Sector Results and Learning:
Education

This Education Sector Results and Learning page is a repository of evidence generated by all MCC-funded education interventions. To promote learning and inform future program design, this page captures monitoring data from key common indicators, showcases recent and relevant evaluations, includes all agency lessons from completed education evaluations to-date, and links to learning that has been aggregated across completed evaluations in the sector.

What Do We Invest In?

MCC has funded $768 million in education interventions as of March 2023. These interventions target the following levels of education: general education specific; technical and vocational education training/workforce development; and higher education; and fall into the following categories of investment: teacher/school administrator training; infrastructure and equipment; governance and management; and workforce training.

General Education Specific

Education that is designed to develop learners’ general knowledge, skills and competencies and literacy and numeracy skills, often to prepare students for more advanced educational programs and to lay the foundation for lifelong learning.

Technical and Vocational Education Training/Workforce Development

Education and training which provides knowledge and skills for employment. TVET uses formal, non-formal, or informal learning to provide practical and occupational skills at the secondary and post-secondary level, often as an alternative to university training.

Higher Education

Post-Secondary education leading toward an academic degree.

Teachers/School Administrator Training

Interventions that involve professional preparation for teachers (pedagogical and subject matter training), as well as training for school management and teacher mentors.

Infrastructure and Equipment

Includes new construction or rehabilitation of school facilities as well as the supplying of equipment for labs, gymnasiums, and other instructional facilities.

Governance and Management

Interventions related to accountability measures and incentives, including data management and assessments, education policy, and alignment of measures to more coherence in the system.

Workforce Training

Workplace based training, job placement programs, occupational training.

Burkina Faso Compact

The Burkinabe Response to Improve Girls’ Chances to Succeed Project aimed to increase access to girl-friendly school environments and funded complementary educational needs, including: latrines, school supplies and food.

Burkina Faso Threshold Program

The Girls’ Education Promotion Project promoted the shared value of women’s rights by increasing access to education for girls in 10 provinces with low primary education completion rates.

Côte d'Ivoire Compact

The Skills for Employability and Productivity Project aims to improve secondary and technical education by constructing up to 84 new secondary schools, new teacher training satellite campuses and establishing a national accreditation system for TVET centers.

El Salvador Compact

The Human Development Project was designed to increase education and skill levels for beneficiaries in the Northern Zone by expanding the quality of and access to vocational and technical education training.

El Salvador Investment Compact

The Human Capital Project focused on preparing the people of El Salvador to better meet the demands of a global economy through improving the quality of education and better matching the supply of skills to the labor market.

Georgia Compact II

This program aimed to improve general education quality by enhancing the learning environment in schools and training educators and school managers; and aimed to strengthen the linkage between market-demanded skills and the supply of relevant technical skills. 

Ghana Compact

The Education Sub-Activity sought to improve education delivery in beneficiary communities including the construction and rehabilitation of school infrastructure and ancillary facilities in farming communities.  

Guatemala Threshold Program

The Education Project sought to improve the quality and relevance of secondary education to better prepare youth to succeed in the labor market by promoting high-quality teaching in lower-secondary schools.  

Kosovo Compact

The Just and Equitable Transition Acceleration Project aims to increase female representation in the energy sector and develop new technical training programs to provide the skills needed in the energy sector and for Kosovo’s energy transition.

Mongolia Compact

The Vocational Education Project aimed to increase employment and income among unemployed and marginally employed Mongolians by improving the quality and relevance of vocational education, and modernizing infrastructure and equipment for 28 schools.  

Morocco Compact

The Functional Literacy and Vocational Training Activity was designed to improve the productivity and employability of trainees by providing literacy and vocational training programs to artisans, fishers, and farmers. 

Morocco Employability and Land Compact

The Education and Training for Employability Project aims to improve the quality of education by investing in reforms to school governance, improving infrastructure of training centers, and increasing the availability and analysis of labor market data.  

Namibia Compact

The Education Project sought to improve the education sector’s effectiveness, efficiency and quality through infrastructure improvements, institutional strengthening, policy reform and targeted technical assistance to ensure sustainable results.  

Niger Threshold Program

The Education Project sought to improve the education sector’s effectiveness, efficiency and quality through infrastructure improvements, institutional strengthening, policy reform and targeted technical assistance to ensure sustainable results.  

Timor-Leste Compact

The Teaching and Leading the Next Generation of Timorese Project aims to improve teaching and leadership and thereby improve the quality of secondary education, and to increase the number of women in secondary-school training and leadership positions.

What Have We Completed So Far?

MCC and its country partners develop and tailor Monitoring and Evaluation Plans for each particular program and country context. Within these country-specific plans, MCC uses common indicators where appropriate to standardize measurement and reporting within certain sectors. See below for a subset of common indicators that summarize implementation achievements across all MCC Education investments as of December 2022. Note that these indicators are tracked and reported during program implementation, so do not reflect the continued attendance and graduation of students after MCC-funded programs end. However, such post-program results are included in our independent evaluation reports.

873

educational facilities constructed or rehabilitated

10,621

instructors trained

394,840

students participating in MCC-supported education activities

62,938

graduates from MCC-supported education activities

What Have We Achieved?

MCC commissions independent evaluations, conducted by third-party evaluators, for every project it funds. These evaluations hold MCC and country partners accountable for the achievement of intended results and also produce evidence and learning to inform future program decision-making. They investigate the quality of project implementation, the achievement of the project and other targeted outcomes, and the cost-effectiveness of the project. The graphs below summarize the composition and status of MCC’s independent evaluations in the Education sector as of February 2023. Read on to see highlights of newly published interim and final evaluations. Follow the evaluation links to see the status of all planned, ongoing, and completed evaluations in the sector and to access the reports, summaries, surveys, and data sets.

Go to our List of Evaluations to see the status of MCC’s education sector evaluations

Highlighted Evaluations

A yellow concrete school building with a red shingled roof amidst a background of storm clouds

October 1, 2022 | Guatemala Threshold Program

Strengthening the Education System in Guatemala

Ministry support for teacher selection and recruitment reform facilitated change 

  • Evaluation Type:
  • Evaluation Status: Interim

MCC’s $28 million Guatemala Threshold Program (2016-2021) aimed to provide quality educational opportunities for Guatemala’s youth that have relevance to the labor market, and mobilize additional government resources that are needed to address binding constraints to economic growth. The Education Project consisted of three activities: (1) Quality of Education in Support of Student Success; (2) Improving Technical and Vocational Education and Training; and (3) Strengthening of Institutional and Planning Capacity. This interim evaluation brief focuses on Activity 3.

Read Evaluation Details or the Evaluation Brief

December 15, 2020 | Georgia Compact II

Upgrading STEM Education at Universities in Georgia

Partners collaborated to offer American degrees and prepare for accreditation

  • Evaluation Type:
  • Evaluation Status: Interim

MCC’s Georgia II Compact (2013–2019), which disbursed $136 million, funded the $30 million STEM Higher Education Project, which aimed to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) university education to give graduates better employment opportunities with higher incomes, leading to an increase in economic growth. Three public Georgian universities and one university from the United States worked to give Georgian students an opportunity to earn a high-quality STEM bachelor’s degree, improve the Georgian partners’ STEM-related infrastructure, and prepare the partners for international program accreditation.

Read Evaluation Details or the Evaluation Brief

Exterior of the Oshana regional library

August 11, 2020 | Namibia Compact

Namibian Communities Value Library Resources

Libraries supported learning and professional goals despite sustainability challenges

  • Evaluation Type:
  • Evaluation Status: Final

MCC’s $304.5 million Namibia Compact (2009–2014) funded the $145 million Education Project, including the $20.8 million Regional Study and Resource Center (RSRC) Activity. The RSRC Activity built three regional libraries and provided technical assistance and training based on the theory that expanded community access to information, training resources, and study facilities would improve educational and professional outcomes.

Read Evaluation Details or the Evaluation Brief

Fouiza Mouamer attends an MCC-funded literacy class in Agadir, Morocco. Under the Compact signed in 2007, functional literacy courses have benefitted thousands of adults across the North African country.

July 29, 2020 | Morocco Compact

Supporting Artisan Skills and Literacy in Morocco

Beneficiaries and employers were satisfied with training quality

  • Evaluation Type:
  • Evaluation Status: Final

MCC’s $650 million Morocco Compact (2008-2013) funded the $32.8 million Functional Literacy and Vocational Training (FLVT) Activity, which aimed to provide literacy and vocational training programs to improve the productivity and employability of trainees. This program was based on the theory that improved skills and professional qualifications would increase the revenues of artisans, fishers, and farmers participating in the program.

Read Evaluation Details or the Evaluation Brief

Go to our Evaluation Brief page to see all completed education sector evaluations

What Have We Learned from Our Results?

To link the evidence produced by the independent evaluations with MCC practice, project staff produce an MCC Learning document at the close of each interim and final evaluation to capture practical lessons for programming and evaluation. Use the filters below to find lessons relevant to your evidence needs.

  • Mongolia Compact

    Fully define the theory of change: The MCA, MCC and the independent evaluator should coordinate to ensure intermediate outcomes are articulated and measured.

    Fully define the theory of change: The MCA, MCC and the independent evaluator should coordinate to ensure intermediate outcomes are articulated and measured.

  • Niger Threshold Program

    Multiple years of schooling required to achieve improvements in learning: The evaluation conducted in early 2011, approximately one year after completion of school construction, found a 4.3 percentage point positive impact on primary school enrollment, but no impact on attendance or on math and French test scores.

    Multiple years of schooling required to achieve improvements in learning: The evaluation conducted in early 2011, approximately one year after completion of school construction, found a 4.3 percentage point positive impact on primary school enrollment, but no impact on attendance or on math and French test scores. The present evaluation, conducted in late 2013, found statistically significant impacts on enrollment, attendance, and math test scores. These results suggest that it may take more than one year of schooling in Niger for an improvement in learning to manifest. Because children stay in school longer in IMAGINE villages than in non-IMAGINE villages, they have more of a chance to learn, which would be consistent with the improvements in test scores after three years, when there were none after one year.

  • Morocco Compact

    A holistic workforce development approach goes beyond skills training.

    A holistic workforce development approach goes beyond skills training. In addition to smart approaches to providing technical and vocational education and training (TVET), MCC is committed to addressing key constraints to the efficient matching of jobseekers and employers in the labor market. As part of MCC’s second Compact with the Kingdom of Morocco, MCC is working with the government’s Skills and Jobs Promotion Agency (ANAPEC, per its French Acronym) to improve on existing job placement programs and launch a new program which targets improved job placement and retention rates for women and vulnerable youth.

  • Georgia Compact II

    Although the program sought to increase female participation in STEM fields, only 14% of all trainees in the PICG-supported courses were female.

    Although the program sought to increase female participation in STEM fields, only 14% of all trainees in the PICG-supported courses were female. In order to recruit more women into traditionally male fields, future programming should seek to better understand the underlying causes of low female participation and target specific interventions to address those causes.

  • Namibia Compact

    Without the proper momentum and capacity, a “cascade approach” to training educators/trainers risks becoming a “trickle approach.” Textbook-related training was structured around the “train the trainer” method.

    Without the proper momentum and capacity, a “cascade approach” to training educators/trainers risks becoming a “trickle approach.” Textbook-related training was structured around the “train the trainer” method. While the training of master trainers was considered largely successful, only one subject of training (i.e., the textbook utilization training) seemed to reach more schools and teachers, while other subjects encountered challenges. Considering resource limitations, it is likely that MCC programs might propose similar models in the future. It is therefore recommended to cautiously explore such implementation models and, where relevant, ensure the training of trainers happens early enough in the implementation period to support early replication and help establish enough momentum. This would increase the likelihood of post-compact sustainability and the continuous refreshing of skills under such a cascade approach.

How Have We Aggregated Learning Across the Sector?

In January 2023, MCC published Insights from General Education Evaluations, a paper that synthesizes evidence from completed evaluations of general education investments. MCC previously developed a Principles into Practice paper using evidence from other completed independent evaluations in the education sector – Principles into Practice: Training Service Delivery for Jobs and Productivity.

The Principles into Practice series offers a frank look at what it takes to make the principles MCC considers essential for development operational in the projects in which MCC invests. The learning captured in this paper informs MCC’s ongoing efforts to refine and strengthen its own model and development practice in the education sector. MCC hopes this paper will also allow others to benefit from, and build upon, MCC’s lessons.