This report summarizes applicable research on education in multilingual contexts and on the use of L1-based, bilingual instruction in particular. It also briefly presents the education and sociolinguistic environment in Senegal, as well as a summary of relevant national language education programs in the country. Lastly, the report makes recommendations aimed at supporting a transition toward the use of national languages for instruction in primary schools.

A video overview of the Nigeria Reading and Access Research Activity (RARA) approach to teaching reading in Hausa. Narrated in Hausa with English subtitles.

The National Education Assessment Unit (NEAU) of the Ghana Education Service (GES) conducted a national Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) and Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA) in July 2015. This was the second administration of EGRA and EGMA in Ghana; the first took place in 2013, and both were conducted as part of the USAID Partnership for Education: Testing activity. This report describes the findings.

Presentation delivered at CIES 2017 (Atlanta.) In 2004, the Federal Government of Nigeria passed the Universal Basic Education Act. In order to support State governments to implement this Act, a Federal Intervention Fund was established and financed by a 2% deduction from the Consolidated Revenue Fund. This UBE fund allocates funds equally to States, on a matching basis, to fund school construction, textbook provision, teacher training and other equity activities. This presentation looks at evidence from the 2010 and 2015 national household surveys on education to examine whether this Federal fund has improved educational opportunities for the poorest quintile and whether the fund has affected household expenditures on education. The presentation concludes that the middle quintiles have benefited most from the fund, that the richest quintile has opted out of Government education and into private education, whilst the poorest quintile remains financially unable to meet basic requirements of school uniforms and school supplies.

Presentation delivered at CIES2017 (Atlanta). As part of the USAID-funded Nigeria Reading and Access Research Activity (RARA) (2014-2015), RTI International developed and evaluated, through a randomized control trial, an approach to improving early grade literacy instruction and reading outcomes in Hausa in Northern Nigeria. The intervention package included the provision of teaching and learning materials, teacher training, and periodic support to teachers by pedagogical coaches. This presentation will focus on the role of the coach support; 24 reading coaches were trained to support 72 teachers in 60 public primary schools in two states over a period of six months during the 2014-2015 school year. The coaches provided support in the form of recurring site visits, lesson observations, and a coach-teacher discussion after the lesson. The underpinning theoretical framework for this research assumes that ongoing engagement with a pedagogical mentor promotes positive changes in teachers’ instructional practices over time. The research activity collected data on the frequency, duration, content, and nature of the coach-teacher interactions during the intervention and tracked changes in the teachers’ instructional practices from baseline to endline. This presentation will share findings on the relationships between changes in teachers’ instructional practices and the degree and nature of support they received from their coaches. The objective of the presentation is to add to the body of knowledge about effective ways to use and improve pedagogical coaching to influence teacher instructional practices in similar low-resource contexts.

Ce rapport est axé sur les leçons pratiques tirées de la mise en oeuvre de ces évaluations qui pourraient s’avérer utiles pour d’autres évaluations en RDC et ailleurs.

L’objectif de l’étude est d’avoir une évaluation de référence des compétences en lecture et en mathématiques des élèves de 3e et 5e années d’école primaire en République démocratique du Congo (RDC). Plus concrètement, cette étude offre à l’Agence américaine pour le développement international (USAID) et le Gouvernement de la République démocratique du Congo (GRDC) des données portant sur les capacités des enfants et 3e année d’école primaire à lire dans les trois langues nationales de la RDC (notamment le lingala, le kiswahili ou le tshiluba) et sur les compétences de compréhension et de production orales en français des mêmes élèves. D’autres éléments de l’étude offrent des aperçus des compétences en mathématiques d’enfants en 3e année dans un des districts du Katanga. La présente étude offre aussi un certain contexte et des données portant sur les variables principales en rapport avec les élèves, les enseignants, les directeurs des écoles et les écoles, variables supposées être de bons prédicteurs de la performance des élèves de primaire en lecture et mathématiques. Ces informations diagnostiques aideront les décisionnaires à prendre des décisions éclairées par les données, décisions sur les stratégies correctives qui pourront améliorer la qualité des résultats de l’enseignement et de l’apprentissage des élèves dans les premières années de l’école primaire.

This report focuses on practical lessons learned from the implementation of these assessments that may be helpful for further assessments in the DRC and elsewhere.

This study primarily provides USAID and the GDRC with information regarding the ability of Grade 3 children to read in three of the DRC’s national languages (Lingala, Kiswahili, and Tshiluba), those same pupils’ receptive and productive oral French skills, and Grade 5 children’s ability to read in French. Other elements of the study provide insight into the numeracy skills of Grade 3 children in one district in Katanga as well as the French reading and numeracy skills of Level 3 pupils in the Accelerated Learning Programs (ALPs). The study also provides background context and data related to key pupil, teacher, head teacher, and school variables that are hypothesized to be good predictors of pupil performance in early grade literacy and numeracy. This diagnostic information will help policymakers make data-informed decisions regarding remediation strategies that can improve the quality of instruction and pupil learning outcomes in early primary grades. English and French versions are available for download.