S

School Facilities, Spending, and Learning Levels: Evidence from

ASER PakistanChengbin Hu & Xiaotao Ran

August 2013

Research Questions

• How do school facilities affect students’ learning outcomes?

• How do school spending activities affect students’ learning outcomes?

Expected Results

Better School Facilities

Better Learning

Outcomes

Higher Enrollment

Rate

More Spending Activities

Better Student

Outcomes

Empirical Strategy

Student

outcome Y

Children & Household Characteri

stics X

School Characteri

stics SFCommunit

y Characteri

stics V

Results – School Facility

Government Private0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

School Facilities by Sector

WaterBoundaryToiletLibraryPlaygroundSports teacherComputerInternet

Results – School Facility cont.

Results – School Facility cont.

Basic Facility

Book Related

Physic Facility

Technology

0.00% 50.00% 100.00%

UrbanIslamabadBalochistan

School Facilities Vary Greatly by Region

Results – School Facility cont.

Affluent areas have better schools Islamabad – ICT includes the capital city area, has the highest

literacy rate in the country Balochistan – at eastern board (by Afghanistan & Iran) with

low population School technology facilities are highly correlated with

community level In the village with computer center available, the percentage

for the school to have computer lab and internet is twice as high.

Results – School Facility & Learning Outcomes

Clean water, toilets,

boundary walls

Books, librari

es

Basic & book related faculties are the most important for learning outcomes, especially for Math & English

Gov. School Spending Surveyed

On New ClassroomsOn New VerandahOn New ToiletsOn New Main gateOn Boundary WallOn New FurnitureOn New Learning MaterialOn New StationeryOn New Library BooksOn White Wash

Repair ClassroomRepair BuildingRepair ToiletsRepair FurnitureRepair Water FacilityRepair ComputersOn Para Teacher SalaryOn UniformsOther 1Other 2

One Single spending activity will not tell much

Create “ Government Fund Spending Index”

Government Fund Spending Index

Index No. Frequency2011 2012

20 1 019 1 218 6 417 1 116 1 215 3 114 3 113 6 312 15 511 12 610 27 109 52 238 73 287 104 356 154 695 164 974 219 1343 293 1602 293 1881 240 2010 2449 3147

Total 4117 4117

Association between current status of the Input Facility and the funding for the input facility in the

school

Current Input Facility Status Government Spending

　 　 2011 2012

Toilet Not available 1600 On new toilet 30(1.9%) 16(1%)

　 　 Repair toilet 76(4.8%) 39(4.2%)

　 　 　Water Not available 1273 Repair water 61(4.8%) 36(2.8%)

　 　 　Boundary wall Not available

1292 On boundary wall 33(2.6%) 22(1.7%)

　 　 　Library doesnot

have books2895 On New

Books 48(1.7%) 22(0.8%)

　 　 Books are available 23(0.8%)

　 　 　Computer

lab Not available

3393 Repair Computers 54(1.6%) 41(1.2%)

School year in Pakistan• 1st Semester Begins:

April 1st Length: 3 months

• 2nd Semester Begins: Sep. 1st

Length: 4 months

• 3rd Semester: Mid Jan. ~ Early MarchSource: http://hoshyar.org/students/the-school-

year/

Student Learning

ReadingBeginner

Letter

Word

Sentence

Story

MathBeginner

1-9

11-99

Subtraction

Division

EnglishBeginner

Capital Letter

Small Letter

Word

Sentence

Student learning in Three Levels

ReadingLevel 1:• Beginner ,Lett

erLevel 2:• Word,

SentenceLevel 3:• Story

MathLevel 1:• Beginner, 1-9Level 2:• 11-99Level 3:• Subtraction,

Division

EnglishLevel 1:• Beginner,

Capital Letter, Small LetterLevel 2:

• WordLevel 3:• Sentence

Student Learning In Level 3 vs. National Average

In Each Subject

Student Learning by Gov. Fund Index

Limitation

Unlikely to find out if Schools, which have available facilities, spend their government funding In good Strategies.

Difficult to control Household’s Social Economic Status because current survey only asked Yes/No Question.

Recommendations

government funding should be strategically spent to improve on inputs that have shown to have linkages to student learning“

including a variable on ranges of funds spent in the input category

There is a discrepancy between the status of the facility at the school and the funding source related to that facility

Discussion

School facilities vary a lot by sector and region Basic and book related facilities are the most important for

learning outcomes, even after control for children, household, and community variables

There are a few schools which did not spend Money in good strategies.

More Government Spending Activities result in better students learning ; Overly funding(Index >20) may not necessarily increase their competencies..