NIGERIA: Tests Show Jump in Achievement with Radio Instruction

December 16, 2009

2 min read

A passerby at a humble rural school in Nigeria’s Kano state would have heard grade three school children singing “we come to make you happy learning, learning, as we go.” The deep resonant voice of their “teacher” would have belonged to “Mr. Learning Tree,” booming from an ordinary radio with a lesson on the present tense in English.

When this U.S. Agency for international Development project ended in May 2009, assessment results proved that exposure to these radio lessons helped children improve their scores in Nigeria’s mathematics and basic literacy curriculum. Working through USAID, the American people helped a remarkable seventy-five percent of the children surveyed in these schools improve their literacy and numeracy skills significantly. For example, fourth grade students in rural schools improved their test results by a statistically significant eight percentage points.

Mr. Learning Tree is the main character in an interactive basic education radio program launched in 2004 by USAID in Nigeria’s states of Kano, Nasawara and Lagos. Mr. Learning Tree is joined by his cohorts Rabbit and Tortoise, delighting children with these familiar Nigerian folklore characters and helping teachers bring mathematics and basic literacy to life. The radio lessons aired three times weekly and reached 700,000 pupils and 21,104 teachers in 1,400 schools.

“The Interactive Radio Instruction programs helped schools improve the skills of untrained teachers especially in Islamiyya schools (which provide religious and secular education) and mitigated the effect of the lack of availability of instructional materials,” said Semere Solomon, Creative’s director of the Basic Education component of the COMPASS USAID-funded project.

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. With 44.3 percent of its population under the age of 15, Nigeria illustrates the economic and security imperatives for realizing universal education. Nigeria and other countries are striving to achieve universal education by 2015. Radio instruction provides one proven and tangible solution to address access, equity and quality of education in an interactive and child-friendly way.

The broadcasts for grades 1 and 2 were produced in the Hausa and Yoruba languages while those for children in grades 3 to 6 were in English in line with Nigerian curriculum standards. The interactive radio program complemented and reinforced training teachers in modern instructional methodologies. Practical steps such as building separate toilets encouraged girls to go to school.

Radio broadcasts integrated health messages throughout the series of 90 programs emphasizing good practices including hand washing, sleeping under treated mosquito nets, and getting immunized.

The broadcasts will continue to enrich teachers and children beyond the life span of the project. The project trained 87 interactive radio instruction professionals (script writers, sound engineers, producers, formative evaluators, actors, musicians, and curriculum experts) who now serve as a resource for educational radio projects in Nigeria.

NIGERIA: 30 Percent Almajiri Students are Girls, USAID Study Reveals

December 16, 2009

2 min read

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NIGERIA:

30 Percent Almajiri Students are Girls, USAID Study Reveals

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USAID recently funded a study using the Creative Associates’s State Education Sub-Accounts methodology in Nigeria’s northern capital cities of Kano and Gusau. In a striking result, 30 percent of the 1.6 million students attending Almajiri (Qur’anic) schools are girls, revealing that parents in certain communities are willing to pay to give their daughters a religious education.

Based on the State Education Account (SEA) methodology, the USAID study in Kano and Gusau assessed education expenditures in the non-formal Almajiri school system for the 2007-2008 school year. Financing for these schools fall mostly to parents and communities because the Almajiri schools offer religious education.

“Almajiri schools are usually male only schools,” said Deepika Chawla, Senior Associate at Creative Associates International, which implemented the Education Account on behalf of USAID. “In fact, when we got the results the immediate reaction was that it was impossible. There were ‘no’ girls in the Almajiri system.”

At first dismissed as incorrect data, the team had to further inquire with Imams as to the validity of results showing girl students at Almajiri schools. Since additional inquiries proved the data correct, the Education Account carried out in Kano and Gusau provide the first documentation that girls are receiving religious education.

According to Phyllis Forbes, a Creative technical director who helped direct the study, policy planning for the religious education sector was carried out based on ad hoc information suggesting that girls were excluded. Therefore, it was difficult to formulate policy to meet the country’s education goals without adequate facts about where why and how education expenditures flow.

“The Education Account gave Nigerian policymakers and donors, including USAID, hard data on the ‘financial pulse’ of the Almajiri school sector on which to review and base education policy decisions,” Forbes said.

In the Kano metropolitan area, the USAID-funded Education Account found that 98 percent of financing came from the private sector and only 2 percent of expenditures were provided by the public sector. Private sector funding in Kano accounted for teacher stipends, upkeep and provision of shelter including boarding facilities (for males only) and educational resources. In Gusau, the capital of Zamfara and a predominantly Shia state, however, the study showed that the public sector contributed more than half of the financial support provided to Almajiri schools. Still, in both Kano and Gusau over 70 percent of private expenditures came from households.

“To date, all accounts of students in schools have had a gap where females were unaccounted for,” said Chawla. “These findings can have impact on policy. If these girls are attending Almajiri schools, it may be worthwhile for the government to work with Imams to have lay teachers come in to teach literacy and other subjects.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

NIGERIA: President Names COMPASS-Supported School the Best in the Nation

December 9, 2008

2 min read

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NIGERIA:

President Names COMPASS-Supported School the Best in the Nation

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With help from the COMPASS project, the Race Course Primary School was named the best primary school in the nation when it received the President’s Teachers Schools Excellence Award for 2008.

The award, presented in October, is the Nigerian government’s way of recognizing schools that have shown quality improvement and raised standards and achievements in education.

“The school won the award for its outstanding performance which is a result of compliance to new teaching strategies taught by COMPASS,” said the school’s head teacher, Mansur A. Uba.

Two years ago, the Race Course Primary School in Kano, Nigeria, was much like other schools in the country. It faced many challenges in providing quality education to its 900 pupils: classrooms were inadequate, the library’s book shelves were empty, and the PTA lacked much needed resources including skills for proposal writing, financial management, and advocacy strategies.

In a letter addressed to COMPASS’ state team leader, Uba noted that, “Indeed, the success and achievements were enhanced due to the COMPASS assistance and intervention which made the school what it is today.”

COMPASS — Community Participation for Action in the Social Sector — is a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded project which integrates health and education to improve learning outcomes for Nigerian children in the states of Kano, Lagos and Nasarawa. COMPASS aims to complement the government’s efforts to achieve universal quality education by 2015.

Creative implements COMPASS’ basic education component in collaboration with four international and Nigerian partner organizations and the Nigerian government. COMPASS is led by Pathfinder International.

Race Course Primary counts as a special school for a number of reasons including an active PTA, adequate learning facilities which include a library and computer room. “Above all, it’s the teachers’ determination which is a result of COMPASS’ capacity building and provision of materials,” Uba said.

According to Uba, prior to COMPASS’ interventions, Race Course Primary needed an adequate library, teaching and learning aids and renovated classrooms. Its teachers also needed “skills and strategies for dynamic teaching and learning.”

The Creative-managed basic education component is increasing the enrollment rates of girls, strengthening PTAs, and providing teacher training support in 1,400 public primary and Islamiyya schools. The project’s strong professional development component also includes training new teachers in modern teaching methods at local colleges of education. Through these activities, COMPASS seeks to establish sustainable educational reforms in the communities where it is working.

— Alexandra Pratt in Washington, D.C. with reporting in Nigeria from Nafisa Ado and Yardada Maikano.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

NIGERIA: Dignitaries Help COMPASS’ De-Worming Efforts

August 27, 2008

3 min read

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NIGERIA:

Dignitaries Help COMPASS’ De-Worming Efforts

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The COMPASS gathering that drew 500 people in June from the Gwarzo local government area in Nigeria’s Kano state was no small feat. They included dignitaries who came to witness the administration of de-worming medications to primary students in public and Islamiyya schools, lending the effort legitimacy amid false rumors the medications are harmful to children.

In all, 25 girls and 25 boys from the area’s 37 COMPASS supported schools received de-worming medications from local dignitaries. The symbolism was important in the effort to de-worm an additional 434,560 students in this community.

The dignitaries who attended included Gwarzo’s district head, Alhaji Shehu Kabiru Bayero, the secretary of the Local Government Education Area, Alhaji Garba Sarki, the Local Government Area Community Coalition Forum Chairman, Mallam Abdullahi Sani, and a representative from the Kano State Universal Basic Education Board, as well as the Chairman of the Gwarzo Local Governance Area council, Alhaji Sunusi Muhammad.

Intestinal worms are a scourge on children in developing countries; they cause unimaginable physical pain and are a source of school absenteeism and set backs in learning gains. Yet providing de-worming medications to children in the north of Nigeria requires winning consent from local officials and religious leaders. In the past, efforts to inoculate children have resulted in widespread rumors that children were being sterilized.

“Allowing the dignitaries to give the children the de-worming drugs signaled to the community that local leaders had bestowed their blessing on COMPASS’ de-worming activities,” said Semere Solomon, the project’s director.

COMPASS – the Community Participation for Action in the Social Sector project – is designed to provide interventions to schools that promise the greatest returns for expanding access to basic education for Nigerian students across the three states of Lagos, Kano and Nasarawa. The COMPASS basic education strategy also includes a school health and nutrition component that provides Nigerian students with de-worming and micro-nutrients which promote their physical wellbeing and make intellectual development possible.

Creative Associates International, Inc. of Washington, D.C. implements the basic education component of the COMPASS project along with the Nigerian government and four Nigerian and four international partner organizations. The nine-partner COMPASS project is led by Pathfinder International and supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The de-worming initiative has so far treated all 31,100 children in Gwarzo’s COMPASS schools (17,200 males and 13,900 females). Because the health interventions have been so successful, schools that have not been integrated into the COMPASS network are requesting these benefits as well and COMPASS is meeting those requests.

So far, 6,525 pupils from non-COMPASS supported schools (4,300 males and 2,225 females) have also been treated. Now the Gwarzo Local Governance Authority – LGA – has directed the Primary Health Care Department to submit a proposal to the Gwarzo LGA for the purchase of albendazole to treat the rest of Gwarzo’s school children. The goal is to have over 95 percent of children in the area treated by the end of this school year.

Winning the cooperation of local dignitaries to administer de-worming medications to Gwarzo’s children helped COMPASS kick off the de-worming exercise on a large scale. The de-worming drugs were leveraged from UNICEF; another major development in donor-to-donor collaboration.

“COMPASS and UNICEF have been working on similar areas of interventions in Nigeria,” said Solomon. “It was found essential for the two to coordinate their efforts and complement each other to better impact those who benefit from those interventions.” UNICEF has provided COMPASS with 1.2 million tablets, he said.

COMPASS’ network of health workers, PTAs, and community coalitions were indispensible in getting the medications to students and winning the community’s trust. To date, 311,460 pupils have been de-wormed. An additional 124,700 are expected to be de-wormed soon.

“The de-worming activity in [Gwarzo] Kano is a clear indication of the community sustaining the project’s intervention,” said Nafisa Ado, COMPASS State Education Specialist.

— Nafisa Ado, Education Specialist, Kano Field Office, COMPASS and Alexandra Pratt in Washington, D.C.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

NIGERIA: Communities, Schools Buy-in to COMPASS Teacher Training

February 29, 2008

4 min read

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NIGERIA:

Communities, Schools Buy-in to COMPASS Teacher Training

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Having witnessed the qualitative impact of COMPASS’ teacher training program in Nigeria’s primary schools, communities and teachers outside of the project’s target areas are replicating COMPASS best practices at their own expense.

The Community Participation for Action in the Social Sector (COMPASS) project, provides face-to-face teacher training popularly known as Professional Development Days (PDDs) as well as Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) to improve the quality of classroom instruction across three Nigerian states: Lagos, Kano and Nasarawa.

The interventions aim to improve teachers’ pedagogical skills, help establish foundations for an improved and healthy learning environment and increase pupil achievement, especially in literacy and numeracy, and girls’ enrollment.

“COMPASS has provided the bearing for us to find our way into the future and we shall do just that,” said Kokona Local Government Area’s (LGA) Education Secretary, Ezekiel Wakayi, in Nasarawa state. “Our teachers, parents and other community members are ready for this journey.”

COMPASS works in 265 Nasarawa schools spread across seven local governments. The authorities of Kokona LGA, where COMPASS operates in 26 out of 52 schools, believe that the COMPASS in-service teacher training strategies will help Nigeria meet the Millennium Development Goals of achieving Education For All through the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Program by 2015.

“An African proverb says ‘Gold is sold to one who appreciates it.’ The expressions of administrators, teachers, community leaders and Faith-Based Organizations about COMPASS’ in-service training programs, are true testimonies of the program that is worth their investment,” said Ayo Oladini, COMPASS Senior Education Advisor. “Having been a trained teacher in the primary school in Nigeria, the COMPASS teacher training program is excellent for enhancing pedagogical competence of primary school teachers to becoming mentors to their pupils.”

To ensure higher educational standards in Kokona, the local government provided funding to the Education Department for the training of 307 additional teachers to non-COMPASS affiliated schools. In addition, the local government procured 35 sets of radios for the administration of IRI, so that no school or pupil would be left out from this key component of the COMPASS Basic Education Interventions.

“The method of teaching adopted in the IRI, which is broadcast from the Nasarawa Broadcasting Service, is quite novel and straightforward,” says Chairman of Kokona’s LGA, Solomon Ngharghun. “The IRI program – spiced with health talks – is highly educating. I felt my teachers should benefit from this new method.”

Ngharghun’s enthusiasm for COMPASS prompted him to provide 26 public non-COMPASS Kokona schools with radios and teacher training. “It is only in adopting the COMPASS approach that our teachers will contribute meaningfully to scaling up the expected standard to meet up with the expected goals of education for our children,” he said.

After meeting COMPASS staff on an advocacy trip, Ngharghun saw it as a personal challenge to engage them in training teachers not affiliated with the program and directed the Local Government Education Authority’s collaboration with COMPASS. “My experience at the training made me feel like going back to the classroom to teach,” he said.

The community buy-in to COMPASS’ training interventions is not unique to Nasawara state.

In Lagos state, the project works with 530 public and Islamiyya schools, including two Ansar Ud Deen Society (ADS) primary schools. The ADS of Nigeria is a Muslim faith-based organization which is committed to providing quality education in 11 primary schools. After two of its schools received training from COMPASS, the organization requested that another seven of their non-affiliated COMPASS schools also receive the project’s teacher-training interventions.

According to an Ansar Ud Deen teacher, Alhaji Gbadamosi Suleiman: “The training was innovative and revitalizing.” He noted that though he has taught for 44 years, he learned that “teaching should be pupil-centered which was not what we were used to.”

A five-year project, COMPASS works in partnership with the Nigerian government and is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). It is implemented by a dynamic nine-member team which includes four Nigerian partner organizations and five U.S.-based partners.

As an implementing partner, Creative Associates provides technical assistance in primary education and school health and mobilizes Parent Teacher Associations to improve school infrastructure and develop instructional materials. Since early 2005, COMPASS has trained approximately 19,000 teachers through face-to-face interaction as well as on the radio and this has impacted the education and health of more than one half million pupils.

After a series of planning meetings with the COMPASS team, 68 ADS teachers from seven non-COMPASS affiliated schools in Lagos were trained in a two-day workshop on IRI Facilitation Skills, 3P’s (Presentation, Practice, and Performance ) and Cooperative Learning using the COMPASS training manuals. With funding and logistical support from The ADS Education Committee, the training was facilitated by the COMPASS trainers in five clusters last September.

Given the training’s success with teachers, one ADS school requested further training for an additional 25 teachers in literacy and numeracy strategies for two more days in September.

“The IRI program is highly motivating to students, both the teachers and pupils have learned from it. It has brought variety into our classrooms,” Suleiman said. “We are thirsty for more of the strategies COMPASS has taught us. COMPASS has rejuvenated our teachers.”

—Swadchet Sankey in Nigeria and Alexandra Pratt in Washington, D.C.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]