Doug Blackmur calls for "critical examination" of work in the international economics of education literature. I fully agree. If Blackmur is interested in a more substantive analysis than can be provided in a newspaper letter, he may want to read my 250-page economics PhD thesis on the subject of randomised trials and public policy — with reference to the economics of education literature on class size — which is freely available online. As indicated in previous letters, my view of the status quo is that much of the local literature and policy is uncritical and misguided: it operates under the mantra of evidence-based policy, but on closer examination fails under its own terms. In which regard, I am still awaiting Resep’s nomination of a paper that "shows that a general increase in fiscal resources … is unlikely to improve the quality of education significantly" (Resep leading SA nowhere, May 9). It is critical that we take forward this debate so that education and fiscal policy are...
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