School Inputs
It is essential to put learning for all children at the center, as we have now committed to do with the SDGs. But learning itself is not actionable. To improve learning, we must consider all the school- and student-level ingredients that make learning possible. We think of these as the “service delivery” or “practice” indicators. Learning depends on having the necessary inputs and infrastructure that enhance the learning experience. To assess inputs and infrastructure, we measure its two main components: the provision of basic classroom inputs and the provision of basic school infrastructure.
Practices
School Inputs - Policies
But we can’t stop at practices, we need to go beyond the school-level factors to think about the broader system that influences the practices inside the schools. Schools are not operating in a vacuum. They are responding to the signals and incentives set by the system as a whole. For this, we look at the policies governing service delivery. For the presence of classroom inputs and school infrastructure, there two key policy areas that could explain their presence and/or absence – existence of a set of standards and the presence of a monitoring process to ensure all schools have their needs covered.
School Inputs - Politics
Finally, there is the political and bureaucratic environment in which these policies are created and implemented. Key areas include financing, characteristics of bureaucracy, impartial decision-making, mandates and accountability, and the existence or not of time-bound, concrete national learning goals.
