources may exacerbate the problem, entrenching public sector interests in the existing system, making teacher unions stronger, expanding poorly managed services to an even wider population. Parents may know neither what to expect nor what to demand (for instance, Martínez 2012 ; Dunne et al. 2007 ; Mani and Mukand 2007 ). The capacity of citizens to demand and achieve improved levels of service provision is in general closely shaped by issues of poverty, exclusion, and inequality (Hickey and King 2016 ).

In developing countries with limited state capacity, the strongest demand for an educated population may come from the state itself. Many developing countries lack the human resources to staff the state; as we have already seen, many low-income countries cannot recruit enough educated teachers. Education provision may thus be insulated against state weaknesses and/or the problems of personalized as opposed to programmatic policy regimes, but with limited implications for quality: ‘in an environment of weak state capacity, democracy may prompt governments to increase education access, but not education inputs’ (Harding and Stasavage 2014 , 230). The likely absence of programmatic education agendas in developing countries may also be related to the general absence of programmatic class-based parties; the political history of education in developed countries indicates that parties and coalitions on the left and centre are more likely to promote wider access to education, and are associated with higher public spending on education (Busemeyer 2014 ).

Demand for educated labour from employers may be weak in low-income developing countries with large ‘reserve army’ populations, or because low-capital enterprises generally need little skilled labour. It seems clear that the ‘Varieties of Capitalism’ approach to understanding differences in education policy on the basis of ‘a functional complementarity between skill formation and welfare state policies’ (Busemeyer 2014 , 35) offers limited insights into situations where the relationship between labour, capital, and the state is informal, paternalistic, and unorganized. Corrales argues that it is possible that ‘more exposure to capitalism prompts governments and constituents to protect education expenditures’, but that how domestic politics interacts with opportunities and constraints in the global economy shapes the politics of investment in education (Corrales 2006 , 240). Doner and Schneider (2016, 635) note that informality, inequality, and a reliance on foreign direct investment can fragment business and labour, and ‘undercut the potential demand for upgrading institutions’.

Of the available scholarship that does focus on the political economy of education in developing countries, 3 it is possible to differentiate between those studies which focus on how national-level politics shapes educational policies in broad terms (e.g. Stasavage 2005 ; Kosack 2009 ; Kosack 2012 ) and those that look more specifically at how politics (e.g. Grindle 2004 ) and governance arrangements (Pritchett 2013 ) play out within education systems. Within each of these literatures, there is a further distinction between a focus on formal institutional arrangements (e.g. Ansell 2008 and Stasavage 2005 on democracy; Pritchett 2013 on education sector governance; World Bank 2003 on formal accountability structures) and those that focus on informal power and politics (e.g. Kosack 2012 on political coalitions; Grindle 2004 on policy coalitions; also, Wales et al. 2016 ).

Analysis of the relationship between democracy and education tends to find that democracy exerts a positive influence on governments’ financial commitments to education (Stasavage 2005 ; Ansell 2008 ). But this may not advance understanding of reforms aimed at learning, as opposed to access. Nelson ( 2007 ) argues that competitive elections may create pressures to increase but not to improve or reallocate provision, because the political incentives to do so are so weak and non-urgent. Kosack ( 2012 ) also goes beyond regime-type explanations in search of a less formal and institutional analysis, arguing that none of the three most common political–economic explanations (relating to regime type, education cultures, and governmental commitment to economic performance) predict the realities of education policies. In his analysis of Taiwan, Ghana, and Brazil, Kosack concludes that answers to two questions can explain patterns of education investment: whose support does a government need to stay in power? What sort of education do those citizens want? Kosack identifies situations in which political entrepreneurs help disorganized groups to organize around common interests on education, as through the formation of coalitions between populist leaders and rural constituencies (Kosack 2012 ; also Corrales 1999 ). By extension of the same logic regarding the role of coalitions in shaping policy preferences, it may well be that developing countries lack the kinds of organized groups that might constitute a coalition in favour of a better trained citizenry and labour force (e.g. middle-class parents, organized capitalists).

This focus on informal forms of politics seems to characterize the most insightful comparative work to date on education politics. Merilee Grindle’s (2004) seminal work on education sector reform in Latin America notes that whereas access reforms were ‘“easy” from a political economy perspective’ (Grindle 2004 , 6), reforms aimed at improving quality in the 1990s:

involved the potential for lost jobs, and lost control over budgets, people, and decisions. They exposed students, teachers, and supervisors to new pressures and expectations. Teachers’ unions charged that they destroyed long existing rights and career tracks. (Grindle 2004 , 6)

The wider literature supports the presumption that teachers are typically the best organized and most vocal group empowered to influence education policy and reforms, and that influence is not always benign (Moe and Wiborg 2017 ; Bruns and Schneider 2016 ; Kingdon et al. 2014 ; Rosser and Fahmi 2018 ; Béteille et al. 2016 ). Nevertheless, Grindle’s cases of education quality reforms in Latin America show that reforms could succeed, depending on how they were introduced, designed, approved, and implemented. Reform-oriented coalitions within the education sector were particularly important in her cases. Corrales ( 1999 ) similarly suggests that policy entrepreneurs tend to emerge in response to high-level government commitment to reforms. But a recent review of the politics of education quality in developing countries found that the visibility and ‘political returns’ of educational investments, information asymmetries, particularly around performance assessment, and patterns of demand and accountability, including capacities for collective action, tended to limit commitment to quality reforms (Nicolai et al. 2014 , 5).

In terms of studies on the significance of formal governance arrangements within the education sector, there has been a focus on both the national- and local-level systems, and within each of these on the appropriate balance between top-down and bottom-up forms of accountability mechanisms. Pritchett ( 2013 ) argues that school systems are often highly centralized, which can work well to deliver expanded provision quickly, but which may exclude local parents and teachers from influence, and so deliver schooling without learning. A similar point is made by Tikly and Barrett ( 2013 , 20), who conclude that ‘weighting accountability towards top-down control … can constrain the space for teacher autonomy, reducing responsive inclusion and curricula relevance at the classroom level’.

However, formal governance arrangements rarely play out according to design in developing countries (Andrews 2013 ). Kingdon et al. (2014, 2) note that the supposed benefits of decentralization ‘do not accrue in practice because in poor rural areas the local elite closes up the spaces for wider community representation and participation in school affairs’. They suggest the effects of decentralization are ‘especially problematic when accountability systems are weak, and there is little parental information or awareness of how to hold schools responsible’ (Kingdon et al. 2014 , 28). A good deal of work has been undertaken at the level of schools themselves, particularly in terms of the type of oversight and accountability measures associated with improved levels of performance. Westhorp et al.’s (2014) systematic review of the circumstances under which decentralization, school-based management, accountability initiatives, and community schools influence education outcomes, particularly for the poor, found that a wide range of approaches had achieved some degree of success. These include the introduction of rewards in conjunction with sanctions; performance monitoring by the community members, including traditional authorities and politicians; and the introduction of direct accountability relationships, including the power to hire and fire between school management committees and staff. However, school-level interventions are rarely enough on their own: to work, they depend on a supportive political context, an adequately-resourced education sector with a strong national system for assessment, and high-capacity local actors, including school management committees, head teachers, and local community actors.

Some research into the politics of education in developing countries has focused more on the ideas (rather than only the incentives) that shape elite behaviour. A good deal of work on elite perceptions and commitment has identified education as being an area that attracts a high level of consensus from ruling elites, as compared with other aspects of social policy (e.g. Hossain 2005 ; Hossain and Moore 2002 ). Contemporary developing countries are part of a world system in which mass education is, or is becoming, the norm, so that integration into that world system depends on the provision of mass education, and provision of mass education legitimates state authority (Boli, Ramirez, and Meyer 1985 ; Meyer, Ramirez, and Soysal 1992 ; see also Corrales 2006 ; Tikly 2001 ). Policy and political elites may ‘demand’ education as part of a developmentalist agenda of nation building or economic development, or as an instrument for achieving other social policy goals (e.g. fertility control: Colclough 2012 ; Ansell 2010 ).

Finally, international actors have played a significant role in driving up the levels of investment in education in developing countries, and in ensuring that a significant effort is made to target this provision at poorer groups. This is in part through the transnational advocacy coalition that comprised the Global Campaign for Education (Gaventa and Mayo 2009 ), as well as the strong pressures that international aid agencies have often exerted over education policy within countries that rely on overseas development finance. The Millennium Development Goals helped to provide further impetus here. However, the influence of aid agencies within the global South is declining, and there is little evidence to date that donors or international agencies have succeeded in promoting reforms targeted at improving the quality of education, despite efforts in this direction (Wales et al. 2016 ), including through the Sustainable Development Goals.

Overall, then, there have been some important studies of the politics of educational quality in developing countries, even if these are few in nature. Of these, the ones that most closely address our concern with the politics of promoting difficult reforms aimed at tackling the learning crisis have tended to emphasize the role of informal as well as formal institutional processes, ideas as well as incentives, and actors operating at multiple scales, from the global through to the local, and often in the form of coalitions. Given that none have presented a conceptual framework that can help capture these multiple factors, we try to address this failing in the next chapter, where we set out an approach that helped guide the studies reported on here and which we hope can be of some use in guiding further work in the field.

Conclusion: Understanding Education Quality Reform Demands a Political Approach

The global learning crisis manifests itself in low learning attainments in each of the six countries studied here. Their experiences are reflected across the struggles faced by low- and middle-income countries to grow their education systems in an increasingly competitive global economy dependent on skills. This book helps to make sense of the global learning crisis by exploring the proposition that politics matters, centrally, in explaining why some countries are doing better at raising the quality of education than others. But how might politics matter? Political analysis of education is limited, both empirically and theoretically, and both in developed and in developing countries. While there are good reasons to believe that the difference in the uptake of quality reforms and their implementation relates to differences of a political nature, there is little conceptual work with which to build a theoretical framework for analysing how that works, or evidence to test it. This book contributes both evidence of how politics influences reforms in developing countries, and to the construction of theory about how this comes about. It does this by setting out and testing hypotheses about how the political settlement and its relationship to the domain of education have shaped the uptake, success, or failure of recent efforts to bring about education quality reform.

Education quality reforms tend to be less politically tractable than programmes of expansion. The nature and distribution of power over the vital resource involved in education quality—teaching—are necessarily at the centre of this analysis. Quality reforms are difficult to design and difficult to deliver: less is known about ‘what works’ and achievement is hard to measure. Weak state capacity has not prevented children from attending school, but it is very likely to shape what happens once they get there. Yet strong state capacity in relation to education may not necessarily or only mean centralized power; effective education systems must be responsive and adaptive to local needs, granting enough autonomy for schools to be accountable to the local communities they seek to educate. The governance and institutional reforms needed to build effective schools are intensely political and involve struggles over power, whether in terms of the authority to define the content and direction of nation building, the power to deploy the vast national teaching force, or the resources to spend on school buildings and teachers’ pay.

The following chapters look at how politics is shaping the level of capacity and commitment of elites to improving the quality of public education and its governance in developing countries. These chapters explore variations in the extent to which countries have adopted and implemented reforms aimed at improving learning outcomes, and in how those reforms have played out in terms of improved learning. Next, Chapter 2 develops a theoretical framework for understanding the politics of education in developing countries within which such analysis can be conducted.

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http://un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/ (accessed 12 June 2017).

All figures here are from UNESCO’s 2015 Global Monitoring Report , which took stock of all progress towards the EFA goals over the period (UNESCO 2015 ).

We are grateful to Sophie King for producing an excellent annotated bibliography on the politics of education in developing countries, on which this section is based.

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Four of the biggest problems facing education—and four trends that could make a difference

Eduardo velez bustillo, harry a. patrinos.

In 2022, we published, Lessons for the education sector from the COVID-19 pandemic , which was a follow up to, Four Education Trends that Countries Everywhere Should Know About , which summarized views of education experts around the world on how to handle the most pressing issues facing the education sector then. We focused on neuroscience, the role of the private sector, education technology, inequality, and pedagogy.

Unfortunately, we think the four biggest problems facing education today in developing countries are the same ones we have identified in the last decades .

1. The learning crisis was made worse by COVID-19 school closures

Low quality instruction is a major constraint and prior to COVID-19, the learning poverty rate in low- and middle-income countries was 57% (6 out of 10 children could not read and understand basic texts by age 10). More dramatic is the case of Sub-Saharan Africa with a rate even higher at 86%. Several analyses show that the impact of the pandemic on student learning was significant, leaving students in low- and middle-income countries way behind in mathematics, reading and other subjects. Some argue that learning poverty may be close to 70% after the pandemic , with a substantial long-term negative effect in future earnings. This generation could lose around $21 trillion in future salaries, with the vulnerable students affected the most.

2. Countries are not paying enough attention to early childhood care and education (ECCE)

At the pre-school level about two-thirds of countries do not have a proper legal framework to provide free and compulsory pre-primary education. According to UNESCO, only a minority of countries, mostly high-income, were making timely progress towards SDG4 benchmarks on early childhood indicators prior to the onset of COVID-19. And remember that ECCE is not only preparation for primary school. It can be the foundation for emotional wellbeing and learning throughout life; one of the best investments a country can make.

3. There is an inadequate supply of high-quality teachers

Low quality teaching is a huge problem and getting worse in many low- and middle-income countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the percentage of trained teachers fell from 84% in 2000 to 69% in 2019 . In addition, in many countries teachers are formally trained and as such qualified, but do not have the minimum pedagogical training. Globally, teachers for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects are the biggest shortfalls.

4. Decision-makers are not implementing evidence-based or pro-equity policies that guarantee solid foundations

It is difficult to understand the continued focus on non-evidence-based policies when there is so much that we know now about what works. Two factors contribute to this problem. One is the short tenure that top officials have when leading education systems. Examples of countries where ministers last less than one year on average are plentiful. The second and more worrisome deals with the fact that there is little attention given to empirical evidence when designing education policies.

To help improve on these four fronts, we see four supporting trends:

1. Neuroscience should be integrated into education policies

Policies considering neuroscience can help ensure that students get proper attention early to support brain development in the first 2-3 years of life. It can also help ensure that children learn to read at the proper age so that they will be able to acquire foundational skills to learn during the primary education cycle and from there on. Inputs like micronutrients, early child stimulation for gross and fine motor skills, speech and language and playing with other children before the age of three are cost-effective ways to get proper development. Early grade reading, using the pedagogical suggestion by the Early Grade Reading Assessment model, has improved learning outcomes in many low- and middle-income countries. We now have the tools to incorporate these advances into the teaching and learning system with AI , ChatGPT , MOOCs and online tutoring.

2. Reversing learning losses at home and at school

There is a real need to address the remaining and lingering losses due to school closures because of COVID-19. Most students living in households with incomes under the poverty line in the developing world, roughly the bottom 80% in low-income countries and the bottom 50% in middle-income countries, do not have the minimum conditions to learn at home . These students do not have access to the internet, and, often, their parents or guardians do not have the necessary schooling level or the time to help them in their learning process. Connectivity for poor households is a priority. But learning continuity also requires the presence of an adult as a facilitator—a parent, guardian, instructor, or community worker assisting the student during the learning process while schools are closed or e-learning is used.

To recover from the negative impact of the pandemic, the school system will need to develop at the student level: (i) active and reflective learning; (ii) analytical and applied skills; (iii) strong self-esteem; (iv) attitudes supportive of cooperation and solidarity; and (v) a good knowledge of the curriculum areas. At the teacher (instructor, facilitator, parent) level, the system should aim to develop a new disposition toward the role of teacher as a guide and facilitator. And finally, the system also needs to increase parental involvement in the education of their children and be active part in the solution of the children’s problems. The Escuela Nueva Learning Circles or the Pratham Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) are models that can be used.

3. Use of evidence to improve teaching and learning

We now know more about what works at scale to address the learning crisis. To help countries improve teaching and learning and make teaching an attractive profession, based on available empirical world-wide evidence , we need to improve its status, compensation policies and career progression structures; ensure pre-service education includes a strong practicum component so teachers are well equipped to transition and perform effectively in the classroom; and provide high-quality in-service professional development to ensure they keep teaching in an effective way. We also have the tools to address learning issues cost-effectively. The returns to schooling are high and increasing post-pandemic. But we also have the cost-benefit tools to make good decisions, and these suggest that structured pedagogy, teaching according to learning levels (with and without technology use) are proven effective and cost-effective .

4. The role of the private sector

When properly regulated the private sector can be an effective education provider, and it can help address the specific needs of countries. Most of the pedagogical models that have received international recognition come from the private sector. For example, the recipients of the Yidan Prize on education development are from the non-state sector experiences (Escuela Nueva, BRAC, edX, Pratham, CAMFED and New Education Initiative). In the context of the Artificial Intelligence movement, most of the tools that will revolutionize teaching and learning come from the private sector (i.e., big data, machine learning, electronic pedagogies like OER-Open Educational Resources, MOOCs, etc.). Around the world education technology start-ups are developing AI tools that may have a good potential to help improve quality of education .

After decades asking the same questions on how to improve the education systems of countries, we, finally, are finding answers that are very promising. Governments need to be aware of this fact.

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The Bottom Line The Deterioration of K-12 Education in America

New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s recent announcement for overhauling the K-12 education system in New York rightly recognizes the teacher shortage, which has become a crisis . But it does not change the underlying incentives for attracting talented people into teaching or retaining the teachers who do a good job educating their students.

From urban to suburban to rural, schools are desperate for personnel to staff classrooms. Classrooms are often forced to combine to ensure an adult is present to supervise students. And administrators are regularly substituting as teachers, lunchroom monitors, and cafeteria workers. These shortages wear existing school personnel out and reduce the student experience.

When the human supply runs too short, schools are canceling for multiple days or even weeks at a time, often with little notice — forcing a significant hardship on working parents and causing students to fall further behind in their learning. These teacher shortfalls are especially detrimental to the development of children in light of what they’ve already been experiencing since 2020 due to Covid responses.

The K-12 public education system started the 2021-2022 school year with one and half million fewer students than the previous year, and many more have withdrawn mid-year. Even with the resulting reduced demand for teachers, the supply has not kept pace. Data from Emsi Burning Glass, revealing that job postings for teachers have grown by 79 percent over the past year, illustrates the magnitude of the teacher shortage.

The challenges are not new. Rather, the past two years have accelerated what has long been a structural challenge within the K-12 education system for years — its inability to attract sufficient numbers of quality teachers.

Barriers to Entry

For starters, the current system holds teacher certification as a sacred cow and fails to recognize subject matter expertise gained through advanced degrees, professional experience, or a combination of the two. Instead, a teaching certificate from any of the hundreds of programs around the country serves as the gatekeeper. Little concern is given to the vastly differing quality or admissions requirements of the teacher preparation programs.

Nor is it considered that the instructors in the certification programs (typically university professors) are themselves often not certified.

Certification requirements stifle the supply of teachers by raising unnecessary barriers to entry and unnecessarily hinder the geographical movement of teachers. Since certifications vary state-to-state, many teachers feel constrained to stay put, even if they could find a better opportunity or quality of life in another state. Researchers have found that voluntary certification would provide at least as many benefits without the costs.

While Governor Hochul’s announcement recognizes the long wait times in the certification process and endeavors to address it by hiring additional staff to facilitate teacher certification, the problem is that the entire certification process is broken. What we need is not more staff, but a different process for attracting, vetting, and retaining talent.

Rewarding Incumbents, Not Performers

Unfortunately, both the recruiting and the retaining of excellent teachers are hindered by a system that rewards tenure instead of performance.

The longstanding recognition in labor economics is that the alternative to longevity pay — pay for performance — creates stronger performance incentives for current workers. It also attracts higher-caliber candidates because talented workers want a system that recognizes and rewards their performance. The result of performance pay is systematic improvements in teacher quality and productivity .

The recruiting and the retaining of excellent teachers are hindered by a system that rewards tenure instead of performance. Keri D. Ingraham & Christos A. Makridis

Simply raising salaries uniformly, as Governor Hochul has recommended, risks discouraging effort even more than it already is in the system. In fact, the main problem in U.S. teacher pay is not low pay uniformly , but rather the lack of customization and failure to link pay with performance. A further issue is the nine-month work year . Though it may be attractive for some (e.g., working moms with younger children), it shortchanges those desiring compensation for a twelve-month professional employment career.

Bureaucracy, Bureaucracy, Bureaucracy

Another major problem negatively impacting the teacher workforce is the system’s overbearing bureaucracy, which dampens creativity and innovation, and snuffs out creative problem-solving. All too often, the hands of teachers (and administrators) are tied by endless top-down, one-size-fits-all policies and procedures, preventing them from providing personalized learning plans for each individual student. Governor Hochul’s recommendation to bring additional billions into the education system sounds good in theory, but does little to create incentives for performance. Customization is increasingly needed, especially given the varying learning styles of children and the necessity to prepare students for the increasingly complex workforce.

Teachers’ unions add to the bloated bureaucracy. Despite the extreme measures of teachers’ unions to promote employee working conditions and compensation, research reveals that right-to-work laws positively affect workers, including their well-being.

Job performance and job satisfaction are often higher among non-unionized teachers, such as those working in charter and private schools. For example, data consistently confirms that charter school and private school students outperform traditional public school students. With the teacher the number one factor beyond parents influencing student learning, the powerful impact of the human capital in the classroom is revealed. And these charter and private school teachers willingly work for less pay with a mere fraction of the benefits traditional public school teachers receive, signaling strong job satisfaction.

Needed Structural Changes

Continuing down the current path, which is failing our students and shuttering our schools, is unacceptable. We need to stop throwing good money after bad and rethink K-12 education from a systems perspective. Of fundamental importance is getting incentives right. With the teacher shortage crisis at hand, there is a timely opportunity to adjust the system. We must attract the right teachers and reward them based on quality of work in order to deliver premium educational services to students.

The best way to do that is by linking pay with performance. While critics of pay for performance often argue that it harms students, empirical analysis has provided enormous evidence to the contrary . Even though performance pay has not been implemented on a large scale (primarily due to teachers’ unions’ politicization of the issue), there are examples of positive results. One example is the Dallas Independent School District , where the approach has led to substantial student learning gains.

And no longer can we limit the educator pipeline to only graduates of education schools. The pool of teacher candidates has dwindled, and schools are forced to hire less proficient teachers (or sometimes the only applicant for a teaching vacancy), which ultimately hurts the student.

Finally, we need to muster the political courage to challenge the unbridled power of the teachers’ unions. Their resistance to performance-based pay for teachers and the preventing even the lowest-performing teachers from getting fired keeps the U.S. K-12 education system in a state of mediocrity.

The system must be redesigned to address these flawed approaches and practices related to the acquisition and compensation of educators. That means ending the teacher shortage and creating a system that allows and incentivizes our top subject matter experts and those with the ability to demonstrate remarkable teaching skills the opportunity to not only enter but have the necessary flexibility to transform our K-12 classrooms.

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The Philippines’ Basic Education Crisis

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Out of the country’s 327,000-odd school buildings, less than a third are in good condition, according to government figures.

Three Filipino schoolgirls walking home from school on a muddy road in Port Barton, Palawan, the Philippines.

Several recent studies have pointed out the alarming deterioration of the quality of learning in the Philippines, but this was officially confirmed in the basic education report delivered by Vice President Sara Duterte on January 30. Duterte is concurrently serving as secretary to the Department of Education.

Addressing stakeholders with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in attendance, Duterte highlighted the key issues that plague the country’s basic education system before announcing her department’s agenda for reform .

She echoed what previous surveys have indicated about the low academic proficiency of Filipino students. She also identified her department’s biggest concern. “The lack of school infrastructure and resources to support the ideal teaching process is the most pressing issue pounding the Philippine basic education,” she said.

She presented the latest government inventory which shows that out of 327,851 school buildings in the country, only 104,536 are in good condition. There are 100,072 school buildings that need minor repairs, 89,252 that require major repairs, and 21,727 that are set for condemnation.

She added that the procurement practices in the agency “had red flags that demanded immediate actions.” She shared initial findings in the ongoing review of the K-12 curriculum that underscored the failure of the 10-year-old program to deliver satisfactory results.

“The K-12 curriculum promised to produce graduates that are employable. That promise remains a promise,” she said.

Duterte criticized the heavy workload assigned to teachers as she pressed for an immediate review of the current setup in public schools. “This is a system that burdens them with backbreaking and time-consuming administrative tasks, a system that provides no adequate support and robs them of the opportunity to professionally grow and professionally teach, assist, and guide our learners,” she said.

She unveiled her education agenda themed “Matatag: Bansang Makabata, Batang Makabansa,” (Nation for children, children for the nation) and focused on curriculum reform, accelerated delivery of services, promoting the well-being of learners, and providing greater support to teachers.

Responding to the report, Marcos joined Duterte in acknowledging the government’s accountability to the nation’s young learners. “We have failed them,” he said. “We have to admit that. We have failed our children and let us not keep failing them anymore.” He promised to build better infrastructure by investing heavily in education.

He can cite as reference his government’s development plan , which was also released in January, about how the education crisis is linked to “decades of incapacity and suboptimal investment in education.”

Duterte’s admission about the dismal state of basic education was welcomed by some educators. Senators vowed to work with Marcos and Duterte in passing education reform measures. Opposition legislators urged Duterte to hear the views of school unions and student organizations whose appeals for better learning conditions are often dismissed by authorities as part of anti-government propaganda.

Meanwhile, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) noted that the report “failed to present today’s real extent and gravity of the learning crisis due to the lack of an evidence-based learning assessment conducted after the pandemic-induced school lockdowns.” The group was referring to the prolonged closure of schools under the government of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Her father was president for six years and had not done any significant move to improve the lot of our mentors and of the education system. It is the government who have failed the teachers and our learners,” the group insisted.

It was also under the Duterte government when around 54 Lumad schools for indigenous peoples in Mindanao Island were either suspended or forced to shut down by authorities based on accusations that they were teaching rebellion.

The report also didn’t mention that some of the major questionable procurement transactions in the education department took place under the previous government.

The ACT criticized Duterte’s reform agenda because it features “general promises that lack specific action plans and definite targets.”

“No specific targets and timelines were presented to convincingly show that the agency will cut down the classroom shortage significantly,” it added.

Duterte said the agency will build 6,000 classrooms this year, which is quite small compared to the backlog identified in the report. There’s also no deadline for the electrification of around 1,562 schools that still do not have access to power.

Despite her impassioned plea to uplift the working conditions of educators, Duterte was castigated for being silent about the pending proposals to raise the salary grades of public school teachers.

ACT reminded officials to prove their political will in reversing the decline of Philippine education. “The call to reforming education should not be a grandstanding cry but a sincere pledge to rectify the mistakes and shortcomings of the past and the present,” it said.

This can be measured in at least two ways this year. First, Duterte’s willingness to file appropriate charges against erring officials involved in anomalous transactions under the previous administration. And second, Marcos’ commitment to substantially increase the funding for education.

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7 Key Issues And Problems Of Philippine Education

deteriorating quality of education essay

Across the years our educational system has been rocked by controversies which have remained unabated up to this day. Amidst the welter of issues, two of them have managed to stand out in importance: quality and relevance . The major difficulty in education in the Philippines is the short-sighted policy of sacrificing the quality and quantity of education for reasons of economy.

The key issues and problems in Philippine education which need further debate and depth analysis as well as immediate resolution include the following:

1. Deteriorating quality of education

It is uncommon to hear college teachers decry the quality of students that come to them. They lament the students’ inability to construct a correct sentence, much less a paragraph. Private schools have been assailed as profit-making institutions turning out half-baked graduates who later become part of the nation’s educated unemployed. All these are indications of the poor quality of education.

There are multiple factors which have led to low educational standards. Studies and fact-finding commissions have shown that the deteriorating quality of education is due to the low government budget for education; poor quality of teachers; poor management of schools; poor school facilities such as laboratory and library facilities; poor learning environment; the content of the curriculum; inadequate books and science equipment; the poor method of instruction; shortages of classrooms; and others.

2. Colonial, feudal, imperial, commercial, and elitist orientation in Philippine education

A rather sweeping indictment is that the Philippine educational system has been and still is basically American in orientation and objectives. Even now, despite years of independence, our educational system has not succeeded in eliminating the chronic colonial mentality which abounds like a mental blight within or without the academe. At present, quality education is financial-capacity based, making higher education more of a privilege rather than a right.

3. Shortage of school buildings, textbooks and equipment

Since 1960, elementary enrolment has been expanding at the rapid rate of 4% a year owing to increase in the number of children and in the enrolment ratio.

The shortages of classrooms and textbooks are particularly severe. The nationwide classroom shortage is estimated to be 40,000 and the DECS (now DepEd) operates two shifts in many schools. The textbook problem is even more serious. A survey done in preparation for a World Bank education loan found that the pupil-textbook ration in the public elementary schools is 10:1 and 79% of the textbooks are more than 5 years old. This situation has persisted for many years.

Other teaching tools, such as science materials, teaching devices and audio-visual aids, are also in short supply. Perennial graft and corruption in the acquisition of books and in the construction of school buildings has often been reported. This situation handicaps the teaching staff in their work.

4. Overworked and underpaid teaching staff

Teaching has often been referred to as the “most notable of all professions.” To many teachers, however, the noble image of their profession has been transformed into an illusion. Over the last three decades, we have come to think of the Filipino teachers as overworked and underpaid professionals.

The fact that teachers are paid subsistence wages is only half of their sad story. Their daily bout with dilapidated classrooms, overcrowded classes, and lack of teaching materials, among others, make the teachers hardly rewarded work even more difficult.

Aside from classroom instructions, teachers perform a host of backbreaking and time-consuming jobs unrelated to the teaching function. The National Research and Development Center for Teacher Education under the DECS listed 76 extracurricular activities performed by public school teachers. Such activities include Operation Timbang , census taking, tax consciousness drive, Clean and Green Drive, Alay-Tanim , Alay-Lakad , fund raising campaigns, lining the streets to welcome foreign dignitaries, etc. To do all these, teachers are forced to work two or three hours overtime everyday. They also have to report during weekends and holidays and even during their yearly vacation time.

5. Bilingual policy and the problem of a national language

The bilingual policy in education aims to develop a Filipino who is proficient in both English and Filipino. For the past 20 years, since the DECS adopted the bilingual policy, Tagalog-based Pilipino has been used to teach over half of the subjects in the elementary and secondary curriculum of both public and private schools. Mathematics and the natural sciences continue to be taught in English. Despite the findings of the Ateneo Social Weather Survey that 92% of Filipinos already speak and understand Tagalog, many provinces north and south of Metro Manila still encounter problems with the language. This is unfortunate because Pilipino is used in nationally conducted exams and tests. While the bilingual policy is a law which not even the Secretary of Education can change, it has become a growing concern that many students are deficient in communication skills.

6. Mismatch

The major problem of the tertiary level is the large proportion of the so called “mismatch” between training and actual jobs, as well as the existence of a large group of educated unemployed or underemployed. The literature points out that this could be the result of a rational response to a dual labor market where one sector is import-substituting and highly-protected with low wages. Graduates may choose to “wait it out” until a job opportunity in the high paying sector comes.

To address this problem, it is suggested that leaders in business and industry should be actively involved in higher education. Furthermore, a selective admission policy should be carried out; that is, mechanisms should be installed to reduce enrolment in oversubscribed programs and promote enrolment in undersubscribed ones.

7. Globalization issue in education

It is in the educational sector where the concept of globalization is further refined and disseminated. It comes in varied forms as “global competitiveness,” “the information highway,” “the Third Wave Theory,” “post modern society,” “the end of history,” and “borderless economy.”

The so-called Philippines 2000 was launched by the Philippine government to promote “global competitiveness,” Philippine Education 2000 carried it to effect through training of more skilled workers and surplus Filipino human power for foreign corporations to reduce their cost of production.

The Philippines, including its educational sector, is controlled by US monopoly capital through loan politics. This task is accomplished by the IMF, the World Bank and a consortium of transnational banks, called the Paris Club, supervised by the WB. The structural adjustments as basis for the grants of loans, basically require liberalization, deregulation and privatization in a recipient country.

As transplanted into the educational sector, deregulation is spelled reduced appropriation or reduced financial assistance to public schools through so called fiscal autonomies; privatization and liberalization is spelled commercialized education or liberalization of governments’ supervision of private schools and privatize state colleges and universities.

The WB-IMF and the Ford Foundation have earmarked $400M for Philippine education. These loans financed the Educational Development Project (EDPITAF) in 1972; the Presidential Commission to Survey Philippine Education (PCSPE) in 1969; the Program for Decentralized Educational Development (PRODED) in 1981-1989. As pointed out by many critics, “the massive penetration of WB-IMF loans into the Philippine Educational System has opened it wide to official and systematic foreign control, the perpetuation of US and other foreign economic interest, and to maximize the efficiency of exploiting Philippine natural resources and skilled labor.”

A number of studies and fact-finding commissions such as the Sibayan and Gonzales Evaluation (1988), the Presidential Commission to Survey Philippine Education (PCSPE, 1969), and the Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM, 1991-1992) have pointed out that the problems of Philippine education are the problems of quality and political will.

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The Status of Education in the Philippines: Progress, Challenges, and the Path Forward

Education in the Philippines has been a cornerstone of national development, with the government and various stakeholders recognizing its vital role in shaping the country’s future. Despite significant strides made over the years, the Philippine education system continues to grapple with numerous challenges that hinder its ability to provide quality education for all. This article will explore the current status of education in the Philippines, highlighting its progress, challenges, and the necessary steps to improve it.

Progress in the Philippine Education System

One of the most notable advancements in the Philippine education system is the implementation of the K-12 curriculum in 2013. This reform extended basic education from 10 to 12 years, aligning the country with international standards. The additional two years of senior high school aim to better prepare students for higher education, employment, or entrepreneurship, addressing the previous system's shortcomings in these areas.

The literacy rate in the Philippines is relatively high compared to other developing nations. This achievement is largely due to the widespread access to primary education, which has seen significant improvement over the years. Government initiatives such as the Enhanced Basic Education Information System (EBEIS) have also contributed to better data management and monitoring of educational outcomes, helping policymakers make more informed decisions.

Challenges Facing the Philippine Education System

Despite these improvements, the Philippine education system faces several pressing challenges. One of the most significant issues is the quality of education. Large class sizes, insufficient instructional materials, and outdated teaching methods are prevalent in many schools, particularly in public institutions. Teacher training is inconsistent, with a notable disparity in the quality of education provided in urban versus rural areas. The COVID-19 pandemic further exposed the digital divide in the Philippines. Many students, especially those from low-income families and remote areas, lacked access to reliable internet and devices necessary for online learning. This digital gap has exacerbated existing educational inequalities, leaving many students behind in their studies.

Another critical issue is the high dropout rate at the secondary and tertiary levels. While enrollment rates at the primary level are high, they decline significantly as students progress through the education system. Contributing factors include poverty, the need for children to work, and geographic isolation. This dropout trend limits the country’s human capital development and hampers economic growth. Learning poverty, defined as the inability of children to read and understand simple text by age 10, is another major concern. This issue stems from the poor quality of instruction and the lack of access to early childhood education. Furthermore, many schools in the Philippines lack basic infrastructure, such as classrooms, toilets, and clean water, which negatively impacts the learning environment, particularly in rural and conflict-affected areas.

Addressing the Challenges: The Path Forward

To address these challenges, several steps must be taken. First, there is a need for sustained investment in education, particularly in improving infrastructure, providing adequate learning materials, and enhancing teacher training programs. Ensuring that teachers are well-compensated, supported, and continuously trained is crucial for improving the overall quality of education. The government must also address the digital divide by investing in technology and infrastructure that enable remote learning. Expanding access to affordable internet and providing devices to students, especially those in underserved areas, will help bridge the gap and ensure that all students can participate in the digital learning environment.

Moreover, efforts to reduce dropout rates should focus on addressing the underlying causes, such as poverty and geographic isolation. This could include providing financial assistance to low-income families, implementing more flexible learning arrangements, and improving transportation and access to schools in remote areas. Addressing learning poverty requires a focus on early childhood education and ensuring that all children have access to quality education from an early age. This involves improving the quality of instruction in the early years, developing comprehensive early childhood education programs, and ensuring that children are well-prepared to succeed in primary school.

The education system in the Philippines stands at a crossroads, with significant progress made but also considerable challenges to overcome. The implementation of the K-12 curriculum and improvements in literacy rates are commendable, but issues such as quality of education, digital divide, and dropout rates continue to hinder the country’s educational outcomes. By addressing these challenges through sustained investment, policy reforms, and community engagement, the Philippines can pave the way for a more equitable and effective education system that empowers all students to succeed and contribute to the nation’s development.

Philippine E-Journals

Home ⇛ international journal of multidisciplinary: applied business and education research ⇛ vol. 2 no. 10 (2021), unraveling deterioration in the quality of philippine education.

Bernardo K. Gumarang Jr. | Brigitte K. Gumarang

Education has a great role on the growth and development of economy. It builds the young generation to become competent and future leaders of a country. It is observed by the Filipino people that there are problems in the Philippine education. This paper identified and discussed the problems occurred in the education system of the Philippines. A Literature review process was utilized by the researchers. The researchers also identified solutions on the problems being identified using the findings of the different studies. The result showed three major problems in the Philippine education system such as overcrowded students in a classroom, teacher are teaching subjects that is not their expertise, and poor quality in instruction. It is recommended that the Philippine Education must review their policies in hiring educators and address the needs of its stakeholders. These findings can be used as basis in creating policies to ensure quality in education.

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The Current Education Issues in the Philippines — and How Childhope Rises to the Challenge

August 25, 2021

Even before COVID-19 struck and caused problems for millions of families, the country’s financial status is one of the top factors that add to the growing education issues in the Philippines. Furthermore, more children, youth, and adults can’t get a leg up and are thus left behind due to unfair access to learning.

Moving forward, such issues can lead to worse long-term effects. Now, we’ll delve deep into the current status and how we can take part in social efforts to help fight these key concerns of our country.

Crisis in Philippine Education: How is It Really?

Filipinos from rich households or living in cities and developed towns have more access to private schools. In contrast, less favored groups are more bound to deal with lack of classrooms, teachers, and means to sustain topnotch learning.

A 2018 study found that a sample number of 15-year-old Filipino students ranked last in reading comprehension out of 79 countries . They also ranked 78 th in science and math. One key insight from this study is it implies those tested mostly came from public schools. Hence, the crisis also lies in the fact that a lot of Filipinos can’t read or do simple math.

Indeed, it’s clear that there is a class divide between rich and poor students in the country. Though this is the case, less developed states can focus on learning if it’s covered in their top concerns. However, the Philippines doesn’t invest on topnotch learning as compared to its neighbor countries. In fact, many public schools lack computers and other tools despite the digital age. Further, a shortfall in the number of public school teachers is also one of the top issues in the country due to their being among the lowest-paid state workers. Aside from that, more than 3 million children, youth, and adults remain unenrolled since the school shutdown.

It goes without saying that having this constant crisis has its long-term effects. These include mis- and disinformation, poor decision-making, and other social concerns.

The Education System in the Philippines

Due to COVID-19, education issues in the Philippines have increased and received new challenges that worsened the current state of the country. With the sudden events brought about by the health crisis, distance learning modes via the internet or TV broadcasts were ordered. Further, a blended learning program was launched in October 2020, which involves online classes, printouts, and lessons broadcast on TV and social platforms. Thus, the new learning pathways rely on students and teachers having access to the internet.

Education issues in the Philippines include lack of resources and access to online learning

This yet brings another issue in the current system. Millions of Filipinos don’t have access to computers and other digital tools at home to make their blended learning worthwhile. Hence, the value of tech in learning affects many students. Parents’ and guardians’ top concerns with this are:

Money for mobile load
Lack of gadget
Poor internet signal
Students’ struggle to focus and learn online
Parents’ lack of knowledge of their kids’ lessons

It’s key to note that equipped schools have more chances to use various ways to deal with the new concerns for remote learning. This further shows the contrasts in resources and training for both K-12 and tertiary level both for private and public schools.

One more thing that can happen is that schools may not be able to impart the most basic skills needed. To add, the current status can affect how tertiary education aims to impart the respect for and duty to knowledge and critical outlook. Before, teachers handled 40 to 60 students. With the current online setup, the quality of learning can be compromised if the class reaches 70 to 80 students.

Data on Students that Have Missed School due to COVID-19

Of the world’s student population, 89% or 1.52 billion are the children and youth out of school due to COVID-19 closures. In the Philippines, close to 4 million students were not able to enroll for this school year, as per the DepEd. With this, the number of out-of-school youth (OSY) continues to grow, making it a serious issue needing to be checked to avoid worse problems in the long run.

List of Issues When it Comes to the Philippines’ Education System

For a brief rundown, let’s list the top education issues in the Philippines:

Quality – The results of the 2014 National Achievement Test (NAT) and the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) show that there had been a drop in the status of primary and secondary education.
Budget – The country remains to have one of the lowest budget allotments to learning among ASEAN countries.
Cost – There still is a big contrast in learning efforts across various social groups due to the issue of money—having education as a status symbol.
OSY – The growing rate of OSY becomes daunting due to the adverse effects of COVID-19.
Mismatch – There is a large sum of people who are jobless or underpaid due to a large mismatch between training and actual jobs.
Social divide – There is no fair learning access in the country.
Lack of resources – Large-scale shortfalls in classrooms, teachers, and other tools to sustain sound learning also make up a big issue.

All these add to the big picture of the current system’s growing concerns. Being informed with these is a great first step to know where we can come in and help in our own ways. Before we talk about how you can take part in various efforts to help address these issues, let’s first talk about what quality education is and how we can achieve it.

Childhope Philippines' program employability session

What Quality Education Means

Now, how do we really define this? For VVOB , it is one that provides all learners with what they need to become economically productive that help lead them to holistic development and sustainable lifestyles. Further, it leads to peaceful and democratic societies and strengthens one’s well-being.

VVOB also lists its 6 dimensions:

Contextualization and Relevance
Child-friendly Teaching and Learning
Sustainability
Balanced Approach
Learning Outcomes

Aside from these, it’s also key to set our vision to reach such standards. Read on!

Vision for a Quality Education

Of course, any country would want to build and keep a standard vision for its learning system: one that promotes cultural diversity; is free from bias; offers a safe space and respect for human rights; and forms traits, skills, and talent among others.

With the country’s efforts to address the growing concerns, one key program that is set to come out is the free required education from TESDA with efforts to focus on honing skills, including technical and vocational ones. Also, OSY will be covered in the grants of the CHED.

Students must not take learning for granted. In times of crises and sudden changes, having access to education should be valued. Aside from the fact that it is a main human right, it also impacts the other human rights that we have. Besides, the UN says that when learning systems break, having a sustained state will be far from happening.

Childhope Philippines keeps abreast of changes to face education issues in the Philippines

How Childhope KalyEskwela Program Deals with Changes

The country rolled out its efforts to help respond to new and sudden changes in learning due to the effects of COVID-19 measures. Here are some of the key ones we can note:

Continuous learning – Since the future of a state lies on how good the learning system is, the country’s vision for the youth is to adopt new learning paths despite the ongoing threat of COVID-19.
Action plans – These include boosting the use of special funds to help schools make modules, worksheets, and study guides approved by the DepEd. Also, LGUs and schools can acquire digital tools to help learners as needed.

Now, even with the global health crisis, Childhope Philippines remains true to its cause to help street children:

Mobile learning – The program provides topnotch access to street children to new learning methods such as non-formal education .
Access to tools – This is to give out sets of school supplies to help street kids attend and be ready for their remote learning.
Online learning sessions – These are about Skills for Life, Life Skill Life Goal Planning, Gender Sensitivity, Teenage Pregnancy and Adolescent Reproductive Health.

You may also check out our other programs and projects to see how we help street children fulfill their right to education . You can be a part of these efforts! Read on to know how.

Shed a Light of Hope for Street Children to Reach Their Dreams

Building a system that empowers the youth means helping them reach their full potential. During these times, they need aid from those who can help uphold the rights of the less privileged. These include kids in the streets and their right to attain quality education.

You may hold the power to change lives, one child at a time. Donate or volunteer , and help us help street kids learn and reach their dreams and bring a sense of hope and change toward a bright future. You may also contact us for more details. We’d love to hear from you!

With our aim to reach more people who can help, we’re also in social media! Check out our Facebook page to see latest news on our projects in force.

Subscribe to our Mailing List

Terms and Conditions

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These are the Terms and Conditions which govern each use you make of the donation payment services provided through the Website.

These Terms and Conditions apply separately to each single donation that you make. Except as provided for in section 6, ‘Monthly Donations’, and unless specified by you, they do not form a contract allowing for future or successive transactions to be set up. By confirming on the Website that you wish to make a donation you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions for that donation.

(1) The donation services We will use your donation at our discretion but within our stated charitable objectives.

All payments through the Website are to be made by payment card or via PayPal.

Once you confirm to us through the Website that you wish to proceed with your donation your transaction will be processed through our payment services provider, PayMongo. By confirming that you wish to proceed with your donation you authorize PayMongo to request funds from your credit, debit, or PayPal card provider.

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Deteriorating Quality of Education in Schools Are Teachers Responsible?

The role of government school teachers in India is being questioned because of the deteriorating learning levels of children. There is constant criticism of teachers’ performance on the grounds that despite paying high salaries to teachers, children are not performing well in examinations because the majority of teachers are not competent enough. An analysis of six Indian states offers the opportunity to address this debate from the lens of public provisioning for teachers in the school education system. The performance of teachers needs to be judged on the basis of factors like their training, working conditions, and, above all, resource allocation by the government.

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The global community is giving significant importance on educational expansion ignoring the quality aspect of education- what students are learning in school? Mere schooling is worst if students are not acquiring knowledge in school. Many studies have proved the importance of learning for the individual as well as for the economic development of the country. This study was conducted in Assam, a state of Indian union, with a special focus on primary education. The basic objective of primary education is to impart the knowledge of 3Rs to children irrespective of caste, sex, area and religion. The main objectives of this study are: (i) whether all the students, irrespective of their religion are learning in schools? And what are the socio-economic factors that are affecting children's learning in school. The study was conducted on 500 students reading in class five.

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The socio economic landscape of the country is rapidly changing. The Ministry of Human Resource Development is conscious about changing scenario and has been taking the steps to mitigate the adverse impact of growing 'exclusive-ism ' within the society, which would not be in the best interest of the future generation. This study has explored government financing of education in India and across the states of the country. Economic reform has certainly affected public expenditure on social sector in general and that on education sector in particular. The study concluded that state real per capita income, is found to significantly enhance educational expenditure at the aggregate level. Moreover, contrary to general perceptions, education expenditure at all levels has been significantly lower after liberalization in comparison with the pre-economic reform era. The paper examines the level, trends, growth and intra-sectoral allocation of Public expenditure on education. Finding indicates that quantum of expenditure on education has increased significantly since 2001, But still the actual amount of money spend on education sector is less than the required amount. The paper explores the trends of public expenditure on primary, secondary, higher education and technical education. Analysis shows that percentage share of State government has decline and the share of central government has increased.

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Teacher education is a continuous process and its pre-service and in-service components are complimentary to each other. Education is instrumental in the preparation of teachers who can in their practice ensure transformative learning, where teacher and learner, learner and learner are co-constructors of knowledge. The aim of the present paper is to improve the teacher education quality in India by focusing on the problems & related concerns. The present structure of teacher education is supported by a network of national, provincial and district level resource institutions working together to enhance the quality and effectiveness of teacher preparation programs at the pre-service level and also through in-service programs for serving teachers throughout the country. Importantly, the teacher education and training institutions must take up the charge of educating policy makers and the general public about what it actually takes to teach effectively both in terms of knowledge and skills that are needed and in terms of the school contexts that must be created to allow teachers to develop and use what they know on behalf of their students. Now teacher has to perform various roles like encouraging, supporting and facilitating in teaching-learning situations which enables learners to discover their talents, to realize their physical and intellectual potentialities to the fullest, to develop character and desirable social and human values to function as responsible citizens. Teacher and his education are very significant aspects of any nation. The education gives a new shape to the individual and the nation as well. It is a well known saying that teacher is the nation builder. The quality of teacher education programme needs to be up graded. Teacher education has not come up to the requisite standards. Teachers are not able to think critically and solve the issue related to teaching methods, content, organisation etc. teacher education programme needs a comprehensive reform and restructuring curriculum of teacher-education programme needs to be revised according to changing needs of society. In the research paper I will discuses the problems of teacher education and provide the some Suggestions of teacher education.

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The major difficulty in education in the Philippines is the short-sighted policy of sacrificing the quality and quantity of education for reasons of economy. The key issues and problems in Philippine education which need further debate and depth analysis as well as immediate resolution include the following: 1. Deteriorating quality of education.
The Status of Education in the Philippines: Progress, Challenges, and
The education system in the Philippines stands at a crossroads, with significant progress made but also considerable challenges to overcome. The implementation of the K-12 curriculum and improvements in literacy rates are commendable, but issues such as quality of education, digital divide, and dropout rates continue to hinder the country's ...
Our education crisis. Why and what next? (Part 1)
Its share, as a percentage of gross national product, declined to 2.8 percent in 2019 following its peak at 3.6 percent in 2017. For context, education spending in Brunei is at 4.4 percent ...
PDF A Policy Analysis of Philippine School System Reform Using ...
employment and ability to face the realities of the work field; (4) low instruction quality; (5) unfavourable short number of educational years for the Overseas Filipino Workers. For these reasons, the department believed that passing Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 or Republic Act no 10533 (K-12) was the answer to the degrading quality of ...
Unraveling Deterioration in the Quality of Philippine Education
Education has a great role on the growth and development of economy. It builds the young generation to become competent and future leaders of a country. It is observed by the Filipino people that there are problems in the Philippine education. This paper identified and discussed the problems occurred in the education system of the Philippines. A Literature review process was utilized by the ...
Unraveling Deterioration in the Quality of Philippine Education
The essay is an attempt to analyze, evaluate and criticize issues affecting the educational system through the years with the end view of recommending possible improvements. ... These findings can be used as basis in creating policies to ensure quality in education. Keywords: Deterioration, Philippine Education, Literature Review Background ...
Education Issues in the Philippines: The Ongoing Struggle
For a brief rundown, let's list the top education issues in the Philippines: Quality - The results of the 2014 National Achievement Test (NAT) and the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) show that there had been a drop in the status of primary and secondary education. Budget - The country remains to have one of the lowest budget ...
Education reform in the Philippines aims for better quality and more
Despite the size of the higher education sector, the quality of instruction remains low, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). In professional board examinations, for instance, median pass rates between 2005 and 2015 ranged from 34% to 43%. The ADB also noted a "worrisome preponderance" within both the state and private sector of ...
(PDF) Deteriorating Quality of Education in Schools Are Teachers
2019. The role of government school teachers in India is being questioned because of the deteriorating learning levels of children. There is constant criticism of teachers' performance on the grounds that despite paying high salaries to teachers, children are not performing well in examinations because the majority of teachers are not competent enough.
Determinants of education quality: what makes students' perception
1. Introduction 'Education is one of the basic needs for human development and to escape from poverty' (Sivakumar & Sarvalingam, Citation 2010, p. 20), it is necessary for national development and a prosperous society.According to Rahman and Uddin (Citation 2009) education is the responsibility of the government and should be managed through national resources.
PDF The Concept of Quality in Education: a Review of The 'International
By critiquing key approaches to education quality, Sayed highlights what he calls the value-bases of any framework for education quality. Drawing on Bunting (1993) he declares that, „Quality in education does have a bottom line and that line is defined by the goals and values which underpin the essentially human activity of education.‟
PDF Deteriorating Quality of Education in Schools
These single-teacher schools are a catastrophe as far as educa-tion is concerned. Between 2015-16 and 2016-17, the number of single-teacher primary schools in Maharashtra has increased from 12,137 to 12,229. Likewise, in the same period, single- teacher upper-primary schools in India have increased from 15% to 20%.