SABER Service Delivery 2018, Measuring Education Service Delivery

The SABER Service Delivery (SD) tool was developed in 2016 in the Global Engagement and Knowledge Unit of the Education Global Practice (GP) at the World Bank, as an initiative to uncover bottlenecks that inhibit student learning in low and middle-income countries and to better understand the quality of education service delivery in a country as well as gaps in policy implementation. This school survey is aligned to the latest education research on what matters for student learning and how best to measure it. Its main purpose is to provide a mechanism to assess these different determinants of learning through a diagnostic tool and also to uncover the extent to which policies translate into implementation and practice. As a global initiative, SABER SD provides data for the new global lead indicator on learning, which makes it easier to monitor the Sustainable Development Goal of achieving universal primary education.

The foundations of the SABER SD survey build upon two pre-existing World Bank Group initiatives that produce comparative data and knowledge on education systems: SABER (System Approach for Better Education Results) and SDI (Service Delivery Indicators). It also draws upon earlier surveys, namely, QSDS (Quality of Service Delivery Surveys) and PETs (Public Expenditure Tracking). On the one hand, the SABER SD tool builds on the evidence base and captures policy implementation measures from the core SABER domains. On the other hand, the SABER SD tool adapts and extends the surveys that were developed and implemented under the SDI program, which provides a set of metrics for benchmarking service delivery performance in education and health in Africa. There are two main factors that distinguish the SABER SD tool from SDI: (i) it has expanded the measurement of service delivery in primary education outside Africa and into Asia through pilots in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Laos, and (ii) it has adapted and extended the SDI approach by including additional test items from TIMSS and PIRLS, different modality for test administration, different classroom observation modules, and additional questions on student background.

In alignment with the World Development Report (WDR 2018), the SABER SD instrument collects information on the the four key elements of an education system, which are identified as the main determinants for student learning (teachers, school management, school infrastructure, student preparedness). This survey strategically collects information on the most important school inputs and processes that produce learning outcomes. The SABER SD instrument collects data at the school level and asks questions related to the roles of all levels of government (including local and regional). The tool provides comprehensive data on: teacher effort and ability; principal leadership; school governance, management, and finances; community participation; and student performance in Mathematics and Language which includes a classroom observation module.