IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jda/journl/vol.41year2007issue1pp51-78.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The cost, satisfaction, and achievement of primary education- evidence from francophone sub-saharan Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Michaelowa, Katharina.
  • Wittmann, Eveline.

    (University of Zurich and Hamburg Institute of International Economics, Germany
    Humboldt University, Germany)

Abstract

Low teacher motivation and its detrimental effect on student achievement are central problems of many education systems in Africa. Using standardized data for student achievement in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar and Senegal, this paper analyzes the empirical links between various policy measures, teacher job satisfaction and primary education outcomes. It appears that there is only very limited evidence for the effectiveness of intensively debated and costly measures such as reducing class size, increasing academic qualification requirements, and increasing teachers salaries. Other, simpler measures such as an increased provision of textbooks are both more effective and less costly. It also appears that teacher job satisfaction and education quality are not necessarily complementary objectives. Especially those measures ensuring control and incentive related working conditions for teachers, significantly increase student achievement while reducing teacher job satisfaction. In addition, teachers' academic qualification beyond the "baccalauréat", while beneficial for students' learning, tends to lead to a mismatch between teachers' expectations and professional realities, and thereby reduces teachers' job satisfaction.

Suggested Citation

  • Michaelowa, Katharina. & Wittmann, Eveline., 2007. "The cost, satisfaction, and achievement of primary education- evidence from francophone sub-saharan Africa," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 41(1), pages 51-78, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:jda:journl:vol.41:year:2007:issue1:pp:51-78
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jda/summary/v041/41.1michaelowa.html
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chowa, Gina A.N. & Masa, Rainier D. & Ramos, Yalitza & Ansong, David, 2015. "How do student and school characteristics influence youth academic achievement in Ghana? A hierarchical linear modeling of Ghana YouthSave baseline data," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 129-140.
    2. Wechtler, Annika & Michaelowa, Katharina & Fehrler, Sebastian, 2007. "The cost-effectiveness of inputs in primary education: Insights from recent student surveys for sub-Saharan Africa," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Göttingen 2007 5, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    3. Bold, Tessa & Barton, Nicholas & Sandefur, Justin, 2017. "Measuring Rents from Public Employment: Regression discontinuity evidence from Kenya," CEPR Discussion Papers 12105, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Nicholas Barton & Tessa Bold & Justin Sandefur, 2017. "Measuring Rents from Public Employment: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Kenya - Working Paper 457," Working Papers 457, Center for Global Development.
    5. Ansong, David & Chowa, Gina A. & Sherraden, Michael, 2015. "Household assets, academic expectations, and academic performance among Ghanaian junior high school students: Investigating mediation," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 101-110.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:jda:journl:vol.41:year:2007:issue1:pp:51-78. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Abu N.M. Wahid (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cbtnsus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.