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Actual Instructional Time in African Primary Schools: Factors that Reduce School Quality in Developing Countries

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

    Aaron Benavot

  2. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

    Limor Gad

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  1. Aaron Benavot
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Correspondence to Aaron Benavot.

Additional information

Original language: English

Aaron Benavot (Israel)

Senior lecturer in sociology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has co-authored two books, School Knowledge for the Masses (with J. Meyer and D. Kamens) and Law and the Shaping of Public Education (with D. Tyack and T. James), as well as numerous articles in educational journals. His research, which is grounded in a macro-sociological approach to education and development, has examined historical and cross-national patterns in official school curricula, the effects of education on economic development and democratization, and the origins of mass education. Current projects focus on world-wide trends in intended instructional time and primary and secondary school curricula, and the diversification of educational knowledge in local schools. E-mail: msbenavo@mscc.huji.ac.il.

Limor Gad (Israel)

A graduate student in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a law student at Tel Aviv University. She is currently completing her Master‘s thesis, which examines the struggle against the trafficking of women in Israel. E-mail: lgad@mscc.huji.ac.il.

An earlier version of this paper was prepared for a World Bank/IBE study on actual instructional time (Contract no. ED 871-138-3) entitled: ‘Factors affecting actual instructional time in African primary schools: A literature review’. The authors wish to thank Helen Abadzi, Massimo Amadio and Bruce Fuller for their comments. All queries should be sent to: msbenavo@mscc.huji.ac.il.

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Benavot, A., Gad, L. Actual Instructional Time in African Primary Schools: Factors that Reduce School Quality in Developing Countries. Prospects 34, 291–310 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-004-5309-7

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