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February 2016

The gamification of education

Mariam Adil's picture

Also available in: Español

“Randomania" simulates the challenges of designing randomized control trials for health and education interventions.
Changing behavior is tough. It is tough to quit smoking, to save more money, or to choose walking up the stairs over an elevator. Behavior change becomes even tougher when it’s compounded with the challenges of poverty.
 

Implementing stronger and more credible student assessment systems

Alan Ruby's picture
Students in a READ-financed Mozambique program take their exams. Photo by Jem Heinzel Nelson

Ed: This guest post is by Alan Ruby, senior scholar at the University of Pennsylvania’s Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy who also serves as a consultant to the World Bank, an adviser to  the Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan, the Head Foundation in Singapore, and the American Institutes of Research. 

Nearly 50 years ago, 40 classmates and I spent the last two weeks of November taking our higher school certificate examinations. In a cavernous, hot, and poorly ventilated hall, we sat in widely-spaced rows, writing essays, solving mathematics and science problems, and answering multiple-choice questions. 

Second Chances: Giving Dhaka’s slum children an opportunity to go back to school

Mabruk Kabir's picture
12-year old Rafiq, selling ‘chotpoti’, a popular snack in Bangladesh. Photo Credit: Mabruk Kabir/World Bank

Deep in the winding alleys of a Dhaka slum, business was booming. Rafiq, an entrepreneurial 12-year-old, was selling snacks out of a makeshift food cart – and his customers couldn’t get enough.

The most effective services for well-rounded higher education students in India

Jessica Lee's picture
The blogger (back row, second from right) joined discussions with several university students in India.

A few months ago, I met with over 100 undergraduate and graduate students at seven different technical institutions in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Karnataka, as part of the Government of India – World Bank supported Technical Education Quality Improvement Program (TEQIP II). It took a bit of time for all of us to feel comfortable – how awkward can it get when you are summoned to participate in a meeting with a guest visitor? But, ultimately, we were able to talk freely and even joke a bit.

Resilience, refugees, and education for change

Harry A. Patrinos's picture


As the world struggles to cope with the stream of refugees coming out of Syria, there is an urgent need to advance education opportunities. This is not to just thwart radicalization, as United Nations special envoy for global education Gordon Brown argues, but to ensure that we invest in building refugee children’s human capital.

Putting a human face to statistics on vulnerable youth in Sub-Saharan Africa

Keiko Inoue's picture
Also available in: Français
Around 89 million youth, ages 12-24 years, are out of school in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2013, we went to Liberia to find better answers to this question: who are the vulnerable youth? We wanted to put a human face to statistics. Analysis of statistical data revealed that some youth are more vulnerable than others.  Rural youth, young mothers, ex-combatant youth, poor youth, and poorly-educated youth are especially at risk.