What is next? The Rebirth of Education Lant Pritchett WIDER 30 th - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

What is next? The Rebirth of Education

Lant Pritchett WIDER 30th Anniversary Sept 18, 2015

Grandson wearing a bow tie

To me there are three big questions about systems of schooling

• Why such a massive increase and why was this

increase so homogeneous across countries (and types of countries)?

• Why did systems of schooling by and large

take the organizational structure that they did?

• How is it that schooling can be so truly awful

with so little push back?

Ryan Murphy, now associate conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkfR78o3 mVo at minute 1:59.

Ryan Murphy worked his way through graduate school in music working as a music director of a Catholic congregation

Catholic Catechism (example one)

Text (www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P 9.HTM)

27 The desire for God is written in the human heart,…

Quiz (http://www.totustuus.com/ )

1. The desire for God (27):

• a. is written in the human

heart.

• b. Must be carefully developed

because it is not innate to man.

• c. is innately lacking in many

individuals.

Catholic Catechism (example two)

Text (www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P9.HTM)

57 This state of division into many nations, each entrusted by divine providence to the guardianship of angels, is at once cosmic, social and religious. It is intended to limit the pride of fallen humanity10united only in its perverse ambition to forge its

• wn unity as at Babel.11 But,

because of sin, both polytheism and the idolatry of the nation and

• f its rulers constantly threaten

this provisional economy with the perversion of paganism. Quiz (http://www.totustuus.com/ )

• 13. The division of nations

(57):

• a. was a punishment of sin
• b. was not a result of sin

c. limited the pride of men

The key to everything about existing positive models about schooling

Can pretend positively (to have them when you don’t) Can pretend negatively (to not have them when you do) Skills, factual knowledge, capabilities NO YES Beliefs (values, attitudes, dispositions) YES YES

Inculcation of belief is not third party contractible because beliefs are not

• bservable

Contractible Definitely not third party contractible

Why? Because Has the expansion of schooling been so universal and homogeneous? Inculcation of belief is not third party contractible Why did education system structures take the forms that they did (mostly large, governmentally controlled monopolies over use of state resources) Inculcation of belief is not third party contractible How is it that learning quality could be so bad for so long and not attract more push back? Inculcation of belief is not third party contractible

A graph of income and schooling over time

Schooling expanded massively—for a given income level

But this actually means a number of strange things—the level of income at a given schooling fell massively

…many countries had lots and lots more schooling but not more income

…and poor countries have more now than rich countries when they were quite “developed”

Mechanism design and organizational form can be endogenous

671,687 400,600 245,109 Logistics is logistics: Total Employees

Organizational Mismatch: There are no large firms of dentists

Narrow Scope (few people) Broad Scope (many, many people) Thick Accountability (Requires the exercise of discretion) Policy Formulation, Legislation Apex activities Thin Accountability (Compliance with algorithms is sufficient) Logistics Professional Practices (Small, Flat Hierarchy, Personalized)—(e.g. dentists, architects, lawyers, doctors, schools (private sector)

The state

Politicians Policymakers

Providers

Frontline

• rganizations

Citizens/Clients

Non poor Poor Management Coalition/Inclusion

Client Power

Long route of accountability

Short route The Overall Accountability Triangle: Four Relationships of Accountability (unpacking the policy graph above)

Actions by agents of the State: Flow of Services (in transaction intensive service provision)

Why doesn’t every country have “money follows the student” and parental choice—it’s a human right

Article 26 of 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Eastern Coral Snake (venomous) Scarlet King Snake (non-venomous)

Current Schooling Goals and Measurements Promote Isomorphic Mimicry

Mark Blaug, 1976, Journal of Economic Literature

“what needs to be explained about formal schooling is not so much why governments subsidize it as they do, but why they insist on

• wning so much of it in every country. On this

crucial question we get no help, and cannot expect to get help, from the human capital research program, even when it is supplemented by the theory of externalities and public goods of welfare economics.” (p. 831).

Economics has been caught NAPping

• “Normative as positive” is seductive and stupid.
• Governments do X
• I can construct a model with “market failures”

such that something like X would be a normatively good response to the market failure

• Therefore government does X because (as a

positive causal explanation) because of the “market failures” in the model

What is next?

• (Nearly) every child is in school or will be soon.
• In some countries learning is adequate, in some it

is poor (e.g. Peru, Colombia), in some it is awful (e.g. India, Pakistan), in some it is worse than that.

• We need to reform entire systems to meet the

learning challenge—RISE (Research on Improving Systems of Education) is focused on that.