The Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) Programme is a large-scale, multi-country research project, co-funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and Australia’s Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Through rigorous research, the RISE Programme aims to answer the following question: “What works to improve education systems to deliver better learning for all at scale?”

RISE’s work in Tanzania is led by the RISE Tanzania Country Research Team (CRT), an international team of 12 education experts from Georgetown University, the University of Virginia, Twaweza, the University of Dar es Salaam, World Bank, and the Amerdam Institute for Global Health and Development. In Tanzania, the RISE Country Research Team is studying the impacts of the recent education reforms in Tanzania and working to test interventions that have the potential to improve education service delivery.

Specifically, the RISE Tanzania Research Project seeks to:

  • document the policy process that generates and sustains reforms (or the converse);
    characterize the extent of implementation of the reforms both over time and across Tanzania’s regions;
  • estimate the impact of the reforms on learning and other intermediate outcomes;
  • identify weaknesses and potential improvements in key aspects both of the design and/or implementation of the reforms.

The study is divided into two phases: an initial 18-month period (Phase I) during which the team focused on activities (i), (ii) and (iii) above, followed by a 54-month period (Phase II) during which the team plans to initiate 2-3 large prospective randomized field studies to identify potential improvements in the design and/or implementation of current and prospective reforms as well as continue to document the policy process and reform momentum. The team has reached the end of Phase I and is currently at the beginning of Phase II.

Outputs

  • “Can public rankings improve school performance? Evidence from a nationwide reform in Tanzania” (with Jacobus Cilliers and Isaac Mbiti). RISE Working Paper 19/027.

For further details, see the gui2de website.