Long-lived consequences of rapid scale-up? The case of free primary education in six Sub-Saharan African countries

This study explores whether Free Primary Education reforms in 6 Sub-Saharan Africa countries affected the quality of teachers in a way that can be detected several years after the reform. It does so by analyzing student- and teacher-level data collected between 5 (Togo) and 16 (Uganda) years after FPE was implemented and comparing outcomes for teachers were hired just before versus just after the policy. Across the 6 countries in the study, grade 4 students of teachers who were hired after the FPE reform perform worse on language and math tests than students of teachers who were hired before the reform. The effects are statistically significant for the language test. Teachers who were hired just after the reform also perform worse on tests of subject content knowledge than those hired before the reform. These average effects mask substantial variation across countries: the gaps are large and significant in some countries but negligible in others. There are few systematic differences associated with being hired pre- or post-reform in teacher demographic characteristics, education and training, or teacher classroom-level behaviors.