Exploring the Impact of Primary Education

Abstract

More than a decade before basic education became one of the key elements of an expanded vision of Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990, the World Bank had begun supporting some influential research papers on the value and impact of primary education in other development sectors. One of the first of these underlined the powerful link claimed between education and fertility (Cochrane, 1979). Others linked primary education to several other outcomes, including productivity in the informal sector (Colclough, 1980). The one my colleague, Robert Palmer, and I analysed suggested that there was a very strong connection between just four years of education and farmer productivity (Lockheed, Jamison and Lau, 1980). Within two years there was a book published by two of the authors on Farmer education and farm efficiency (Jamison and Lau, 1982).