US-Pakistan: Partnership-building and Pilot Research for an Evaluation on Strengthening Private Schools for the Rural Poor in Pakistan

美国-巴基斯坦：加强巴基斯坦农村贫困私立学校评估的伙伴关系建设和试点研究

• 批准号: 1201603
• 负责人: Asim Khwaja
• 金额: $ 7.29万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-05-01 至 2013-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1201603&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: US; Pakistan; Partnership; building; Pilot

1201603 KhwajaDescription: This project by the Dr. Asim Khwaja, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University is to catalyze collaboration with scientists in Pakistan in the area of Evaluation and Strengthening Private Schools for the Rural Poor in Pakistan. The foreign collaborator is Ali Asjad Naqvi, Research Director at the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP). The emergence of low-cost, for-profit private schools serving the rural poor has transformed the education sector in Pakistan and low-income countries across the globe. Small rural private schools are among the fastest growing segments of the small-to-medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector in Pakistan. Recent research has demonstrated the power of these schools as they (i) serve the rural poor; (ii) employ, teach, and empower women; and (iii) outperform government schools in math, Urdu, English learning outcomes, in addition to (iv) producing higher levels of civic values among students. Despite the demonstrated strengths of private schools, constraints to continued growth of this sector are emerging. The PI plans a series of activities that will lay the groundwork for a rigorous empirical evaluation of new models for providing financing and education support to private schools in emerging economies. The project builds on existing work by the PI supported by NSF (SES 0962504: ?Understanding Education Markets Experimental and Observational Evidence from Pakistan?) and expands into the specific area of low-cost private schools. Research results have revealed that, in spite of their relative low cost, private schools in Pakistan outperform government schools, but they face constraints to continued growth and quality improvements. Motivated by a dearth of evidence on how best to support this dynamic sector, The PI will conduct the preliminary work that is needed to design, implement, and evaluate models to support private education entrepreneurs through the provision of financial, educational and operational support. This entails engaging with key international stakeholders and utilizing additional data sources to design a set of interventions and associated project evaluation methodology to support the sector and identify implementation partners for the interventions. Dr. Naqvi will play a key role in partnership development, designing project activities and providing local input to inform the research evaluation. Intellectual Merit: Cognizant of both the rapid rise of low-cost private schooling and the emerging constraints this sector faces, the PIs aim to fill a gap in the existing knowledge: how to interface, support, and enable the success of the private education sector. They plan to address a number questions still left unanswered by existing literature. What needs of private schools are the greatest, or which constraints are binding? What are the returns to investments in the low-cost private education sector, in terms of profitability and social outcomes? What financial mechanism (grants, loans, or equity investments) will generate the maximum return on investment and improvement in social outcomes? And finally, what is the optimal combination of financial and access to educational support to further strengthen this dynamic sector? Broader Impact: The empirical evidence generated by this study has the potential to make unique contributions to academia, and to also generate significant reaction among policymakers and practitioners in the NGO and private sectors. Should the model prove sustainable and generate the envisioned results, the limits for potential impact extend well beyond the evaluation areas. There is a potential for these models to be replicated, sustained, and scaled to similar contexts where un- and under-served school age children can be supported by unleashing the power of markets and these free enterprises to dramatically improve education outcomes across the country and ultimately across similar countries globally.

1201603 Khwaja描述：这个项目由哈佛大学哈佛肯尼迪学院的Asim Khwaja博士发起，旨在促进与巴基斯坦科学家在评估和加强巴基斯坦农村贫困地区私立学校方面的合作。 外国合作者是巴基斯坦经济研究中心（CERP）的研究主任Ali Asjad Naqvi。为农村穷人服务的低成本、营利性私立学校的出现，改变了巴基斯坦和地球仪低收入国家的教育部门。小型农村私立学校是巴基斯坦中小型企业部门增长最快的部门之一。最近的研究表明，这些学校的力量，因为他们（一）为农村穷人服务;（二）雇用，教，并赋予妇女权力;（三）在数学，乌尔都语，英语学习成果优于公立学校，除了（四）在学生中产生更高水平的公民价值观。尽管私立学校的优势已得到证明，但这一部门继续增长的制约因素正在出现。 PI计划开展一系列活动，为对新兴经济体私立学校提供融资和教育支持的新模式进行严格的实证评估奠定基础。该项目建立在现有的工作由PI支持的NSF（SES 0962504：？了解教育市场来自巴基斯坦的实验和观察证据？）并扩展到低成本私立学校的特定领域。研究结果表明，尽管私立学校的成本相对较低，但巴基斯坦的私立学校的表现优于公立学校，但它们面临着持续增长和质量提高的制约因素。由于缺乏关于如何最好地支持这一充满活力的部门的证据，PI将开展设计，实施和评估模式所需的初步工作，以通过提供财政，教育和运营支持来支持私立教育企业家。这需要与主要的国际利益攸关方接触，并利用更多的数据来源，设计一套干预措施和相关的项目评价方法，以支持该部门并确定干预措施的执行伙伴。Naqvi博士将在发展伙伴关系、设计项目活动和提供当地投入方面发挥关键作用，为研究评价提供信息。智力优势：认识到低成本私立学校的迅速崛起和这一部门面临的新出现的制约因素，PI旨在填补现有知识的空白：如何对接，支持和使私立教育部门取得成功。他们计划解决现有文献中仍然没有回答的一些问题。私立学校最大的需求是什么，或者哪些限制是有约束力的？从盈利能力和社会成果来看，对低成本私立教育部门的投资有何回报？什么样的金融机制（赠款、贷款或股权投资）将产生最大的投资回报和社会成果的改善？最后，财政支持和获得教育支持的最佳组合是什么，以进一步加强这一充满活力的部门？更广泛的影响：本研究所产生的经验证据有可能对学术界作出独特的贡献，并在非政府组织和私营部门的决策者和从业人员中产生重大反应。如果该模式证明是可持续的，并产生了预期的结果，则潜在影响的限度将远远超出评价领域。这些模式有可能被复制，持续和扩展到类似的环境中，通过释放市场和这些自由企业的力量，可以支持未得到和未得到充分服务的学龄儿童，从而大大改善全国各地的教育成果，并最终在全球类似国家中推广。