The cost-effectiveness of inputs in primary education: Insights from recent student surveys for sub-Saharan Africa

With SACMEQ and PASEC there are now two large data bases available on student achievement, socio-economic background and school and teacher characteristics in both anglophone and francophone Sub-Saharan Africa. A joint analysis of PASEC and SACMEQ in a common education production function framework allows us to estimate the impact of educational inputs on student achievement in 22 sub-Saharan African countries, and to compare our results with those of earlier empirical studies for education systems in Africa and other world regions. Our empirical results based on a traditional retrospective analysis of student achievement in PASEC and SACMEQ countries are broadly in line with earlier analyses. In addition, we find some evidence for the effectiveness of incentive based policy options. Some differences between francophone and anglophone education systems can be observed with respect to the impact of the teachers' own education and training if differences in the sampling methodology are duly taken into account. These differences may themselves be related to education quality. Other inputs show similar effects in both linguistic areas.