How well do Catholic and other faith-based schools serve the poor? A study with special reference to Africa: part II: learning

Abstract

This paper is the second in a set of two on the extent to which Catholic and other faith-based schools are serving the poor well. Catholic and other faith-based schools reach millions of children who live in poverty, yet this does not necessarily mean that they are serving these children well enough. The paper considers two separate issues. First, beyond academic subjects, Catholic and other faith-based schools emphasise learning related to values and religion. Do they succeed in doing so? Based on small sample survey data and qualitative fieldwork, as well as broader data on parental satisfaction with schools, the paper provides a tentative and mostly positive answer to this question, at least from the view of parents. The second issue is where performance is weaker. Education systems are affected by a learning crisis in the developing world. All schools should ensure that students learn, but too often this is not the case. The second part of the paper documents this learning crisis and the fact that Catholic and other faith-based schools are not immune to it. This is done in part through a rapid review of the recent World Development Report on education's promise, and a companion piece for sub-Saharan Africa. Estimates of performance for selected African countries are also provided. The results are sobering: too many children are not learning while in school. Finally, the paper briefly summarises evidence from the literature on interventions that could improve learning, including in Catholic and faith-based schools.

Keywords:

• Catholic schools
• faith-based schools
• Africa
• religious education
• school performance
• forms of learning

Notes on contributor

Quentin Wodon is a Lead Economist with the Education Global Practice at the World Bank. His focus in the last two decades has been on policy analysis and dialogue in over 50 countries. He holds PhDs in Economics, Environmental Science, Health Sciences, and Theology and Religious Studies. Dr Wodon is also Distinguished Research Affiliate, Kellogg Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, USA.

Notes

1 The paper was prepared on the author's own personal time and not as part of his duties at the World Bank. The analysis and views expressed in this paper are those of the author only and may not reflect the views of the World Bank, its Executive Director, or the countries they represent.

2 At the suggestion of the journal's editor, the paper is based in part on previous work by the author at the World Bank, but it also includes new elements and a review of some of the relevant literature.

3 Evaluating the impact of interventions or of Catholic schools on learning, is no easy task. Ideally, impact evaluations should be based on experimental methods such as randomized control trials, as done in the field of medicine. In practice, this is not always feasible. An alternative is to rely on quasi-experimental methods, such as certain types of regression analysis or matching techniques, but these alternatives do not always control for factors that may bias the evaluation of interventions.

4 Dee (2005) finds evidence that students who attended Catholic school in 10th grade were more likely to vote as adults, although he cannot exclude the possibility that this could reflect selection biases.

5 The lack of focus of the World Bank on education in previous World Development Reports does not reflect a lack of interest in education in the past since education has traditionally been an important area of World Bank lending and grants to countries. But there is currently a renewed interest in education issues within the framework of the new Human Development Project launched in 2018.

6 See http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2018.

7 There are weaknesses in both pre-service and in-service training programmes for teachers in many developing countries. While missionaries established many Teaching and Training Colleges, this function is to a large extent now managed by universities that are not necessarily Catholic.

8 The World Bank provides estimates of harmonised learning outcomes for 157 countries as part of its Human Capital Index, but for some countries, estimates are based on somewhat old data. There are 193 countries in the world today (not including the Holy See and Palestine), suggesting that many countries, especially in the developing world, still do not have adequate measurement of learning outcomes.

9 As noted in the World Development Report on the learning crisis (World Bank 2018).