Comparing government and private schools in Pakistan: the way forward for universal education

This paper presents an analysis of children’s proficiency in English, reading and maths on the basis of a citizen-led household survey run by the Annual Statistics of Education Report (ASER) in Pakistan in 2014. Our main analysis involves a sub-group of 26,070 children who were reported to be 8 years-old at the time of the survey. It was important for our purposes that this survey collected equivalent data on children in public, private and religious schools, as well as those not attending school at all. Unsurprisingly, the main difference in outcomes is between those children who attend school, and those who do not. Those missing out on school are more likely to be girls, and from poorer families in rural areas. For those who attend school, there are differences between state-funded and private school intakes, in terms of family background and test results. A binary logistic regression analysis is used to help assess the relationship between attending different types of schools and children’s attainment of a specific proficiency level. Once their different student intakes are taken into account, the difference in test outcomes between government and private schools largely disappears. The worst outcomes are associated with the small proportion of children educated only in Madrasahs. The paper ends by proposing that policy-makers press for enforcement of schooling for all, aiming for a universal state-funded system with equivalent opportunities for all, meaning that the stop gap of cheap private schools in poorer areas is no longer necessary

Dynamic Behaviour of Tension Leg Platform under Impulsive Loading

In the literature on dynamics of tension leg platforms (TLPs), the effect offrequently occurring environmental forces, such as those arising due to wave, wind, current, tide, etc. has given the due consideration. However, less probable forces, such as that arising due to collision ofship with iceberg or any huge sea creature, etc., have not been considered in the study. Such small duration impact forces, usually termed as impulsive forces, may take four possible shapes: (i) rectangular, (ii) sinusoidal, (iii) triangular, and (iv) half-triangular. In the present study, response ofTLP has been obtained for all these four shaped impulsive forces. The result ofthe analyses shows that there is a dramatic change in surge, heave, and yaw responses of TLP due to such forces. In addition, a comparative study to find the most influencing impulsive force out of these four has also been conducted

Assessing the impact of Pupil Premium funding on primary school segregation and attainment

Using funding to improve educational outcomes is a common policy approach, usually assumed to be effective; but it is less commonly agreed how the money should be routed, and what it should be used for. This paper examines the possible impact of one approach wherein extra funding is provided by the state to schools, rather than teachers, families, or students. Pupil Premium funding has been provided to schools in England since 2011, to help overcome socio-economic segregation between schools, and reduce the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers. Yet there is little international evidence that such a funding system can raise attainment directly. Some important stakeholders are now considering whether Pupil Premium should cease, be used for more general school financing, or have a new objective such as social mobility or hiring more teachers. It is therefore essential to know whether the policy has had a beneficial impact in the nine years since its inception. Evaluating the impact of such a funding policy is not easy because it is national and so there is no simple comparator group, and the relevant outcomes are also sensitive to demographic, economic and other concurrent policy changes. These issues are addressed using the National Pupil Database and Annual Schools Census, and by comparing the poverty gap in primary schools from 2006 to 2019, focusing on pupils who would have attracted Pupil Premium funding, if it existed, in any year and under any economic conditions. After 2010, the gap in segregation between these long-term disadvantaged pupils and their peers became substantially lower in Year 1 and Year 6, and their attainment improved relative to their peers at age 7. At age 11 there was also an improvement after 2010, but the assessment changed after 2014 and this complicated the pattern. A regression model also suggests that relative attainment for poor pupils improved markedly in the Pupil Premium era. Improvement was marked in regions like the North of England which have faced criticism for apparently “failing” their poor pupils. On this evidence, we argue for retaining the Pupil Premium policy

Reliability of Longitudinal Social Surveys of Access to Higher Education: The Case of Next Steps in England

Longitudinal social surveys are widely used to understand which factors enable or constrain access to higher education. One such data resource is the Next Steps survey comprising an initial sample of 16,122 pupils aged 13–14 attending English state and private schools in 2004, with follow up annually to age 19–20 and a further survey at age 25. The Next Steps data is a potentially rich resource for studying inequalities of access to higher education. It contains a wealth of information about pupils’ social background characteristics—including household income, parental education, parental social class, housing tenure and family composition—as well as longitudinal data on aspirations, choices and outcomes in relation to education. However, as with many longitudinal social surveys, Next Steps suffers from a substantial amount of missing data due to item non-response and sample attrition which may seriously compromise the reliability of research findings. Helpfully, Next Steps data has been linked with more robust administrative data from the National Pupil Database (NPD), which contains a more limited range of social background variables, but has comparatively little in the way of missing data due to item non-response or attrition. We analyse these linked datasets to assess the implications of missing data for the reliability of Next Steps. We show that item non-response in Next Steps biases the apparent socioeconomic composition of the Next Steps sample upwards, and that this bias is exacerbated by sample attrition since Next Steps participants from less advantaged social backgrounds are more likely to drop out of the study. Moreover, by the time it is possible to measure access to higher education, the socioeconomic background variables in Next Steps are shown to have very little explanatory power after controlling for the social background and educational attainment variables contained in the NPD. Given these findings, we argue that longitudinal social surveys with much missing data are only reliable sources of data on access to higher education if they can be linked effectively with more robust administrative data sources. This then raises the question—why not just use the more robust datasets

Accelerated Reader as a literacy catch-up intervention during primary to secondary school transition phase

This paper describes an evaluation of an internet-based reading programme called Accelerated Reader (AR), which is widely used in UK schools and worldwide. AR is a whole-group reading management and monitoring programme that aims to stimulate the habit of independent reading among primary and secondary age pupils. The evaluation involved 349 pupils in Year 7 who had not achieved secure National Curriculum Level 4 in their Key Stage 2 results for English, randomised to two groups. The intervention group of 166 pupils was exposed to AR for 20 weeks, after which they recorded higher literacy scores in the New Group Reading Test (NGRT) post-test than the control group of 183 pupils (“effect” size of +0.24). The schools led the organisation and implementation of the intervention, and also conducted most elements of the evaluation, with advice from an expert external evaluation team. The process evaluation suggests that these schools were very capable of conducting evaluations of their own practice, given appropriate guidance

Does participation in uniformed group activities in school improve young people’s non-cognitive outcomes?

Recent concerns about extremism, and young people’s vulnerability to exposure of radicalisation and such negative influences, have increased interest in young people’s participation in civic activities. There is some evidence that such activities at school can have a positive influence on young people’s attitudes and behaviour, but such evidence has been largely based on correlational, small-scale and somewhat biased studies. This paper presents the results of the first large independent randomised controlled trial in the UK to test the impact of participation in uniformed group activities in school on young people’s social and reported behavioural outcomes. The one-year trial involved 7781 thirteen to fourteen year olds across 71 secondary schools in England. Outcomes were measured before and after the intervention using a bespoke questionnaire survey. Attrition was negligible. The results showed positive ‘effects’ on a range of wider outcomes including self-confidence, teamwork, resilience, career aspirations, empathy and self-reported charitable activities. These effects are somewhat muted since not all pupils in the treatment schools actually took part in the intervention. Process evaluation suggests that the intervention was well-received, but strong leadership support is crucial for successful implementation. The findings provide evidence of the promise of the benefits of such uniformed group involvement for young people. If these activities are deemed worthwhile in their own right, because of the costs, then there is enough evidence here to pursue such a course