The determinants of school achievement in developing countries : the educational production function

Literature on educational production functions for developing countries is reviewed and policy implications are considered. Findings from both developed and developing countries indicate that the students's socio-economic background is the major determinant of his academic achievement through all levels of schooling except the upper secondary grades. The impact of such schooling variables as teacher certification, years of education, the availability of school facilities, and composition of student's peer group is generally insignificant except in the upper secondary grades. These variables are usually subject to policy control. On the other hand, the removal of the student from the home environment into a learning environment at school does have an important impact on achievement. However, these exposures to learning variables are not usually subject to policy control. Consequently, policy measures designed to improve the quality of schooling inputs cannot be expected to have a great impact on the output of that system for primary and early secondary grades. Among the few inputs that have a positive impact on academic performance are the employment of highly motivated teachers, provision of a minimum number of textbooks, and promoting the use of homework as a teaching method.