Work

Understanding education policy preferences: Survey experiments with policymakers in 35 developing countries

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Despite rapid increases in global access to primary school, average learning outcomes in many low and middle income countries remain low. International actors are increasingly focused on a policy agenda prioritizing foundational learning, measured by test scores in primary school. However, international actors have limited capacity to impose this agenda, which ultimately depends on national decision-makers. In this paper we present new evidence on the priorities and views of these national decision-makers. We report on a new survey of 931 senior government officials working on education in 35 low- and middle-income countries. We show with survey experiments that national policymakers place relatively low value on action to address foundational skills. We explain variation in preferences among policymakers as a function of three possible factors: different objectives for education (e.g., learning versus socialization), different beliefs about the state of the world (e.g., enrollment and learning levels), and different beliefs about the effectiveness of specific interventions. Misalignment with donor agendas is evident in all three dimensions. We also show experimentally that beliefs do respond to new evidence on the effectiveness of interventions.

Source: World Development

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107140

Authors: Lee Crawfurd, Susannah Hares, Ana Minardi, Justin Sandefur

Language: English

Topic: Global Educational Policies and Reforms

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $5,895

Funders: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Asian Development Bank, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office