Who Learns What in Basic Education? Evidence from Indonesia
Indonesia consistently fares poorly on the international tests like PISA and TIMSS. To help diagnosing the causes of poor learning we track student achievement across 9 years in basic education. We find that 40 percent of students do not learn the...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/379221568187527440/Who-learns-what-in-basic-education-Evidence-from-Indonesia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32396 |
| Summary: | Indonesia consistently fares poorly on
the international tests like PISA and TIMSS. To help
diagnosing the causes of poor learning we track student
achievement across 9 years in basic education. We find that
40 percent of students do not learn the basics in the early
grades of primary school (recognizing 2-digit numbers by 2nd
grade, and ordering 4-digit numbers by 4th grade). The
authors also find that schools do not cover the complete
Indonesian curriculum. Only few students learn how to
calculate the surface area of a triangle by 5th grade, the
rules about the order of operations, and to complete
exercises embedded in stories. Poor and incomplete coverage
of the primary curriculum helps explain the low levels of
student achievement authors observed in secondary school.
Our analysis also provides directions for future research.
We observed a large catching-up effect in learning in 6th
grade. A plausible explanation for this pattern is the
increased pressure on schools, teachers and students to
perform well on the high-stakes national exams. The fact
that the system can produce learning once (all) actors are
sufficiently motivated, suggests that 1.) performance
pressure might help, and 2.) that low levels of teacher’s
knowledge and skills are currently not a major binding
constraint to learning in Indonesia. |
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