A Cross-National Cost-Benefit Analysis of Complementary (Out-Of-School) Programs

This paper summarizes findings from case studies of School for Life in Ghana, Community Schools in Sikasso, Mali, and the Educatodos in Honduras. All three programs are designed and implemented by civil society actors but deliver schooling equivalent to the formal public curriculum. All three are more effective at providing access, completion, and learning than comparable levels of the public systems in each country. School for Life is over three times as cost effective as government schools in Ghana at producing a grade three completer. While Community schools in Mali have a unit costs 57 percent higher than public schools, the cost per completer is only 31 percent higher and the cost per learning outcome is only 10 percent higher. Educatodos is almost five times as cost effective as public schools at producing a grade six completer. For grades seven to nine, Educatodos has both a higher completion rate and much lower costs, making it 15 times as cost effective as the public system at producing a grade nine completer.