Education is one of the strongest tools that we have to reduce poverty, improve health outcomes, increase gender equality, and promote peace and stability. For every year that people are educated, their earnings increase by 10%. However, there are still 121 million children who are not attending primary and secondary school around the world, and approximately 250 million children can’t read or write.
What can countries do to change this situation, and what can successful countries teach others about how to get things right in the classroom?
In this episode of Between 2 Geeks, we talk to Husein Abdul-Hamid, a Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank. After testing the limits of our knowledge about education around the world, Husein gives us an education about how and why education is improving or declining in various regions.
Countries often use metrics like school attendance and teacher/pupil ratio to measure educational outcomes. However, the World Bank has led efforts to capture a richer picture of educational attainment, by using both qualitative and quantitative methods to try to understand more complex issues like teacher motivation, classroom engagement, quality of instructional support, school management and more.
Husein also talks about the importance of establishing global standards, such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which measures 15-year-old students' reading, mathematics, and science literacy every three years in OECD countries.
So is student performance actually a good proxy for teacher performance? And which country has the highest rates of student achievement? Find out that and more on this week’s episode of Between 2 Geeks!
This episode of Between 2 Geeks is hosted by Tariq Khokhar &Raka Banerjee and produced by Richard Miron. You can chat with us on twitter with the hashtag #Between2Geeks, listen to more episodes on the World Bank Soundcloud Channel and subscribe to “World Bank’s Podcasts” in your podcast app or on iTunes.
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