Promoting Literacy and Girls Education in Burkina Faso

• In Event: Lisez-vous Français? Early Grade Reading in Francophone Africa: A multi-country comparison of assessment tools, data, and program design

Proposal

Since 2011, CRS has been working with the Government of Burkina Faso to improve the quality of primary school education by implementing the “Beoog Biiga” Food for Education (FFE) Programs. The overall program objectives of “Beoog Biiga” are to improve the literacy of school age children and to improve health and dietary practices. Funded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program (MGD), the current program (2014-2018) reaches more than 180,000 students annually in more than 940 primary and preschools of Bam and Sanmatenga Provinces. This $21.6 million USD integrated education program seeks to improve student learning outcomes by enhancing instruction in school, and promoting reading in the home and community. Related activities include technical trainings for teachers on literacy instruction, distribution of school supplies, creation of community libraries, a mentoring program for girls to enhance learning, creation of student reading groups, provision of daily school meals and take home rations (THR), and a range of early childhood development activities in preschools. Complimentary health and nutrition activities, such deworming and micronutrient supplements, are also implemented to improve student performance.

In March 2015, CRS contracted IMPAQ International to conduct an impact and performance evaluation of Beoog Biiga II. In order to measure the impact of the girls mentoring activity on reading outcomes, IMPAQ is conducting a randomized control trial. The performance evaluation is measuring changes in health, hygiene and dietary practices, as well as student attendance and enrollment in school.

Bikienga will explain the context for this project and present the program’s design and theory of change. He will also discuss how the ASER tool was used as part of the program’s annual monitoring in addition to the evaluations, and some surprising differences between girls and boys that emerged during the annual data collection. Bikienga will conclude with his reflections on the connection between the Beoog Biiga program’s focus on girls’ education and the conference theme of inequality, especially the ways in which positive discrimination may produce inequalities.

Author

• Abdoulaye Bikienga, CRS Burkina Faso