"Expanding and improving basic education in developing countries requires, at a minimum, teachers who are present in the classroom and motivated to teach, but this essential input is often missing. This paper describes the findings of a series of recent World Bank and other studies on teacher...

"Many educators and policymakers have argued for lenient grade promotion policy - even automatic promotion - in developing country settings where grade retention rates are high. The argument assumes that grade retention discourages persistence or continuation in school and that the promotion of...

Educators and education policy makers are concerned with creating the best possible learning environment for students. How to do this, especially in primary school, where reading, writing and mathematical skills are first acquired, is the subject of policy debates in many parts of the world....

Bulgaria implemented sweeping decentralization and efficiency-focused reforms in basic education in 2007 and 2008. The education system adjusted to the negative demographic trends by optimizing the network of schools (closing and merging schools), introducing per-capita based financing and...

Teachers are the single most important input to learning, and in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa teachers' emoluments account for most of the spending on basic education (Bold et al., 2017). However, in many countries in the region teachers are poorly distributed between schools. Schools in...