Public service provision: Education

One of the explanations put forward for the relatively low levels of enrolment and completion in many developing countries is that school quality may be relatively low and teachers are often absent or undersupply their effort. This raises the issue of accountability and school governance. There is a widespread perception that community empowerment should be promoted, but parents may not be willing to get involved in schools. In addition, NGO or public schools may provide different incentives to the teachers, suggesting that the institutional environment plays a key role in the way effort is elicited. This project will investigate how parents’ and community involvement may best be promoted, and what effects greater involvement has on children’s educational outcomes. It will also examine how public institutions compare relative to NGO’s in implementing incentives schemes aimed at raising teachers’ efforts, focusing on how implementation constraints and political economy factors may differ across the different school providers.