Improving Education Quality in South Asia (Ii)

IMPROVING EDUCATION QUALITY IN SOUTH ASIA (II): PLACING LEARNING AT THE CENTRE 2 / IMPROVING EDUCATION QUALITY IN SOUTH ASIA (II): PLACING LEARNING AT THE CENTRE IMPROVING EDUCATION QUALITY IN SOUTH ASIA (II): PLACING LEARNING AT THE CENTRE IMPROVING EDUCATION QUALITY IN SOUTH ASIA (II): PLACING LEARNING AT THE CENTRE / 3 © United Nations Children‘s Fund, Regional Office for South Asia, 2019 Author: S. Brinkmann, PhD Photo credits: Cover: © UNICEF/UNI86201/Ramoneda Page xiii: © UNICEF/UNI125556/Froutan Page 1: © UNICEF/UN046599/Kiron Page 4: © UNICEF/UN0220419/ Page 8: © UNICEF/UNI175119/Vishwanathan Page 17: © UNICEF/UN0122039/ Page 24: © UNICEF/UN0282245/Pirozzi Page 51: © UNICEF/UN019136/Zaidi Page 57: © UNICEF/UN031223/Kiron Page 62: © UNICEF/UNI186270/Page Disclaimer: This report presents the author’s analysis of views expressed by UNICEF staff, partners, and reports. Any conclusion stated herein are those of the author and not necessarily representative of or endorsed by UNICEF. Suggested citation for this report: Brinkmann, S. (2019). Improving education quality in South Asia (II): Placing learning at the centre. Kathmandu: UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia. For further information, please contact: UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia P.O. Box 5815 Lekhnath Marg Kathmandu, Nepal Telephone: 977-1-4417082 Fax: 977-1-4418466/ 4419479 Website: www.unicef.org/rosa 4 / IMPROVING EDUCATION QUALITY IN SOUTH ASIA (II): PLACING LEARNING AT THE CENTRE CONTENTS Acknowledgments v Foreword vi Executive Summary viii Acronyms xiv I. Introduction: Placing Learning at the Centre 1 1. Context, purpose and methodology 2 2. Shifting to a ‘learning lens’ 5 Reflections from Country Offices 5 Implications of applying a ‘learning lens’ 6 Defining learning 6 3. Thinking systemically about learning: From Improving schools to shifting systems 10 II. A TEAM Response to South Asia’s Learning Crisis 17 1. Factors that impact learning 19 Causal analysis of factors affecting learning 19 Systems mapping: Core and enabling factors needed for learning 21 Research findings: What MAY or MAY NOT work to improve learning 21 2. Short-term: High-impact interventions to improve learning 25 TARGET STRATEGIC PRIORITIES: Align all actors around key achievable learning-related goals (Learning-centred) 27 EMPOWER KEY PLAYERS with the needed motivation and skills to implement learning-centred processes (Teacher-driven) 28 ASSESS & ADJUST CONTINUOUSLY: Promote a culture of assessment-based practice at all levels (Evidence-informed) 32 MOST TO THE LEAST: Democratic school leadership that prioritises the least in age, performance or status (Equity-lens) 35 3. Long-term: Mainstreaming a learning culture 39 Long-term efforts needed to turn the education ‘flywheel’ 39 Shifting mindsets 41 Shifting environments (and thus mindsets and behaviours) 44 Possible strategic leverage points to mainstream a TEAM learning culture 47 III. Implications: Creating Learning-centred Systems 51 1. Recommendations for UNICEF 53 2. Recommendations for supporting education systems 56 3. Next steps: Strategic planning for creating learning systems in South Asia 60 4. Conclusions 63 Bibliography 65 Annex I Meta-studies with recommendations for improving learning in developing countries, organised by TEAM principles 69 IMPROVINGIMPROVING EDUCATION EDUCATION QUALITY QUALITY IN IN SOUTH SOUTH ASIA ASIA (II): (II): PLACING PLACING LEARNING LEARNING AT AT THE THE CENTRE CENTRE / / iii5 BOXES Box 1: Teaching the 3Rs through the 4Es: Riverside School, Ahmedabad, India 9 Box 2: Using technologies to innovate creative learning solutions in India: Sampark, Mindpark and others 13 Box 3: Bangladesh’s TEAM response to the Rohingya crisis: From short-term inputs to systemic learning 26 Box 4: Pratham’s Read India programme: Relentlessly pursuing key achievable targets 29 Box 5: Empowering teachers: Mobile Teacher Meetings in Nepal 32 Box 6: Level-based Learning, India: Assessing and adjusting for those who haven’t achieved grade-level skills 36 Box 7: Prioritising the least advantaged: Ability Based Accelerated Learning in Bangladesh 38 Box 8: How STIR Education targets teacher motivation in India through non-financial teacher incentives 41 Box 9: India’s Kalikayatna approach: Shifting mindsets through experience and structures 45 Box 10: Nepal’s TEAM approach to improving early grades reading 48 TABLES Table 1: The ‘4Es’ of holistic learning 7 Table 2: Sample strategies to improve learning by creating alignment around strategic targets 28 Table 3: Effectiveness of different methods of teacher professional development 30 Table 4: Sample strategies to improve learning by prioritising teachers and teaching 31 Table 5: Sample strategies to improve learning by empowering students and parents 33 Table 6: Sample strategies to improve learning by promoting assessment-based practice 35 Table 7: Sample strategies to improve learning by promoting democratic relationships 37 Table 8: Possible strategic leverage points for mainstreaming an agile learning culture in classrooms, systems, and UNICEF teams 48 FIGURES Figure 1: The Iceberg Model applied to South Asian education 11 Figure 2: Sample causal analysis of learning in South Asia based on the Iceberg Model 20 Figure 3: Core and enabling factors needed for learning 22 Figure 4: Web-based evidence on subject-wise learning by gender in Pakistan 34 Figure 5: Transformative training for shifting mindsets 43 Figure 6: Mindset mapping of current education system in many South Asian countries 46 Figure 7: Mindset mapping of long-term possible alternative system for South Asia 47 Figure 8: Data Visualization App on School Education in India 59 6iv / / IMPROVINGIMPROVING EDUCATION EDUCATION QUALITY QUALITY IN IN SOUTH SOUTH ASIA ASIA (II): (II): PLACING PLACING LEARNING LEARNING AT AT THE THE CENTRE CENTRE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Sincere thanks goes to the 8 UNICEF South Asia Country Offices, who were willing to reflect and share their insights over skype or email on the difficult question of how to improve learning in South Asia. Thanks goes also to various UNICEF partners interviewed who were also willing to lend their thinking to this complex question. Special thanks goes to Anne Bernard, who helped do the groundwork for this process of UNICEF South Asia’s attempt to place learning at the centre: by helping do thoughtful research and to identify outliers impacting learning, and travelling to various South Asia Country Offices to facilitate reflection exercises on how to improve learning. This project was made possible by the Education Section of UNICEF’s Regional Office for South Asia, especially Ivan Coursac, as well as Urmila Sarkar and Jim Ackers. Their willingness to prioritise learning for South Asia’s education systems as well as for their own work shows a hopeful example of UNICEF’s seriousness in placing learning at the centre of its programming. Any errors in this report are my own. Suzana Brinkmann, PhD Consultant, UNICEF ROSA September 2019 IMPROVING EDUCATION QUALITY IN SOUTH ASIA (II): PLACING LEARNING AT THE CENTRE / 7v FOREWORD On my arrival at the UNICEF South Asia Regional Office in September 2019 I was delighted to see that substantive work had been commissioned by my predecessor, Urmila Sarkar and Ivan Coursac to try to address what is now termed ‘The Learning Crisis’ and to re-strategise around how UNICEF can contribute to this critical endeavor. I am particularly interested in this area having worked on national teacher education systems in Kenya and Tanzania and on national standards based on Child Friendly Schools in various other countries. The fact that UNICEF also launched its new Global Education Strategy in 2019 was highly serendipitous. The team in ROSA was already working on what I really wanted to do! Addressing learning outcomes has always been a challenge. The non-expert audience often seeks simple answers to very complex problems. Some agencies support holistic approaches, as was the case with the ‘school effectiveness’ approaches in the late 1990 and early 2000s. These remain relevant today in terms of their systematic approach. Some agencies have asked questions like: ‘Should we invest in textbooks or teachers?’; others cite research that teacher training has no effect on learning outcomes and focus on specific interventions rather than the bigger picture. Some focus on accountability; others argue that incentivizing teachers is the answer. Some work at the national level; others at the micro level and claim to have found the ‘Holy Grail’, and shake their heads because the government cannot take their solution to scale. Some see innovation and technology as irrelevant; others see it as the new Holy Grail. Major donor agencies have dismissed analytical reports as unfocussed if they show how complex it is to enhance learning outcomes at scale and within short time-frames. So Suzana Brinkmann was setting out on a complex and potentially hazardous journey when she agreed to support our analysis of Education Quality in South Asia. The first part of that journey is captured in the Phase 1 report where she mapped out the interventions that UNICEF has been engaging in in South Asia during the previous decade. The interventions initially all contained two common words: ‘Child’ + ‘Friendly’ – Child-Friendly Schools, Child-Friendly Education; Child-Friendly Education Systems. Suzana has now proposed ‘Child-friendly Learning Systems’. Her findings are that in many countries these initiatives enhanced equity, gender equality and cross-sectoral collaboration

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