Is Sustainable Learning For All achievable? Emerging evidence from Nigeria

Improving school quality at scale ESSPIN aims both to widen access and improve learning outcomes for primary school children in six states of Nigeria. At the school level, it provides and supports the use of teaching... [ view full abstract ]

Improving school quality at scale

ESSPIN aims both to widen access and improve learning outcomes for primary school children in six states of Nigeria. At the school level, it provides and supports the use of teaching materials, trains head teachers, and facilitates community participation through school-based management committees (SBMCs). Following early evidence of success, partner states developed plans to foster school improvement in all schools and committed more of their own funding to do so. The programme has been scaled up massively, reaching 6 million children, a quarter of Nigeria’s enrolled population and 2.5% of the global total, through an annual investment of £150 per school.

This paper presents evidence from school surveys conducted in 2012 and 2014. ESSPIN-supported schools perform better than comparable schools in a wide range of indicators: they are better managed, have more competent teachers, and pupils are learning more in English and mathematics. However, state-wide learning outcomes remain low and unequal, with limited evidence of improvement. Enrolment has increased rapidly in some states, especially in ESSPIN-supported schools and local government areas. The profile of learners is also likely to have changed as ESSPIN’s efforts to widen access through action by head teachers and SBMCs have resulted in larger numbers of learners from disadvantaged backgrounds entering ESSPIN schools. The paper considers how ESSPIN states have adapted their programming to meet the challenges of increased scale and inclusive access with equitable outcomes for more children.

Deepening classroom practice in low-resource, large-scale contexts Translating educational policies on access, quality and inclusivity into meaningful large-scale change in practice at the classroom level requires sustainable... [ view full abstract ]

Deepening classroom practice in low-resource, large-scale contexts

Translating educational policies on access, quality and inclusivity into meaningful large-scale change in practice at the classroom level requires sustainable funding commitments by government. In 2008, ESSPIN piloted classroom improvement work in up to 10% of schools in six Nigerian states. By 2015, all six states had progressively scaled up teacher development and school leadership activities to begin reaching 100% of their schools. States fund the activities with their own budgets, support with their own staff, and manage within their own systems.

Yet, enabling states to support schools is not enough for sustainable improvement: there is a pressing need to deepen quality of classroom practice. This paper shares some successes regarding the depth of practice that can be achieved in large numbers of resource-poor classrooms, led and funded by their own governments. Using case studies, it argues that it is necessary to treat teachers and headteachers as individuals working in specific, different, contexts and that local and state governments must develop understanding of what good classroom practice means in their respective contexts.

In Nigeria, success has been achieved through improved quality, proximity and differentiation of support to schools and teachers, with a special focus on the need to steer school communities towards autonomous professional practice where schools plan their own improvement paths towards raising pupils’ learning achievements with few or no additional resources.

Whose learning needs to be prioritised? Inclusive education in Nigeria ESSPIN’s work and research at school and community levels across six states provides insights into the relationships between expansion, quality,... [ view full abstract ]

Whose learning needs to be prioritised? Inclusive education in Nigeria

ESSPIN’s work and research at school and community levels across six states provides insights into the relationships between expansion, quality, equity and inclusion. Detailed information on school and pupil characteristics allows for reporting on inequalities in education outcomes, contrasting programme-supported and all schools in those states. Pupils’ gender, poverty, location, age and language group are analysed and related to teacher, headteacher and school characteristics; as are inclusive policies and practices in classrooms, schools and school-based management committees (SBMCs).

This paper draws from a community-based qualitative study on interventions by SBMCs to improve access for all learners to improving quality schools. The study showed that between 2011 and 2014, SBMCs brought more marginalised children into schools. It also reports on analysis of a 2014 school survey to provide disaggregated results for different types of learners.

Wealth differences are stark with pupils from the richest 20% of households doing twice as well as those from the poorest 20% of households. Yet, this difference is less pronounced in ESSPIN-supported schools, where poor children’s learning outcomes are significantly raised. School location is an important determinant of pupil learning: test scores are increasingly low, the more remote the school. There is no evidence of gender, language and over-age differences in pupil test scores.

This paper identifies which children are marginalised in terms of differences in education outcomes and suggests how to reduce these gaps, particularly through community engagement, teacher education, school leadership and systems strengthening.

Rapid increases in enrolment in countries such as Nigeria have raised questions about whether the expansion has been at the cost of quality, whether equity in learning outcomes is improving, and how educational improvement... [ view full abstract ]

Rapid increases in enrolment in countries such as Nigeria have raised questions about whether the expansion has been at the cost of quality, whether equity in learning outcomes is improving, and how educational improvement programmes can meet the challenge of reaching all learners. But data to shed light on these questions has been limited and piecemeal. A unique knowledge base is now being generated as part of the Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN), a partnership between UKaid and the Nigerian government that reaches over 5.7 million children. This knowledge base includes a panel survey of over 500 schools in six states, a series of qualitative studies, and practitioner-based research. Work to improve the educational management information system in ESSPIN states also means that increasingly accurate, comprehensive and linked-up information is available on school infrastructure, pupils and teachers.

This symposium provides new evidence from this growing knowledge base on the expansion of enrolments, the barriers to achieving meaningful learning for all in Nigeria, which groups of students are worst affected, and which interventions are improving the situation. The papers examine changes in school quality, teaching and learning outcomes, in the context of ESSPIN’s attempts to reach all learners with a massive scale-up of inclusive school improvement interventions. They explore both general trends across the states and specific changes happening within ESSPIN-supported school communities, including the differences in education outcomes by gender, wealth and location, and attempts to address these with inclusive practices in schools, classrooms and school-based management committees.