Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/310363 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
ADB Economics Working Paper Series No. 753
Publisher: 
Asian Development Bank (ADB), Manila
Abstract: 
This paper uses value-added models and panel data from a comprehensive set of highstakes secondary school exams to assess determinants of student performance during the coronavirus pandemic in Bhutan. Gender gaps, urban-rural gaps, and socioeconomic gaps do not appear to have widened substantially after the pandemic-related closure. Student characteristics (gender, access to a computer at home) and school characteristics (boarding facilities, urban location, class size, computers) predict performance. Quantile regression analysis shows that home learning environment (parental education) is a predictor of Class XII performance for higher-performing Class X students. Computer ownership at home clearly improves English performance but the pattern is less clear for Dzongkha, which has limited software and internet content for instruction. Influence of past performance and gender is stronger for students in the lowperforming group. Boarding facilities played a unique role in Bhutan's pandemic response, potentially mitigating learning losses and offsetting household differences that condition education outcomes.
Subjects: 
education
distance learning
school closures
JEL: 
I24
I28
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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