The document outlines the collaborative opportunities for enhancing learning environments for children, emphasizing the importance of effective schooling and addressing the learning crisis through targeted policy actions. It discusses findings from the World Development Reports 2018 and 2019, highlighting the changing nature of work and skill demands, particularly due to digital transformation. The report also presents World Bank education infrastructure projects and research activities aimed at improving educational outcomes in various countries.

1. Opportunities for collaboration for ensuring
better learning environments for all children
The presentation is prepared by the team that
includes Tigran Shmis, Diego Ambasz (Sr. Education
Specialist), and Maria Ustinova (Education
Consultant)
Paris, November 17, 2018

2. Outline
1. The importance of the LEARNING and related learning environment
2. Background of selected Education infrastructure projects and research
activities of the Bank
3. Research and connection to the OECD and School User Survey (LEEP)
4. Projects related to financing and management of school infrastructure
5. Next steps

3. World Development Report 2018 (WDR 2018): LEARNING to
Realize Education’s Promise
Main Messages
• Schooling is not the same as learning.
• Schooling without learning is not just a wasted opportunity, but a
great injustice.
• There is nothing inevitable about low learning in low- and middle-
income countries.
3
The Three Dimensions of the Learning Crisis
The poor learning outcomes themselves.
The learning crisis is its immediate causes:
• Children arrive unprepared to learn.
• Teachers often lack the skills or motivation to teach effectively.
• Inputs often fail to reach classrooms or to affect learning.
• Poor management and governance often undermine schooling
quality.
The third dimension of the crisis is its deeper systemic causes.
The Three Policy Actions to Address the Crisis
1. Assess learning, to make it a serious goal.
2. Act on evidence, to make schools work for learners.
3. Align actors, to make the system work for learning.

4. World Development Report 2019 (WDR 2019): The changing
nature of work
The nature of work is changing.
• Firms can grow rapidly thanks to digital transformation, which blurs their boundaries and challenges traditional production
patterns.
• The rise of the digital platform firm means that technological effects reach more people faster than ever before.
• Technology is changing the skills that employers seek. Workers need to be good at complex problem-solving, teamwork
and adaptability.
• Technology is changing how people work and the terms on which they work. Even in advanced economies, short-term
work, often found through online platforms, is posing similar challenges to those faced by the world’s informal workers.
What can governments do?
• The 2019 WDR suggests three solutions:
• Invest in human capital especially in disadvantaged groups and early childhood education to develop the new skills that
are increasingly in demand in the labor market, such as high-order cognitive and socio-behavioral skills
• Enhance social protection to ensure universal coverage and protection that does not fully depend on having formal
wage employment
• Increase revenue mobilization by upgrading taxation systems, where needed, to provide fiscal space to finance human
capital development and social protection.
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5. Romania 340 MM*
World Bank Projects in Europe and Central Asia and in Latin
America and Caribbean with Education Infrastructure
Component
Belarus 152 MM
Serbia 50 MM
Moldova 26 MM
??? Million Dollars on Education
Infrastructure Investments
FYROM 26 MM
Argentina 180 MM
Nicaragua 52 MM
Uruguay 61 MM
Ecuador 236 MM
Brazil 215 MM
Haiti 8 MM
Guyana 23 MM
Costa Rica 200 MM
El Salvador 50 MM
One Billion Dollars on Education
Infrastructure Investments
5

6. Selected World Bank activities related to school
infrastructure
6

7. New World Bank study on impact of LE on student learning
7
Barrett, Peter, Alberto Treves,
Tigran Shmis, Diego Ambasz, and Maria Ustinova. 2018. The Impact of School Infrastructure on Learning: A Synthesis of the
Evidence. International Development in Focus. Washington, DC: World Bank. doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-1378-8

8. Sanitary
regulations
Fire
protection
Learning
standard
Construction
regulations
Economy = more efficient
Active spaces = more in the same buildings
Alignment of the regulations = high
Child centered regulations: improved efficiency
Still many ECA
countries suffer
from over-
regulation and
misalignments. As
opposed to
selected countries
of Latin America
or Africa, where
minimum
standards are still
to be defined.

9. Opportunities of research in the World Bank projects
1. The tools like School User Survey represent a
comprehensive set of indicators to measure the
beneficiary satisfaction within investments;
2. The instruments may serve as a basis for linking
student outcomes with the learning environments
(including the arrangements of schools);
3. The is a need to expand the research and find the
answers to the learning environment questions that
were long unanswered.
4. Questions: What instruments we can use to
measure? How to link those instruments with
existing International Studies – PISA, TIMSS,
PIRLS? How do we measure all skills?
9

10. School User Survey in Belarus
1. The project of USD 152 mln. to i) rehabilitate hub schools and
equip them with modern laboratories; ii) improve the quality of
the system (including upgrading of EMIS and participation in
PISA 2018, 2021, and 2024*).
2. SUS is planned to be part of the results framework to evaluate
the impact of the project activities before and after and
understand the impact of different pilot activities within the
Project.
3. There will be an opportunity to link the SUS with PISA results
using the data analysis and sampling methodologies.
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* Subject to Government decision

11. School User Survey in Russia
• 3 regions, 1550 students (8th grade), 160 teachers, 32 school
principals.
• The OECD School User Survey (SUS) was paired with the piloting of
TIMSS 2019 (Trends in Mathematics and Science Study).
• Available data on SUS and Student’s performance in Math and
Science.
• Analysis is ongoing.
• Results - June 2019.
• Next Steps – Potentially TIMSS 2019, based on final version of SUS
11

12. What do we know and what we don’t know yet
12
Imms, W., Mahat, M., Murphy, D. & Byers, T. (2017). Type and Use of Innovative
Learning Environments in Australasian Schools – ILETC Survey. Technical Report
1/2017. ILETC Project: Melbourne.
http://www.oecd.org/education/OECD-School-User-Survey-2018.pdf

13. What learning outcomes we want to measure?
13
Imms, W., Mahat, M., Murphy, D. & Byers, T. (2017). Type and Use of Innovative
Learning Environments in Australasian Schools – ILETC Survey. Technical Report
1/2017. ILETC Project: Melbourne.

14. Capacity building for education infrastructure projects
• Pedagogically informed planning and design process (jointly developed
TOR/Brief- Uruguay). Cross sectoral, interagency collaboration for better
education designs (Serbia, Russia, Romania).
• Helping to build coherent strategies for school infrastructure development
(Romania, Russia, Peru).
• Targeted training activities for architects and engineers on learning
environments design (Serbia, Russia).
• Guidelines for pre-school and school facilities construction and rehabilitation
(Russia, Serbia, Belarus).
14

15. Next steps
• Further analysis of the evidence on the relation between learning
environments and learning outcomes;
• Strengthening the exchange on best practices between countries and
Regions within and outside of the Bank operations;
• Generating new evidence on the learning environments in the middle income
and low income contexts;
• Partnering with global and Regional organizations to strengthen the
evidence and inform decision making;
• Further review options of increasing efficiency of education infrastructure
solutions, with a consideration of fiduciary mechanisms and safeguards.
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16. Thank you!
tshmis@worldbank.org