GDN Working Paper Series GDN Education

This paper reviews governance and institutional challenges facing educational systems in developing countries. We outline a framework for education service delivery and offer a comprehensive review of policies and programs to address the twin goals of decreasing barriers to attending school and reducing stark quality deficits with respect to developed countries. We review experimental and quasi-experimental evidence on student and teacher incentives, decentralization and local school control. More conclusive evidence on the quality improvement measures that succeed in different institutional and resource contexts is needed. To this end, the paper concludes with key research issues for future research. 1 PhD Candidate, Economics of Education, Stanford University 2 Lead Education Economist, The World Bank 3 Senior Education Economist, Human Development Department, The World Bank