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The Impact of the 1999 Education Reform in PolandIncreasing the share of vocational
 secondary schooling has been a mainstay of development
 policy for decades, perhaps nowhere more so than in formerly
 socialist countries. The transition, however, led to
 significant restructuring of school systems, including a
 declining share of vocational students. Exposing more
 students to a general curriculum could improve academic
 abilities. This paper analyzes Poland s significant
 improvement in international achievement tests and the
 restructuring of the education system that expanded general
 schooling to test the hypothesis that delayed vocational
 streaming improves outcomes. Using propensity score matching
 and differences-in-differences estimates, the authors show
 that delayed vocationalization had a positive and
 significant impact on student performance on the order of
 one standard deviation.
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Egypt : Inequality of Opportunity in EducationThe paper examines the levels and trends
 in access to education and educational outcomes across
 generations of Egyptian youth. Examination of three cohorts
 of individuals aged 21 to 24 (born between 1964 and 1967,
 1974 and 1977, and 1982 and 1985) shows that access to
 education has substantially improved during the last three
 decades. Completion rates increased by more than 60 percent
 at the preparatory level and 70 percent at the secondary
 level and the college completion rate more than doubled.
 However, significant inequities remain in access to
 education and educational outcomes. The fraction of never
 enrolled among the cohorts is still large, affecting more
 girls than boys, more rural than urban areas, and more
 children of parents with lower level of education and in
 elementary occupations, such as subsistence agriculture. The
 analysis of test-scores from the Trends in International
 Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and national
 examinations shows that more than a quarter of learning
 outcome inequality is attributable to circumstances beyond
 the control of a student, such as parental education,
 socioeconomic background and place of birth. In Egypt,
 inequality of opportunity in learning outcomes emerges early
 and builds up progressively throughout the education levels.
 Access to higher education continues to remain significantly
 lower for children from rural areas and for those whose
 parents have a low level of education or are engaged in
 elementary occupations. Tracking into vocational and general
 secondary schools, which depends on a high-stakes national
 examination, and high and unequal levels of household
 expenditures in private tutoring substantially contribute to
 unequal learning outcomes.
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Decentralized Service Delivery for the Poor : Volume 2, Background PapersThis report on the decentralized service delivery for the poor is structured in two volumes. Volume one is a cross-sectoral report, the core report. The first part includes the program and performance overview which describes the programs (including their poverty goals) and their process of decentralization, the overview of expenditures, the access of the poor to these services, and the evidence on the quality of services. The second part of the core report is on the institutional dimensions of decentralized service delivery which includes the World Development Report (WDR) 2004-type framework of accountability, adapted to the situation in Mexico. Volume two contains the sectoral pieces. For this report-the third phase of a programmatic series of studies on poverty in Mexico-Mexico's social cabinet requested that the Bank analyze service delivery of a specific list of programs that are essential to the government's development strategy in the context of decentralization. The elements of the government's strategy considered here-basic education, health care for the population without social security coverage, local social infrastructure, and local rural development-all aim directly or indirectly to reduce poverty. Both social and economic services shape the opportunities of poor people. Social services contribute to human capital formation and risk management, while economic services shape access to markets. The analysis presented in this report does not pretend to be exhaustive of decentralized service delivery for the poor. Important areas for future research include the following: (i) analysis of the compliance of the law or of the detail regulations in programs; (ii) systematic comparisons of state interventions in the sectors analyzed in this report; (iii) analysis of the implications and requirements to implement per capita funding in health and education, and freedom to choose providers; and (iv) systematic compilation of information at the state and municipal level on the performance of the programs.