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Abstract:
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We employ original field-data from the education sector in Myanmar to evaluate efforts at promoting evidence-based decision-making in the developing world. The priority given to collecting “big”, better quality data and enhancing technical, decision-making capacities over more basic structural reforms, risks “putting the cart before the horse.” We find data are endogenous: they are part of the state’s political economy of control over education. Thus, while large quantities of data are collected by the state their use do not meet actual school needs, nor the broader goals of quality education and equity. Instead, we find the latter goals undermined by systemic incentives created by state control over two key resources – teachers and school infrastructure. In addition, by discouraging local experimentation, state control has suppressed the very evidence needed to improve education outcomes. Without structural reforms, “better data” are likely to solicit greater fear, weaken accountability, and worsen education outcomes.
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