Anna Vignoles - The economics of education and the reform of our education systems

Assessment and formative feedback so that the child knows what they're doing wrong and learns from their mistakes are vital for improving academic achievement.

About Anna Vignoles

"Formerly Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge, I am the Director of the Leverhulme Trust and an economist of education.

I’m an economist of education, which means I apply economic principles to the study of education. I do lots of work on trying to understand the effectiveness of different education systems, of understanding the causes of inequality in our education systems, and I try to come up with practical solutions to how we can narrow these inequalities."

Key Points

• Education inequality depends on context. What is needed in low-income countries to reduce education inequalities is different from what is necessary for higher-income countries. • We need to find a balance between centralised and locally-run education systems. There should be enough autonomy at a school and teacher-level while monitoring school systems and setting common standards. • In order to reduce financial stress, you can improve social welfare payments or invest in parenting interventions, which can help families in disadvantaged circumstances cope with their environment better.

Education inequality depends on context. What is needed in a low-income country to reduce education inequalities is distinct from what we would need to do in the United States, for example. Nevertheless, by and large, if we focus on developed countries in order to reduce educational inequalities, we need to address two issues: first, we must try to reduce inequalities outside the education system. A child who is born into a very low-income family experiences things in childhood that are detrimental to his or her academic achievement, and this starts early on. Therefore, the first thing we need to think about is how we can support families to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds so that they're better poised to start school. We might also want to focus on what we can do within the education system. The one thing we know that matters most for education achievement other than family background is the quality of teaching.