The EDUCO Program: Operation, Analyses, Evaluations

Abstract

A book on the development of the program known as Education with Community Participation (EDUCO) begs the question of what we already know. In this chapter, I draw first on existing literature to characterize EDUCO in more detail and to explain a number of general features of this program and the underlying logic of accountability, effectiveness, and efficiency that contributed to its popularity. This section provides details that are glossed over in later chapters when the book turns toward explaining competing forms of influence and the overall trajectory of EDUCO as it became a global education policy. Second, I discuss previous political analyses—and the gaps therein—related to how EDUCO was formed. Third, I critically review previous studies that are more evaluative in nature. In that the review is critical, it provides an insight into the limitations of these studies and what can reasonably be claimed in terms of EDUCO’s impacts. As will become clear from later chapters, a critical understanding of the evidence base on EDUCO’s outcomes is essential, particularly when it comes to the impact evaluations produced by the World Bank, since these evaluations have created the basis upon which EDUCO has been vigorously promoted and, moreover, has taken on a life of its own.