Nigeria

This document focuses on the instructional materials for early reading in Hausa developed under Nigeria RARA. It documents the process through which the materials were conceptualized. The intention is to provide guidance to similar projects implemented by donors, ministries of education, non-government organizations (NGOs), and private publishers. The lessons documented are most applicable in contexts in which existing materials do not adequately support early reading instruction or are very scarce. While Nigeria RARA materials are exemplars of a research-based approach to materials development, they are pilot versions. Similar initiatives are encouraged to build upon this model and make improvements of their own.

Cultivating Dynamic Educators: Case Studies in Teacher Behavior Change in Africa and Asia responds to growing recognition by international education professionals, policy makers, and funding partners of the need for qualified teachers and interest in the subject of teacher professional development (also referred to as “teacher behavior change”). The book responds to important questions that are fundamental to improving teaching quality by influencing teaching practice. These questions include: How do we provide high-quality training at scale? How do we ensure that training transfers to change in practice? What methods are most cost-effective? How do we know what works? The book includes case studies from seven countries--Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Malawi, Nigeria, Philippines and Zambia--describing different approaches to teacher behavior change and illustrates how specific implementation choices were made for each context. Individual chapters document lessons learned as well as methodologies used for discerning lessons. The key conclusion is that no single effort is enough on its own; teacher behavior change requires a system-wide view and concerted, coordinated inputs from a range of stakeholders.

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

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.

This report explores teacher issues and policies in sub-Saharan African countries via three interrelated questions and methods, each of which is discussed in turn. First, the paper presents the state of issues related to teaching and learning in sub-Saharan African countries. Recent data and evidence, obtained from international, regional, and national databases for numerous sub-Saharan African countries are presented that speak to the state of teacher issues and conditions of service for teachers. Second, the paper outlines national policies and educational plans germane to teaching and learning in 11 sub-Saharan African countries. A third section of the paper highlights reasons why educational policies and plans may not be sufficiently salient to substantially influence the classroom practice of teachers.

From December 2014 to June 2015, the Nigeria Reading and Access Research Activity (RARA) evaluated the effectiveness of an instructional approach to improving Hausa early grade reading outcomes among Primary 2 pupils in the Northern Nigerian states of Bauchi and Sokoto. The approach was designed and implemented by RTI International, in collaboration with Nigerian education authorities, in particular the State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) of Bauchi and Sokoto, as well as Colleges of Education (COEs) in these states. It was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Education Data for Decision Making (EdData II) mechanism (www.eddataglobal.org). This report presents the results of the reading approach evaluation on teacher practices, children's reading outcomes, and instructional leadership.

This reports summarizes a process to improve performance management and accountability that emphasized participatory data collection and use in Northern Nigeria. Private sector actors at State, LG and school and community level were encouraged to collect data and use it for purposes of advocacy, capacity building, and accountability. At the local government level, community participation was encouraged through a series of forums in which representatives from school staff, parents, business and religious leaders collectively reviewed data on the performance of their primary school education system, established areas for support, and assigned responsibilities. Although successful with support from project funds, it was unclear if the process would survive after the project. This report summarizes a survey of forum participants and is divided into three sections: (i) a short discussion of the data collection process; (ii) a summary review of survey results; and (iii) recommendation for three key areas of sustainability – roles and responsibilities; financing and formalization of the process.

This document is based on the structure of previous education profiles that traditionally use Demographic and Household Survey (DHS) data to characterize children’s participation in primary and secondary schooling and adults’ schooling attainment and literacy. Previously, these standardized profiles were used for cross-country comparisons. However, in the context of Nigeria, past DHS data, combined with the 2015 NEDS, allows a longitudinal perspective of the same indicators. The 2015 NEDS profile also provides more information than previous profiles on the mechanisms used to sample, collect, and analyze the household data and should be used as a reference for the national and 37 state/Federal Capital Territory reports that provide graphical representation of the data.

This early grade reading material is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Nigeria Reading and Access Research Activity (EdData Task Order Number 26, EHC-E-00-04-00004-00) implemented by RTI International.