What I Really Want: Policy Maker Views on Education in East Asia Pacific

This paper reports the views and perceptions of randomly selected education policy makers in the East Asia Pacific region, based on surveys of 651 senior public officials in 14 middle-income countries. The findings show that officials tend to prioritize increasing secondary school completion over improving learning quality, and they severely underestimate learning poverty and do so by a larger margin than officials in other countries. Officials were most likely to cite system capacity as the primary constraint to improving learning. The findings show that officials’ support for gender equality and disability inclusion is high. Interviewed officials tend to oppose violence against students and prefer to invest in in-service teacher training or early-grade reading compared to other options, such as EdTech or inclusion for students with disabilities. This mix of alignment and misalignment between policy makers’ goals and the stated goals of development partners can inform future engagement in policy dialogue, analysis, and information campaigns.