Lant Pritchett on Education in Poor Countries

Lant Pritchett talks with host Russ Roberts about the ideas in his book, The Rebirth of Education. Pritchett argues that increases in years of schooling for students in poor countries do not translate into gains in education, learning, or achievement due to corruption and poor incentives in the top-down educational systems around the world. School reforms that imitate successful systems fail to take into account the organic nature of successful school systems that cause various external attributes to be effective. The conversation concludes with a discussion of school systems in rich countries and possible lessons for reform that might apply there.