Facing Forward: Schooling for Learning in Africa Regional Study on the Quality of Basic Education Brookings Institute, Washington D.C. 19 April 2018 Purpose and scope of the study Scope • All sub-Saharan African countries have committed to Sustainable Development Goal 4 • Prioritize basic education of quality (grades 1-9) Focus • Science: “What works” • Service delivery: “How to implement” • Countries can learn from each other • Should develop the culture of continuous improvements Audience • Ministries of Finance; Ministries of Education • Development partners What can we learn from this study? Compares countries by education progress and learning Four focus areas: student progression, teachers, budgets, capacity gaps What are the implications for the region? Real GDP per capita and Primary-School Enrollment in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1960–2014 US$ at 2010 Millions prices of students 1700 160 1st Oil GDP pc Price Shock Jomtien at 1974 level 140 1600 In Primary Enrollment Total 120 1500 100 1400 80 1300 60 Real GDP Real per capita 1200 40 1100 20 1000 0 Four Country Groups: Geographical spread Country Groupings Established Emerged Emerging Delayed Countries Primary GER 110 117 108 81 Lower Secondary 87 55 55 42 GER Four groups of countries based on progress in primary education primary in progress on based countries of groups Four Percentage 100 100 120 120 140 140 160 160 20 20 40 40 60 60 80 80 0 0 South Africa Zimbabwe Mauritius Ghana Congo, Rep. Established Established Botswana 1 1 Group Group Kenya Lesotho Cabo Verde Namibia São Tomé and Principe Swaziland Gabon Congo, Dem. Rep. Tanzania Out of school children of school Out Emerged Emerged Comoros 2 2 Group Group Cameroon Uganda Togo Rwanda Malawi Nigeria Gambia, The Gross Enrollment Ratio 2013 Ratio Enrollment Gross Côte d'Ivoire Mauritania Emerging Emerging Ethiopia 3 3 Group Group Zambia Mozambique Guinea-Bissau Benin Burundi Madagascar Angola Eritrea Niger Sudan Mali Senegal Delayed Delayed 4 4 Group Group Equatorial Guinea Burkina Faso 100%GER at Guinea Central African Republic Liberia Chad Progress towards Lower secondary education (GER) (GER) education secondary Lower towards Progress 100 120 100 120 20 40 60 80 20 40 60 80 0 0 Congo,Congo, Rep. Rep. LesothoLesotho SwazilandSwaziland GhanaGhana Established Group 1 Group ZimbabweZimbabwe CaboCabo Verde Verde MauritiusMauritius BotswanaBotswana NamibiaNamibia SouthSouth Africa Africa TanzaniaTanzania CameroonCameroon Emerged Group 2 Group ComorosComoros UgandaUganda MalawiMalawi TogoTogo 2000 2000 BurundiBurundi MozambiqueMozambique Most Recent Year Recent Most MadagascarMadagascar Year Recent Most EthiopiaEthiopia Emerging Guinea-BissauGuinea-… Group 3 Group MauritaniaMauritania CôteCôte d'Ivoire d'Ivoire BeninBenin GambiaGambia ZambiaZambia NigeriaNigeria NigerNiger ChadChad Delayed Group 4 Group BurkinaBurkina Faso Faso SenegalSenegal GER 100% GER GuineaGuinea 100% GER MaliMali Eq. GuineaEq. Guinea Learning assessments: Sources of data and country coverage Few students reach reach students Few secondary, and adult literacy secondary, (each dotrepresents better perform Burundi and 1 Group in Countries Percentage of test takers reaching minimum proficiency 25 50 >=75% <25% - - 49% 74% Mauritius Botswana lower to early grade and in from assessment or Reading, Math, Science regional an international Kenya South Africa ) Congo, Rep. minimum Group 1 Group Swaziland Seychelles Lesotho Namibia Zimbabwe Ghana math or reading in levels proficiency Togo Cameroon Group 2 Group Uganda Malawi Tanzania Rwanda >=75% Burundi>=75% Benin Côte d'Ivoire Group 3 Group 50--74% Zambia Ethiopia Mozambique25--49% Nigeria Percentage of test takers Percentagetakers testof Percentage of test takers Percentagetakers testof Percentage of test takers Percentagetakers testof Percentage of test takers Percentagetakers testof <25% reachingminimumproficiency reachingminimumproficiency reachingminimumproficiency reachingminimumproficiency Senegal Group 4 Group Burkina Faso … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Chad Mali Mali Mali Mali Côte Côte Côte Côte Togo Togo Côte Côte Côte Côte Togo Togo Chad Chad Chad Chad Niger Niger Niger Niger Benin Benin Benin Benin South South Kenya Kenya South South Kenya Kenya Ghana Ghana Ghana Ghana Congo, Congo, Congo, Congo, Congo, Congo, Congo, Congo, Nigeria Niger Nigeria Nigeria Nigeria Zambia Malawi Zambia Malawi Zimbab Mozam Zambia Malawi Zambia Malawi Zimbab Mozam Burkina Burkina Uganda Burkina Burkina Zimbab Mozam Zimbab Mozam Senegal Uganda Senegal Burkina Burkina Burkina Burkina Camero Uganda Uganda Camero Senegal Senegal Lesotho Burundi Rwanda Lesotho Burundi Camero Camero Rwanda Lesotho Burundi Lesotho Burundi Rwanda Rwanda Ethiopia Seychell Ethiopia Seychell Ethiopia Ethiopia Namibia Seychell Seychell Namibia Namibia Namibia Tanzania Tanzania Tanzania Tanzania Mauritius Mauritius Mauritius Mauritius Botswana Botswana Swaziland Botswana Botswana Swaziland Swaziland Mali Swaziland At the end of 4th grade, fewer than 30 percent of children can read a paragraph (except Tanzanian children in Kiswahili) 100 80 60 Percentage Percentage 40 20 0 English Kiswahili Kenya Tanzania (2014 ) Togo Uganda Mozambique Nigeria Senegal Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Pupil can read a letter (%) Pupil can read a word (%) Pupil can read a sentence (%) Pupil can read paragraph (%) Equity is a major issue but teachers and schools can affect learning Some groups of children do Teachers, classroom and school systematically worse resources make a difference • Poor children • Structured pedagogy (tightly linked curriculum, teacher training, instructional materials, assessment) • Rural children • Teacher content knowledge • Children who do not speak language of instruction • Instructional time • Gender effect varies by country • Infrastructure, classroom and school pedagogical resources EquityLanguage is a used majorat issue home but and teachers school: Wideand schools gaps in canlearningaffect in learning grade 2 PASEC Grade 2: Average scores and score gap between students instructed in the home language and in another language Mathematics Reading Burundi 533 72 606 Burundi 563 66 629 Senegal 509 67 576 Senegal 481 98 579 Congo, Rep. 515 60 574 Congo, Rep. 481 95 577 Togo 457 82 539 Togo 456 89 545 Chad 468 67 535 Chad 466 46 512 Cameroon 458 73 531 Cameroon 456 79 535 Niger 426 103 528 Niger 423 106 529 Burkina Faso 497 24 521 Burkina Faso 494 52 546 Benin 440 44 483 Benin 446 36 481 Côte d'Ivoire 444 38 482 Côte d'Ivoire 453 54 507 350 500 650 350 500 650 Never use LOI at home Gap Size Always/Sometimes use LOI at home Never use LOI at home Gap Size Always/Sometimes use LOI at home Some interventions boost learning in SSA and other low- and middle- income countries 0.28 Structured pedagogy 0.18 0.175 Extra time 0.14 0.13 School feeding 0.1 0.13 Teacher hiring 0.08 0.12 Multi-level 0.1 0.11 Public-private partnerships SSA countries 0.05 0.1 Merit scholarship All countries 0.08 0.06 Community-based monitoring 0.11 0.06 Cash transfers 0.005 0.05 Tracking 0.07 0.02 Construction of new schools 0.11 0.005 Teacher incentives 0.04 -0.02 Materials to schools -0.01 -0.05 School-based management 0 -0.09 School based health-malaria 0.1 -0.15 -0.10 -0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 Four areas of focus in the study 1. Student progression from early grades to end of lower secondary, with learning 2. Teacher management and support 3. Using the budget to improve quality 4. Closing the capacity gap 1. Student progression with learning Unblock early grade “traffic jam” Student progression: early More lower grades through secondary schools basic education Target poor, female, rural students Early Grade “Traffic Jam” : Three Factors Poor Learning Environment in Early Grades • Large classes (>80) • Different ages • Classes held outside Student Flow • Few learning materials • Teachers need training to • Children enter at different teach reading, numeracy CHILDREN ages STUCK • Attend irregularly • Repeat years IN EARLY • Learn little GRADES • Children don’t understand Language of Instruction • Teachers are not familiar with language Language Policy Survival rates through grade 9 100 100 100 97 Ghana, 90 91 DRC, 83 Nigeria, 83 80 80 Senegal, 82 72 Kenya, 80 68 CIV, 76 60 56 Ethiopia, 57 Mozambique, 49 Burkina, 46 Survival Rate Survival 40 Rwanda, 38 36 Uganda, 31 20 Malawi, 16 0 Grade1 Grade2 Grade3 Grade4 Grade5 Grade6 Grade7 Grade8 Grade9 Expand access to lower secondary, address demand constraints • Plan for increase: Will double in 10 years • Standard school facility package • Choice between boarding schools versus day schools: • Boarding schools are expensive and not effective • Address inequality in resources for day schools • Use ICT, especially to address shortages of math/science teachers, materials, labs • Eliminate exams between primary and lower secondary • Remove fees, barriers for girls, nomadic children, etc. 2. Teachers: Improve management and support Improve knowledge and practice Strengthen school leadership Improve teacher Deploy correctly/ management and ensure presence support Minimum learning conditions in schools Accountability and incentives “Leakages” in Teacher Management at Multiple Points •Teaching attracts the more educated Teacher recruitment • But pre-service preparation is inadequate • And teacher knowledge remains modest •Allocations vary widely across schools Teacher •Control of allocations and transfers is weak deployment •Curriculum specialization worsens problems •Teachers are absent