Opportunity to Learn: A High Impact Strategy for Improving Educational Outcomes in Developing Countries. Working Paper

This paper reports that the basic opportunity to learn does not exist in many countries, and that a concerted management focus to assure that schools provide basic elements of an opportunity to learn (OTL) could potentially yield big improvements in learning. The paper assesses: (1) what basic factors create the opportunity to learn; and (2) to what extent is the lack of these basic elements a problem in developing countries? Elements of a foundational opportunity to learn are identified as: (1) The school is open and located near the student; (2) Minimum instructional time of 850-1000 hours annually; (3) Teacher absenteeism and tardiness; (4) Student absenteeism and tardiness; (5) Appropriate class size and student-teacher ratios; (6) Learning materials are available to every student and regularly used; (7) Time-on-Task; and (8) Learning to read. General strategies suggested for addressing OTL include incorporating OTL issues and awareness in activities and assistance programs such as teacher and principal training; incorporating OTL measures in management and information systems at the school level; and raising awareness by tracking an OTL Index). (Contains 6 figures and 5 tables.) [This paper was written for EQUIP2: Educational Policy, Systems Development, and Management, one of three USAID-funded Leader with Associates Cooperative Agreements under the umbrella heading Educational Quality Improvement Program (EQUIP).]