Public Services

Education

Open Government
Partnership
Global Report
DEMOCRACY BEYOND THE BALLOT BOX

Key points
OGP countries have shown widespread interest in education. Based on analysis of third-party data and OGP
commitments, there are many strong commitmentsthat may serve as useful models for other countries.
However, despite these successes, there are alsosignificant gaps which must continue to be addressed.
These efforts offer a number of important lessons,
including:• Accountability is key to improving access andquality in education.

• Public engagement, especially at the schoollevel, is one of the most promising means ofachieving accountability. A number of OGP
members have strengthened parent-teacheradministrator oversight at the local level to improve
school performance and value for money in termsof inputs (personnel, facilities, nutrition programs).
This accountability is stronger when there are
institutions, rather than one-off interventions.

• Public engagement works better when
there is adequate data on the quality of school
performance. The data suffers from a few gaps:•

Emphasis on inputs without equal data on
outputs;•

Disaggregation of data at lower levels ofadministration (and aggregation from lower
levels to higher levels); and•Disaggregation by gender, institution type,and level of education.

Continuing teacher training, Romania.
(Photo by Flore de Préneuf, World Bank)

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Transparency, participation,
and accountability forlearning
Reformers–such as the many government

including aligning pay incentives for teachers

officials and civil society organizations (CSOs)

and administrators, measurement of learning,

using OGP to advance reforms in their coun-and ensuring adequate governance structures

tries–have a range of tools to choose fromin schools and basic educator capacity thatto improve learning and education. Among

drives education quality.

these tools are institutions to improve citizen
engagement and education.

Research shows that transparency without
accountability has limited impact. In a number

Much progress has been made on openingof countries with longstanding disclosure re-up school data, especially around access toquirements on learning outcomes, data shows

education. However, achieving sustainable

that these interventions work only where there

and equitable outcomes require goingis also a high level of literacy among parents

beyond transparency alone. It requiresor learners and additional support to teachers.

sustained investment in institutions that can

In Chile, data has been collected since 1996;

hold decision-makers accountable and help

among poorer populations, there has been

education systems become more responsive

no significant effect (on school performance

to public needs. (See “The generalist’s guideor parent choice), as poorer families are notto education policy” for a general overview ofaware of the data, nor are they acting on it.2

education policy.)

Similarly, in Liberia, publication of school-based

Research shows a strong correlation between
the quality of educational outcomes, the levelof public data on performance, and schoolbased, multistakeholder (parents, teachers,
administrators) governance. Information on

Early Grade Reading Assessment scores
did not improve school performance without
intensive follow-up and teacher training.3 Thisshows that transparency, by itself, cannot close
the performance gap.

performance can feed discussions, and, when

There is growing evidence that public en-tied to incentives, can help reward teachers

gagement is one of the building blocks for1

and administrators with better outcomes.

There is growing evidence that accountability
for learning outcomes is one of the key driversof different levels of educational attainment
within and between countries. Improving
accountability can involve many approaches,

improved educational outcomes. “The case foraccountability in education: South Africa” [laterin this section] shows how stronger accountability systems, especially at the school level,
can explain differences in long-term learning
outcomes. In particular, it points to the positiverole that parent-administrator-teacher inter-

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action can play. Moreover, it requires long-standing

these areas, as well as where there continues to be

traditions of community engagement and ensuring thatroom for growth.

those communities have the data that they need forthis discussion. This points to two areas where OGP
countries can invest: greater community engagement
opportunities and investing in improved local level
data and systems to collect that data. The following
sections look at progress made by OGP countries in

While there are a number of such systems being promoted in OGP, they have not yet achieved widespreaduse. These sections aim to help open government
advocates bridge the gap between accountability andgreater transparency.

GOOD TO KNOW

The generalist’s guide to education policy

Education is, fundamentally, an investment in

The 2018 World Development Report outlined

people and their capabilities. This investment

the many benefits of better education at thepays dividends to those societies which

individual, family, community, and society-wide

ensure that access and quality are widespread.

levels. It provides an extensive review of theSouth Korea, for example, made significant

evidence and is summarized in Figure 1 on theinvestments in universal literacy, thennext page.

secondary, then post-secondary education. As
a result, it was able to sustain very rapid growth
without running into severe skill constraints.
Finland, Chile, Poland, and Peru have followed
similar trajectories, with nationally directed
improvements in education, which while attimes have been inconsistent, have resulted
in significant growth in both learning andeconomic results.

Vocational training, El Salvador (Photo by USAID El Salvador)

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FIGURE 1. Investment in education accrues benefits to individuals, families, communities, and society

INDIVIDUAL/FAMILYCOMMUNITY/SOCIETY

MONETARY••••

Higher probability of employment
Greater productivity
Higher earnings
Reduced poverty

•
•
•
•

Higher productivity
More rapid economic growth
Poverty reduction
Long-run development

NONMONETARY••

Better health
Improved education and health of children/family
Greater resilience and adaptability
More engaged citizenship
Better choices
Greater life satisfaction••

Increased social mobility
Better-functioning institutions/service delivery
Higher levels of civic engagement
Greater social cohesion
Reduced negative externalities

•
•
•
•

•
•
•

Source: WDR 2018

From universal access to learning and

Despite strides in granting universal access toequality of opportunity

primary (ages 5-12) education, this has not been

While the world has a significant distance to
go in terms of access to education and basic
literacy and numeracy, the direction of changeover the last half-century has been positive.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa since 1970, the gap
in the gross enrollment rate for primaryeducation has essentially closed, as
enrollments have climbed from 68% to nearly
100%. Over the same time period, South Asia
has gone from 45% to near 100% as well.
• The rate of expansion of universal primaryeducation has also accelerated, as
developing countries are expanding accessto basic education in less time. Zambia
has expanded secondary enrollment fasterthan any industrialized country during anequivalent period of time.4• In terms of gender equity, the share of girls inbasic education is at an all-time high and, indeveloping countries, the ratio of girls to boys
has gone from .86 to .96 since 1991.5 Gender
parity remains elusive, however, with at least
130 million unenrolled girls worldwide.6

met equally with a rise in learning outcomes.7
For that reason, there is a need to expand
education efforts from access to also include
outcomes.
This global consensus is represented in ashift in language between the Millennium
Development Goals, wherein Goal 2 emphasized,“Achieve Universal Primary Education,” andthe Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4,
which seeks to, “Ensure inclusive and equitable
quality education and promote lifelong learning
opportunities for all.”This shift in emphasis is critical tounderstanding the scope of the challenge of the
21st century–addressing the severity of today’sachievement gaps must mean seeking solutions
which ensure the long-term success of all
people. With regard to education, there are anumber of barriers to positive, more sustainableoutcomes:• Inclusivity and equity: Children from poorer
backgrounds, girls, indigenous people, andpeople with disabilities have significantly
lower access to quality education. The effects

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of these exclusions are compounding.8 While
many countries have pockets of effective
education, poorer communities suffer fromfewer resources, higher rates of teacher
absenteeism, and management quality. This
9

5 Gender equality and inclusion
6 Universal youth literacy
7 Education for sustainable development
and global citizenshipis a result of budgetary and public policy

This framing is a major step forward in that itdecisions, not only environmental factors.

does not just focus on developing countries,• Quality: The goal of education is not only to

but rather the challenges of an increasingly

ensure access, but to ensure learning andglobalized, interconnected, and dynamic

the development of knowledge, skills, andworld economy. The set of challenges andattitudes that allow for social mobility.

opportunities for reform, in that sense, are• Lifelong learning: The scope of education in

universal to OGP members.

the information age must go beyond primary

There is global reference data for tracking

education to cover not only secondary andprogress on these education indicators.

university education, but to allow workers

UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report

to attain new skills and knowledge following(GEMR) has been designated as the lead UN

formal schooling.

agency for independently tracking progress

SDG 4 includes the following targets:
1

against SDG 4 education goals. Its annual
report includes a compilation of country-

Universal primary and secondary

level education indicators and analysis as

education

well as more in-depth research on current

2 Early childhood development anduniversal pre-primary education
3 Equal success to technical/ vocationaland higher education
4 Relevant skills for decent work

education issues. The GEMR provides a varietyof open-access tools that can be helpful topolicymakers, education officials, CSOs, andeducation activists who want to understandbetter the status of education in theircountries.10

Education in OGP
OGP members have demonstrated a strong interest in

education commitments from OGP action plans. (Moreeducation within action plans. Education is one of thethan 55 new commitments are in the process of being

most popular policy areas within OGP. At the end ofreviewed.)

2018, 52 of 84 members with action plans have commitments on education. (“Environment and Climate”
and “Health” follow with 45 members working on each
respectively. “Infrastructure” and “Water” trail behind at
25 members with active commitments.)

To date, OGP members have included a number ofmajor education accomplishments in their actionplans. The IRM findings provide insight into how
well OGP commitments are meeting the promise of
improving education systems. Rather than analyze all

There have been at least 160 education commitments

150 commitments (which could be the focus of futurein OGP. Between 2012 and 2017, OGP’s Independent

analyses), it is helpful to focus on some of the commit-

Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluated more than 100

ments with stronger results. The IRM either gave these6

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commitments “stars”, or a designation of “Major” or•

Of the 40 participation and public accountability“Outstanding” early results. These terms indicate thatcommitments, the majority are primarily about thethe commitment either changed the way governments

provision of data. These commitments containdid business in these areas or showed transformative

language that implies that there will be additional

potential impact. They fall into four categories:

public accountability and oversight, but do not•

Access to education:° Enhancing basic access to digital services:
Denmark 2012 action plan
° Expanding basic education from 6th to 9th grade:
Honduras 2012 action plan•

Input monitoring:° Budget monitoring: Dominican Republic 2014
action plan
° Tracking of inputs and resources: Honduras 2014,
Buenos Aires 2017 action plans•

Digitization of online records:° Putting exam and transcript material online:•

specify mechanisms by which that accountability
will take place. These are the most common
category of commitments that have elements ofpublic participation. Some were tied to specificexpenditures or metrics of school performance,such as teacher qualification, facility construction,or subsidized school nutrition programs. (OGP
action plans with these commitments include
Albania, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,
Indonesia, Northern Macedonia, and Peru.) The
release of data is laudable, but it will be stronger incases where there is investment and cultivation of
the means to activate that data.
° Of the remaining 20 commitments, others areclearer in how they hope to promote greater civic

Albania’s online “e-Matura” system (2012 action

participation, although they are not focused onplan) and Colombia’s online “Sí Virtual” systemelements of accountability.

(2015 action plan)a Digital, civic or citizenship education

Public monitoring of outcomes:° Systematic dissemination of access to information
on school performance and health services;
implementation of accountability tracking:Mongolia 2015 action plan
° National participatory mechanisms: Colombia(2015 action plan)

commitments that aim to improve public
understanding of digital media andparticipation in civic life (Estonia, Colombia,
Dominican Republic, Ireland, and Italy)b Publicity of teacher qualification and training(Mexico (Jalisco), Panama, and Sri Lanka)c Consumer rights education (Mongolia),
especially for persons with disabilities (Peru)d Open education resources and curriculum

Limited commitments in public
participation and accountability(Argentina, Brazil, Slovak Republic, and theMost OGP countries are using their action plans toscience,” later in the section for a broader

focus on modernization (e-Government) and trans-

discussion of this issue.)parency reforms. A few commitments emphasize
performance monitoring and public engagement, butwhen compared to the rest of OGP most are focusedon publication of information.
•

United States) (See “Lessons from reformers:
The case for open education and open

This shows that a handful of OGP members are investing in sustainable institutions for public participation
and accountability in education. While there have been
notable numbers of commitments to release data or

Of 130 commitments in education, roughly 40

modernize education systems, third-party data shows(31%) aim to improve civic participation andthat there are a number of areas for growth, should

accountability. Relatively speaking, this proportion

governments continue to use their OGP action plans tois smaller than other sectors of OGP commitments.

improve education.

(Roughly half of all OGP commitments focus oneither participation or accountability.)
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Students at Myangad Soum School in Khovd, Mongolia study in schools improved through social accountability measures.
(Photo by Open Government Partnership)

Frontiers of Education and Open
Government
A successful open government strategy to improving

hold officials accountable, the role of school regulation

education requires a mix of approaches: (1) improving

in providing better results, teachers’ responsibility foraccountability on learning outcomes; (2) improving

high-quality instruction, citizens’ roles in monitoring

accountability on educational inputs; (3) andteacher performance, parents’ roles in ensuring

bolstering the data underpinning decisions, including

student attendance and safe environments, anddisaggregation by gender. This section looks at theinternational organizations’ roles in goal- and standard-state of innovation within OGP commitments, which

setting and finance. Given this complexity, readers

may point the way to stronger commitments going

are referred to the report cited above for additional

forward.

inspiration and ideas. The framework it provides islargely based on a synthesis of successful initiatives

Community engagement andaccountability for learningand innovations, rather than statistical analysis ofcurrent education accountability.
In fact, there is no internationally comparable data

Accountability for learning is complex given therange of actors involved in education. The 2017–18
global education monitoring report, Accountabilityin Education: Meeting our Commitments, lays out
a framework for understanding the rights andresponsibilities of these actors.11 It includes the dutycollected at a large scale on community engagement
and accountability in education. This stands in contrast
to other sectors, such as environment (which has theWorld Resources Institute’s Environmental Democracy
Index and the Yale Environmental GovernanceIndex), water and sanitation (which has the GLAAS

of governments to create mechanisms for people to8

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database), budgets (which has the Internationalthat included budget allocation for the training ofBudget Partnership), and administrative law (whichmonitors, CSO and parental participation in thehas the World Bank’s Global Indicators of Regulatory

school budget-proposal-making process, public

Governance). This makes generalization about thereporting of school performance, and making

state of community engagement and accountability

school audit reports available to school councils

in education difficult. What is clear, however, is that if

and the public.13

this data is gathered, it is not systematized, public, orcomparable.

•

Tbilisi, Georgia (2017 action plan): In 2017, theTbilisi government proposed legislation to allow

In the absence of cross-regional data, there are

the public to oversee planning and budgetingpromising hints within OGP countries. A number haveprocesses through independent monitoring

used their action plans to advance public oversight,organizations. While websites were developed

although the total number is small. Encouragingly,

and legislation was drafted, it did not pass due tothese members have invested in systems andthe change in administrations. Development is still

institutions, rather than one-off tools to advanceunderway.

education accountability. Of the three commitmentsthat received a star rating from the Independent
Reporting Mechanism, two are still in process, while
Mongolia’s has been completed.
•inventory of where there are functioning accountability
institutions within their communities. This might include:parent-teacher-administrator institutions that support

Armenia (2014 action plan): This reform aimed toschool activities; citizen-involved school management

eliminate conflicts of interest for individuals serving

committees, which provide an accountability andon governing boards of secondary education

advisory function; and ombudsman and advocate

institutions. “Parent” slots were often controlled

roles, which provide a means of representing students

12•

At a minimum level, OGP members might begin taking

or occupied by members of administration.

and parents with administrations. At an intermediate

This reform is still underway. Although new rules

level, commitments could create incentives forhave not yet been put into practice, the IRM finds

administrators, teachers, and parents to develop

significant progress on passage of applicableand sustain such institutions. At more advanced

legislation.

levels, ongoing performance monitoring and impact

Mongolia (2015 action plan): This 2015 commitment
aimed to ensure systematic dissemination ofaccess to information on school performanceand health services at the community level. In
addition, the education system invested in training
parents and community workers to begin tracking

evaluation can help provide the basis for tracking
progress on education outcomes. Based on thisinformation, analysis can be carried out to identify
factors for successful accountability. Additionally,
policies and practices can be undertaken to improve
performance of these accountability institutions.

accountability. This is particularly remarkable ina country where a large percentage of students
attend boarding schools and parents are seminomadic. In Khovd Province, which was part of alarger World Bank supported effort at improvingsocial accountability, activities were particularly
successful. Efforts sought to address insufficient
information and access to decision-making
on school governance, resource allocation,
expenditure tracking, and operational planningfor ten secondary schools in isolated low-income
counties. Education officials and local CSOs
drafted and sought approval for an action plan
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The case for accountability in education:
South Africa and Kenya
Education systems work better when the public has access to information,
the opportunity to participate and influence decision-making, andthe ability to seek answers and response from governments. To best
understand this, it is helpful to look more closely at recent research fromSouth Africa.

Botshabelo, South Africa. (Photo by homocosmicos, Adobe Stock)

LESSONS FROM REFORMERSThe Politics of Governance of Basic Education14 makes the case forbetter public involvement in decision-making and monitoring. Despite
considerably higher education funding levels, classrooms in the Western
Cape Province of South Africa had worse outcomes relative to schools
with lower funding levels. In high performing schools, much of thiswas due to leadership of school principals. When those principals left,
performance often fell. Yet, in some schools, change in leadership did not
result in similar declines. Why? At a fundamental level, there was greater
parent-educator participation and mutual accountability, with regularrewards for high performance and sanctions for weaker accountability.
This contrast is further evident in comparing Kenya with South Africa.
Kenya has a fraction of the school funding and facilities, yet has higher
overall outcomes on internationally comparable tests. Again, this is due
in part to the involvement of parents in educational outcomes, rewarding
high-performing schools with parades and becoming concerned whenschools struggle.15
It is worth dissecting the building blocks for improving learning outcomes,
as well as where open government approaches can make the mostdifference. Individual elements include:• Collection of data outcomes and inputs: Where possible, this data isstandardized. Many countries are using the Programme for International
Student Assessment, or PISA, which allows within- and cross-country
comparison. While PISA has been accepted in many places, SDG4 calls
for measuring learning at grades 2 and 3 which allows educators toaddress learning gaps earlier. This is an area still under development.
• Timely, regular publication of that data: This should be done in a waythat the community can understand. Kenya, as an example, publishes
and delivers all standardized data through its open data portal. In

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2013, Code4Kenya re-used this data and now delivers it to schools.16
More recently, the Kenyan National Examinations Council adopted thissystem, and parents can now check school performance.17 (See below.)• Participatory governance and accountability: It is important that
this be done at the school level. Mongolia is in the process of adopting
parent-teacher associations in collaboration with the Global Partnershipfor Social Development18 and Partnership for Transparency Fund.19• Measurement of participation in assessment, dissemination, andengagement systems.20 India maintains a regular accounting ofparental awareness and participation in such organizations available
on its PTA website. Of course, the functioning of these areas varies
widely by location, but a future step might be comparing these different
functions across localities. Such work is being carried out in India
and other countries through bottom-up approaches pioneered by the
People’s Action Learning Network, where communities independently
assess and disseminate the results of monitoring learning in poorer
areas.21
These same elements can be carried out at the policy, budgetary, andadministrative levels as well.
The Kenyan National Examinations Council provides school-by-school
reporting on examination performance

Source: Kenya National Examinations Council, Examination Registration System, https://www.knec-portal.ac.ke/.

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Community engagement andaccountability for educational
inputs
OGP countries have a number of successful com-and capacity-building of managers and public

mitments that give the public the ability to monitor

resources operator’s partners and of councilors forbudgets, spending, and delivery of services at thesocial control.” Together, these four commitments

school level. This is an area to continue growing bothcomprised a suite of activities to strengthen thein practice and among OGP commitments. And while

local management of schools, established in thethere is increasing consensus that learning matters as

1996 law on education. This includes enhancing themuch or more than educational inputs, inputs of course

oversight function of school councils which include

still matter. Governments still need to make criticalcommunity members. In particular, they would focus

investments: teachers need the right training and skills

on budgeting and tracking school construction.

to do their jobs well; teachers need learning materials

According to the most recent IRM reports, theseand ongoing support to continue to hone their craft;commitments were largely complete, althoughschool systems need buildings constructed; andmany of the budgets and contracts that theseschool food programs need to ensure students receive

councils were supposed to monitor have not yet

healthy, nourishing meals.

been made public and the rate of training parents
and administrators to operate councils effectively

Importantly, these commitments will be more effective

has slowed. Nonetheless, this represents awhen they are accompanied by strengthened account-laudable long-term effort in Brazil.

ability mechanisms. Accountability is more sustainable
when the rules establish and sustain public oversight•

Educational Infrastructure in Buenos Aires

institutions with strong mandates. The U4 Anti-Corrup-(2017 action plan): According to the IRM, thetion Resource Centre has helpfully outlined the major

city of Buenos Aires made a major step forward

institutional factors which are necessary to improve thewith its commitments to increase accountability

quality of administration in the sector. (See “Guidance

and transparency in public works for education.

and standards: Factors for accountability.”) While some

The commitment centralized all data on majorof these are internal-to-government, many containeducational public works, developed a centralized

strong elements of open government. All reforms

platform to present that data, and importantly,

would make clear and public the “rules of the game”

established a citizen reporting mechanism to allow

for education decision-making.

the public to ask about progress, delays, andconcerns.

Within OGP, there have been a number of public
input-tracking commitments in OGP worth noting and•Anti-corruption in Brazil (2011 and 2013 actionplans): Across its first two action plans, Braziladvanced four commitments to strengthen
oversight of school management and resource
allocation. These were the “Interactive school
development plan,” the “Control Panel for the
Integrated Monitoring and Oversight System,”the “National Program for Strengthening School
Councils,” and the “Generation of knowledge

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Participation and citizen oversight in education in
El Salvador (2016 action plan): The El Salvadoranlearning from:government has been receiving complaints about
inefficiencies with the education system, such asproblems with uniform delivery, school lunches,
and low teacher quality. CSOs expressed concernsthat the approach to these problems had been
one-off and case-by-case. As an alternative, they
proposed better structures to ensure longer-termmonitoring. This commitment aimed to address
this by establishing monitoring mechanisms at
education centers in certain parts of the country.

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Political Science Professor Evans Aggrey-Darkoh lectures at University of Ghana. (Photo by Dominic Chavez, World Bank)To date, some of the basic legal infrastructure

These cases highlight the potential for greater public

has been established, but the final mechanisms

engagement. In the future, member countries may

have not been established or, in many cases, lackconsider investment and future commitments in OGP

active membership or training. The government

action plans that focus on improving transparency andhas carried out basic surveys of the needs of theaccountability around these core areas:

councils where they exist, but the allocation of
resources and training is still underway. The IRM•

materials (textbooks and other learning resources);recommended beginning implementation with anumber of pilots.22•••

Personnel: the number and deployment ofqualified teachers and other allied support staff;

the hiring of school personnel more transparent
and participatory. This includes bringing in citizens

Social supports: e.g., nutrition, uniforms,
conditional cash transfers, and scholarships;

Teacher and administrator hiring in Honduras(2014 action plan): Honduras committed to make

Infrastructure: the supply of essential learning•

Teacher attendance and the level of ongoingto observe the performance of candidates forsupport that teachers receive to do their jobs well;director-level positions and involvement of citizens

andin the search process. At the time of the IRM
review (2016), the final hires were not yet in place
due to timing challenges associated with hiring•

School performance and learning outcomesmeasurement for all children.23

regulations. Nonetheless, the concept of involving
the public for such hiring remains an important step
forward.

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GUIDANCE AND STANDARDS

Factors for accountability

The U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Center
outlines steps that can be taken to improve
accountability within education that go well

• Rules on conflict of interest• Autonomous examination agencies

beyond open data. The list provided gives a• Involvement of parents, teachers, and civil

number of reforms that can be starting points

society in planning and management

in developing OGP commitments and actions.

• Access to information complaint

Necessary factors for strong accountability

mechanisms available for all interested

include:parties (including rights for whistleblowers)• Politically independent administrations
and clear-cut management rules and• Internal and external control ofaccreditation boards for private institutions

procedures• Clear standards and rules for merit-basedteacher recruitment and promotion• Clear criteria for student admissions andexaminations• Codes of conduct for monitoring
compliance with rules and applying punitive
measures in case of non-complianceLooking in on education, Kaski, Nepal. (Photo by Simone D. McCourtie, World Bank)

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LESSONS FROM REFORMERS

Dominican Republic: Learning outcome
transparency is the beginning of
improvement
The Dominican Republic’s 2016 action plan focused its education efforts
on developing a digital tool, the “Educational Center Management
System (SIGERD),” by which parents and guardians could obtain data on
performance and supervisory processes at the school level. The Ministryof Education piloted the tool in five schools before expanding to more than120 education centers in 18 regions of the country.
The SIGERD system includes new functionalities, such as:• Interconnection with other educational portals in education matters,such as EDUPLAN, the registry of statistics, including performanceindicators• Search tools that allow the comparison of information between different
sites within and between school districts• A system of alerts for educational staff and parents when new
information becomes available• Monitoring data at the school level, including student attendance,schedules, grades, personnel, infrastructure, and performanceindicators
At the time of evaluation, this system was functional. However, it was also
password-protected and required authorization from school authorities
to access performance-level information, including otherwise publicly
available data. While some data may need to be protected for privacy ofstudent records or personnel issues, other information is already publicly
available or required to be so. In that sense, the system is a promising
start on the road to transparency and participation, but much can be done
to strengthen parent and public oversight of these education centers.

Early childhood learning center, Santo Domingo. ( Photo by Presidencia
Republica Dominicana)

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French class at Sogman primary school in Sejnane, Tunisia. (Photo by Arne Hoel, World Bank)Transparency for accountability
Transparency fuels better accountability. Accountability

critical to look at the state of education data within

institutions and incentives for better performance and

OGP countries. This can identify areas of future

efficiency are critical, but without adequate data tocommitments to improve the state of data for better

inform decisions, it is difficult to understand if, where,accountability and meaningful public participationand how they are improving. This section looks ataround education. Following the structure of the twosome examples of using comparable, school-level

prior sections, this section looks at the state of data

education data to improve accountability in education

first for educational outcomes and then for inputs.

systems to demonstrate how future OGP action plans
might contribute to service delivery improvements.
The overall state of the data for transparency can best

Transparency of educational
outcomes

be described as a “mosaic.”24 There are often pocketsof strong data at the local level, in pilot projects, orin one-off data collection efforts. In some cases, thenational level has strong data, but it is not adequately
disaggregated. This may be, in part, due to the sheer
scope of the system or the number of stakeholders.
In a number of countries, this may be an issue offederalism or decentralization–an issue of division of
powers and responsibility between levels.

Within the education community, there are a numberof vital initiatives to gather, synthesize, and use data.
These initiatives (particularly, the UNESCO Institute for
Statistics’ Database25) have strong credibility within
the education community and provide a useful starting
point for designing commitments. Seven such international initiatives are described in the “Guidance andStandards” information later on. The initiatives do not,however, have systematic analyses on the availability

There are many commitments which deal with theof education data across OGP countries and do notcollection and systematization of data. The box on thehave data on subnational or time-series coverageprevious page discusses the experience of the country

available in national statistical systems.

in developing a system to publish and publicize data toraise awareness among parents and administrators on
how their schools are performing in serving children’s

To better understand educational outcomes data, thisreport offers a brief report on the state of data available on national statistical sites. It draws on prima-needs.

ry-source reviews of national statistical and educational
Beyond individual commitments, however, it may be
16

Education_V4.indd 16

OGP GLOBAL REPORT

databases produced by the Web Foundation (OpenFIRST EDITION

5/17/19 3:23 PM•

Data Barometer) and Open Data Watch (Open Data

Disaggregation: ODIN sees if available data is

Inventory or ODIN). The value of ODIN data in particu-

disaggregated by sex, school level, age of student,

lar is that it is linked to the primary source material on

and school type (public, private, or religious).

national statistical office (NSO) websites and covers

While over one-half disaggregated by sex, and26

every OGP country. Notably, it shows that there aresome by school age, very few presented data

significant gaps in current national-level data.

disaggregated by age or type of school. Overall,•less than 3% of OGP countries had disaggregatedAvailability: The Open Data Barometer carried

data on education outcomes (available at theout a survey in 2017 of 83% of OGP countries.

national level) by all three indicators.

The findings showed that 100% of OGP countries•

collected data on attendance, graduation, andTime span: Time series data is essential forstudent performance. This does not mean,

tracking progress or declines in performance. Less

however, that the same number published thatthan one-tenth of OGP countries had time-series

data; only 85% of countries within OGP publisheddata for most of a decade or even within the lastthis data. For the 15% of OGP countries which

five years.

are not publishing this data, commitments to•publish this data would be a major step forward.

Decentralization: Not a single OGP country had acentralized data hub with provincial or municipal-(By contrast, Open Data Watch’s “Open Datalevel outcomes. This is not because the data does

Inventory” looks at whether outcome data is

not exist. Rather, this is a result of the mosaic ofavailable, including enrollment, completion rates,and performance on exams. This data covers 100%of OGP countries. 97% of OGP countries publishedsome data on these three indicator sets. Thisdata that is available on outcomes, sometimes
available only to specific provinces or to specificlocalities.

finding is more optimistic than that found by Open
Data Barometer.)

FIGURE 2. Few OGP countries’ NSOs link to data on education outcomes (enrollment, graduation, and exam

scores)Coverage anddisaggregation
Last five years

Last ten years
Province/state level
Municipal/country
level

0%

20%

No data

40%

60%

Some data

All data

80%

100%

Source: Open Data Watch Open Data Inventory 2017 Indicators 3.2,3.3 (n=79)

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Transparency of educational inputs•

Time span: In comparison to school outcomes,
most OGP countries with basic data on schools do

Overall, ODIN data shows that educational input data

have the data available over the course of several

follows national statistical systems in OGP countries inyears (see Figure 3, rows 2 and 3).

roughly the same pattern as the data on educational•

outcomes. The data tracks the availability and cover-Decentralization: Most national statistical systems

age of the number of schools, number of teaching staff,

surveyed do not have data available for provincial

and the annual education budget available in national

and local levels of administration (see Figure 3,

statistical systems, including ministries of education.

rows 4 and 5 respectively).

•

Availability and disaggregation: A small minorityof OGP countries have all data available anddisaggregated by student age groups, schoollevels (primary, secondary, and tertiary), and school
types (public, private, and religious). Most OGP
countries have some data available. For budgets,many OGP countries do not have a breakdownby type of expenditure, although most have basic
top-line budgeting publicly available.

FIGURE 3. Few OGP countries’ NSOs link to data on education facilities (budgets, schools, number of teachers)
Coverage anddisaggregation
Last five years

Last ten years
Province/state level
Municipal/country
level

0%

20%

No data

40%

60%

Some data

All data

80%

100%

Source: Open Data Watch Open Data Inventory 2017 Indicator 2.1-2.3 (n=79)
Elements of coverage

18

Education_V4.indd 18

OGP GLOBAL REPORTFIRST EDITION

5/17/19 3:23 PM•Disaggregation of data by sex andschool typeoffices do not post exam data in general. Of
the minority (roughly 25%) that do, all publish

Two areas are of particular interest when examining

sex-disaggregated data. As a consequence, forpatterns of disaggregation: sex and school type. Sex

the many countries working to publish data on

is important from an equity perspective, useful incompetency exams, it would be of great benefit todetermining whether there is variation in educational

ensure that such data is sex-disaggregated fromoutcomes. A closer look (see Figure 4) at ODIN data

the start.

covering all 79 OGP countries shows that:•

The overwhelming majority of country statistical

Most OGP countries disaggregate enrollment
figures by sex.

•

Just about half of OGP countries do not publish
graduation rates. Of those that do, most do
disaggregate by sex. Consequently, the principle
binding constraint seems to be publication overall.

FIGURE 4. Absence of data overall is the biggest constraint to obtaining sex-disaggregated data on

student outcomese

Enrollment by sex

Graduation rate by sex
Enrollment by sex

Exam results by sex

Graduation rate by sex

Exam results by sex

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Percentage of OGP countries
0%No
available
No datadata20%available

40%

60%

100%
No data80%
dissaggregatedby sexsex
NodisaggregatedbySomedisaggregated by sex
NodataavailableNo
datadata
available

Some data dissaggregated by sex

Alldissaggregateddata disaggregated
No databy sexsex by sex
NodisaggregatedbySome
Some data
datadissaggregateddisaggregated byby sexsex

AllAll data
datadissaggregateddisaggregated by sex
sex

All data dissaggregated by sex

Source: Open Data Watch Open Data Inventory 2017 Indicators 3.1-3.3 (n=79)

EDUCATION

19

Very few countries publish data on outcomes disag-•

Most governments publish enrollment data, but

gregated by school type. School type is especiallyonly about half track what type of school students

challenging in many countries, as private, charter, or

are attending.

religious schools may serve a significant portion of theschool population, but may not report on outcomes•

those, less than a third disaggregate graduationin the same way as public schools. This may meanthat parents are paying for private education that
may or may not be a better value for children or thatthe government may be subsidizing low-performing
schools (whether through vouchers, cash transfers,
scholarships, grants, or subsidized educational

Less than half publish graduation data, and of
rates by school type.

•

No OGP member currently has data oncompetency exams disaggregated by school type
published on their national statistical organization’s
website.

lending). A review of ODIN data from national statistical offices shows that this is a major area for future
action for many OGP governments wishing to improveeducational open data. Major findings from this review
include:FIGURE 5. Data on education outcomes disaggregated by school type (public, private, religious) is largely

unavailable in OGP countries

Enrollment byschool typeGraduation rate byschool typeExam results byschool type

0%

20%

40%
60%
Percentage of OGP countries

100%

No
data available
available
No dataNo
No datadata disaggregateddissaggregatedby
by sexschool type

Some data
datadissaggregateddisaggregated byby sexSomeschool typeAll
disaggregated by
All data
data dissaggregatedby sexschool type

Source: Open Data Watch Open Data Inventory 2017 Indicators 3.1-3.3 (n=79)

20

80%

OGP GLOBAL REPORTFIRST EDITION

Again, OGP countries continue to show great interestin education-based reforms, and their efforts to dateoffer promise. Moving forward, these findings allow
future commitments to be more strategic in terms ofaddressing the barriers to improved learning outcomes. Important takeaways when considering the
focus of this work include:
1

While OGP countries outperform non-OGP
countries, they still have a significant amountof work to do, beginning with publishingdisaggregated data (gender, level, and type of
institution) and making sure that data is released ona timely periodic basis.

2 Educational outcome data lags well behind facilities
data. That being said, both could stand to see
considerable improvement.
3 While data may be collected, it is not yet
systematically archived and made downloadable.
Furthermore, much of it may remain at state andlocal levels, or may not be published in an open
format across ministries.

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GUIDANCE AND STANDARDS

Seven essential resources to support open government
approaches to education
This section of the OGP Global Report touches

reporting on SDG4 targets and indicators

on a fraction of the potential interventions

at the international level.30

possible to strengthen transparency,
accountability, and participation in education.
Within the field itself, there are a number ofresources from which reformers would benefit
as they develop more effective educationcommitments.
1(MICS) has a number of tools and modules
to support governments in bringing
parents into education monitoring andinvolving them in children’s education.
Governments can seek support throughThe UNESCO Global Education Monitoring

MICS to better monitor the performance

Report publishes themed reports

and governance of schools. In some cases,

biennially on important issues in global

there is funding to support these efforts.31

education.27 The 2017–18 report focused on
accountability across schools. While it does
not have country-by-country analysis,
it does have significant case studies andexamples of successful interventions tostrengthen accountability.28

5 UNICEF’s “Data Must Speak” program
works in multiple countries andcollaboratively with Ministries of Education,school leaders, teachers, and communities
to use education data for decision-making.
One goal of the program is to make the2 The UNESCO International Institutecase for, and incentivize investments in,for Education Planning (IIEP) works

better quality and open data on education,

extensively with Ministries of Education toand to support communities in using

help them identify corruption risks in thethat data. OGP members might work witheducation sector, and design strategies to

UNICEF through this program or learn from

improve transparency and accountability.

other countries that are already involved in

It has trained more than 2,200 people on

Data Must Speak.32

related topics and also provides technicalsupport to countries in the process ofcarrying out an integrity assessment of
their education sector, launching a public
expenditure tracking survey, or developinga teacher code of conduct. It also manages
the ETICO online resource platform, which
gathers a wide variety of resources related
to the ethics and corruption in education,
including at higher education level.29 Finallyit has recently launched a new research

6 The Global Partnership for Education is amultistakeholder partnership that provides
technical assistance, knowledge andinnovation resources, and financial support
for developing country partners to achieve
their national education goals.33 This canhelp OGP members better achieve theireducational goals, including through open
government reform and improved data.
7 The World Inequality Database on

project dedicated to open government in

Education examines access to education

education.

and learning outcomes through an

3 The UNESCO Institute for Statistics
collects and consolidates educational datafrom governments and is responsible for22

4 UNICEF Multi-Indicator Cluster Surveys

OGP GLOBAL REPORTFIRST EDITION

inequality lens. It provides user-friendly
infographic tools that allow the user toselect a variety of indicators and provides avisual display of the data.34

GOOD TO KNOW

The case for open education and open science

Open education includes tools, resources, and• Quality: A meta-review of studies analyzing

practices that can be shared freely without

the performance of students using open

the financial, legal, and technical barriers

educational materials found that 93% ofcommon to traditional educational materials.

students using open source materials

A number of OGP countries have workedon these issues through their OGP actionplans. These include Argentina (throughthe University of Buenos Aires), Brazil, theperformed better than peers using
traditional materials.35 Others have argued
that more research is still required and thatcurrent studies remain inconclusive.36

Slovak Republic, and the United States. The

Beyond access to educational resources,

arguments for public access to these common

there are strong efforts within OGP countries

pool resources are threefold:to make government-funded research• Cost: In many countries, the cost of
materials is a prohibitive barrier toeducation.
• Currency: Open source materials can be

public. One such example is legislation in the
United States, the Fair Access to Scienceand Technology Research Act (FASTR) or H.R.
3427/S. 1701, which required US agencies withover US$100 million annual budget to provide

updated more quickly than traditionallythe public with online access to publicly

prepared curricula. This allows for current

funded research no later than six months

developments within each respective field

after publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

to be available to educators and learners
more rapidly.

Photo by Sergey P, Adobe StockEDUCATION

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Endnotes
1

Barbara Bruns, Deon Filmer, and Harry Anthony
Patrinos, Making Schools Work, New Evidence on
Accountability Reforms (The World Bank, 2011), http://
siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/278200-1298568319076/makingschoolswork.pdf.

2

3

Alejandra Mizala, Pilar Romaguera and Miguel Urquiola,“Socioeconomic status or noise? Tradeoffs in the generation of school quality information,” J. of Dev’t. Econ. 84 (Elsevier, 2007) 61–75, http://www.columbia.edu/~msu2101/
Mizala-Romaguera-Urquiola(2007).pdf.
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and The World Bank, World Development Report
2014: Making Services Work for Poor People (World Bankand Oxford Univ. Press, 2003), https://openknowledge.
worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/5986/WDR%20
2004%20-%20English.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.

4World Bank. 2018. World Development Report 2018:
Learning to Realize Education’s Promise. Washington, DC:
World Bank p. 59.

5World Bank. 2018, p. 59.

6

UIS, Leaving No One Behind: How Far on the Way to
Universal Primary and Secondary Education? (UNESCO, Jul. 2016), https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/
pf0000245238.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics. UIS Factsheet No. 48: One
in Five Children, Adolescents and Youth is Out of School.
(February 2018)8

World Bank. 2018. p. 61.

9World Bank. 2018. pp. 5-6.

11

UNESCO. 2018. The Global Education Monitoring Report,
SDG 4: Education. https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/sdggoal-4.

Global Education Monitoring Report Team and UNESCO,
Accountability in education: meeting our commitments;
Global education monitoring report, 2017/8 (UNESCO, 2017), https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/
pf0000259338.

12

Satenik Mkrtchyan and Ruzanna Tsaturyan, Public Participation in School Management in Armenia: School
Boards (CRRC-Armenia Foundation, 2008) 20–22, https://www.crrc.am/hosting/file/_static_content/fellows/fellowship07/S%20Mkrtchyan/Recommendations.pdf.

13

OGP, “02 Improve provision and quality of educationand health services” (2016), https://www.opengovpartnership.org/02-improve-provision-and-quality-of-education-and-health-services.

14

Brian Levy et al. (ed.s). The Politics and Governance ofBasic Education (Oxford Univ. Press, Nov. 2018).

24

OGP GLOBAL REPORT

Brian Levy et al. (ed.s), 2018, pp. (10, 256–286).

16

Twaweza, Find My School, https://web.archive.org/
web/20170818105609/http://findmyschool.co.ke/ (archived from 18 Aug. 2017).

17

Kenya National Examinations Council, Examination Registration System, https://www.knec-portal.ac.ke/.

18

Global Partnership for Social Accountability, “Improving Access to Education and Performance in Mongolia” (2014),
https://www.thegpsa.org/project/improving-access-education-and-performance-mongolia.

19Partnership for Transparency, Transparency and Accountability in Mongolia Education (TAME), https://www.ptfund.
org/transparency-and-accountability-in-mongolia-education-tame-2/.

20

21

7

10

15

FIRST EDITION

India maintains a regular accounting of parental awareness and participation in such organizations available on
its PTA website: https://data.gov.in/catalog/parents-responses-pta-and-ssa-based-sample-survey.

The People’s Action for Learning Network (PAL Network),
https://palnetwork.org/.

22

Jaime David Ayala, IRM El Salvador Mid-Term Report 20162018 (OGP), https://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/
default/files/El-Salvador_Mid-Term_Report_2016-2018.pdf.

23

For additional analysis and recommendations for improving accountability in education, see UNESCO’s Global
Education Monitoring 2017-18 Thematic Report “Accountability in education: meeting our commitments, available
in multiple languages: https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/
report/2017/accountability-education.

24

For additional resources on the education data landscapeglobally and by country, see the various resources available through UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics: http://uis.
unesco.org/.

25

Available at: http://data.uis.unesco.org/.

26

See http://odin.opendatawatch.com/ country pages forlinks to specific datasets on education in national systems
databases.

27

Available at: https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/.

28

Available at: https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/report/2017/accountability-education.

29

The ETICO online resource platform includes thematic pages on topics such as open school data, teacher
codes of conduct, or academic fraud in higher education;a resource database with more than 600 references topublications and academic articles about corruption in education, a review of press articles, a blog, and a glossary.
Available at http://etico.iiep.unesco.org/.

30

Available at: http://uis.unesco.org/.

31

Available at: http://mics.unicef.org/.

32

Available at: https://www.unicef.org/education/global-information-data-must-speak.

33

Available at: https://www.globalpartnership.org/; a focus
on developing countries is available at: https://www.
globalpartnership.org/about-us/developing-countries.

34

Available at: https://www.education-inequalities.org/.

35

John HIlton and Stacie Mason, “The Review Project”(Open Education Group), http://openedgroup.org/review.

36

Regan A. R. Gurung, “Open Educational Resources: What
We Don’t Know” (Inside Higher Ed, 14 Nov. 2018), https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2018/11/14/
what-we-dont-yet-know-about-open-educational-resources-opinion.

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