What is next? The Rebirth of Education Lant Pritchett WIDER 30 th 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 Quiz (http://www.totustuus.com / (www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P ) 9.HTM) 1. The desire for God (27): 27 The desire for God is written in the human heart ,… 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) Quiz Text (http://www.totustuus.com/ ) (www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P9.HTM) 57 This state of division into many 13. The division of nations nations, each entrusted by divine (57): providence to the guardianship of angels, is at once cosmic, social a. was a punishment of sin and religious. It is intended to b. was not a result of sin limit the pride of fallen humanity 10 united only in its c. limited the pride of men perverse ambition to forge its own unity as at Babel. 11 But, because of sin, both polytheism and the idolatry of the nation and of its rulers constantly threaten this provisional economy with the perversion of paganism.
The key to everything about existing positive models about schooling Can pretend Can pretend positively negatively (to have them (to not have when you don’t) them when you do) Skills, factual NO YES knowledge, capabilities Beliefs (values, YES YES attitudes, dispositions)
Inculcation of belief is not third party contractible because beliefs are not observable Contractible Definitely not third party contractible
Why? Because Has the expansion of schooling Inculcation of belief is not third been so universal and party contractible homogeneous? Why did education system Inculcation of belief is not third structures take the forms that party contractible they did (mostly large, governmentally controlled monopolies over use of state resources) How is it that learning quality Inculcation of belief is not third could be so bad for so long and party contractible not attract more push back?
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 Logistics is logistics: Total Employees 671,687 400,600 245,109
Organizational Mismatch: There are no large firms of dentists Narrow Scope Broad Scope (few people) (many, many people) Professional Practices Thick Accountability Policy Formulation, (Small, Flat Hierarchy, Legislation Personalized) — (e.g. (Requires the dentists, architects, exercise of Apex activities lawyers, doctors, discretion) schools (private sector) Thin Accountability Logistics (Compliance with algorithms is sufficient)
The Overall Accountability Triangle: Four Relationships of Accountability (unpacking the policy graph above) The state Politicians Policymakers Long route of accountability Short route Citizens/Clients Providers Client Power Coalition/Inclusion Management Non poor Poor Frontline organizations 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 owning 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.
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