Instructional Time Loss in Schools Across Four Countries

Helen Abadzi's study measures instructional time loss in sampled schools in Tunisia, Morocco, Ghana, and the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. The data includes the percentage of time students were engaged in learning versus government expectations, which was approximately 39 percent in Ghana, 63 percent in Pernambuco, 71 percent in Morocco, and 78 percent in Tunisia. The research investigates losses due to informal closures, teacher absenteeism, delays, and sub-optimal classroom time use.

Use Cases

• Modeling the relationship between instructional time loss and student learning outcomes based on country-level engagement percentages.
• Comparative analysis of educational efficiency across different national contexts based on the described study locations.
• Identifying key factors (e.g., teacher absenteeism, delays) contributing to time loss in schools as described in the study.

Strengths

• Provides specific, measured percentages of instructional time engagement for four distinct regions (Ghana: ~39%, Pernambuco: ~63%, Morocco: ~71%, Tunisia: ~78%).
• Focuses on a specific, challenging-to-measure mediator variable (instructional time use) in educational research.
• Study methodology was designed for efficient measurement across multiple countries.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset scale are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the four studied regions.

Provenance

Source

Helen Abadzi

Collection Method

Instructional time use was measured in sampled schools using a developed methodology.

Geography

Tunisia, Morocco, Ghana, and the Brazilian state of Pernambuco.