School Quality Matters

The first paper I ever published is a result of my concerns about the investment in the quality of children's education. The idea is simple. Parents look at their children's learning outcomes. If they found the student on a right track, they will invest in their children. If the student is not learning anything, then they have no incentive to invest in their schooling. They might send them to school though. They have multiple reasons to send their children to school. First, it is a safe place for their children to hang out with their friends and while school keeps students busy, parents have free time for work. Second, some schools in developing countries provide food for students and there might be even monetary compensation for parents who send their children to school. Third, there is more and more pressure on parents to send their children to school as a new norm which both neighbors and children demand.

You might think that why parents do not decide to invest in their children to increase the quality (direction of causality matters). The paper argues that quality is a product of multiple imputes, here, parents' investment, children's ability, effort, and time, and last but not least, school quality. If the school quality is low (higher rates of teacher absenteeism, low-quality school amenities like availability of chair, bathroom, clean water, etc.), then, no matter how much parents invest, the outcome is not going to improve. Read the scholarly article here and a non-academic executive summary here.

School quality is very low in Ghana. The photo shows a classroom that is held outside. Source: Globalgiving.org