District Governance and Student Learning in Indonesia

Abstract

We document the likely importance of district governance and teacher management policies in relation to student learning in Indonesian primary schools. As the responsibility to deliver primary education has been decentralized to district governments, we expect district specific variations in teacher management policies. Consequently, we also expect variations in learning trajectories across districts. We document substantial heterogeneity in learning gains across districts. Furthermore, we show that schools with more active teacher working groups and higher-qualified teachers achieve better learning gains. However, teacher management policy variables, including school budgets, participation rates in teacher working groups, or student–teacher ratios, can explain only a fraction of the differences in learning across districts. It is likely that the “quality” of operation matters. More detailed measurement is needed to further understanding of the heterogeneity in performance.