Opportunity to Learn

In the 16 years since the first Education for All conference at Jomtien, national governments and international donors have invested billions of dollars in programs and reforms designed to improve access to quality education, with a focus on basic education. By and large, this effort has been successful in addressing some of the most serious barriers to access.  However, the impact in terms of educational outcomes, and in particular student learning, has been much less impressive. Why has so much investment yielded so little return? This paper will argue that the basic opportunity to learn does not exist in many countries, and that a concerted management focus to assure that schools provide these basic elements of an opportunity to learn could potentially yield big improvements in learning. The paper by the Educational Quality Improvement Program 2 (EQUIP2) will assess the following questions:

1. what basic factors create the opportunity to learn, and
2. to what extent is the lack of these basic elements a problem in developing countries?

This working paper, one of a series on donor effectiveness and systems reform, will explore both the elements that create a basic opportunity to learn, and strategies for addressing them. The key finding of this paper is not that there are simple answers to the complex challenge of addressing time-on-task, absenteeism, or other issues. It is that these issues need to be recognized as critical constraints to learning outcomes and education system improvement. These OTL factors need to be given priority in terms of donor and country management systems, and then tracked as key system indicators. An important starting point will be the systematic inclusion of tracking systems and management tools in USAID projects, and the use of OTL indicators to inform decision making and analysis by ministries and donors in program and policy design. There are three general strategies for addressing OTL issues in partner countries:

1. Incorporate OTL issues and awareness in activities and assistance programs such as teacher and principal training;
2. Incorporate OTL measures in management and information systems at the school level, and
3. Raise awareness by tracking an OTL Index (ideally on a sub-national basis). This strategy involves developing explicit management tools and models that can be integrated into the regular professional development programs in the country and could include teacher training, principal training, supervisor training, and engagement of parents and community school boards.