Starting primary school in southern Mali: The SIRA School Readiness Study

• In Event: The Equity Initiative: Expanding Access to Quality Pre-Primary Education Opportunities: Using Data and Research to Document Inequity

Proposal

Global data from the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) and the World Bank have been used to highlight the inefficiency of early learning systems and specifically the transition into primary school in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). For example, a recent multi-country study found that the combination of increased enrollment in early primary grades, lack of pre-primary participation, and children’s weak early cognitive skills was contributing to increased dropout rates, repetition, and poor learning outcomes in primary school across numerous LMICs. While these issues are common and now well documented in many contexts, they persist in part because the global data is not enough to motivate local and national policy makers to make substantial changes to their pre-primary education systems. Policy makers require more detailed evidence about programs proven to improve children’s learning outcomes and the functioning of primary systems from their own communities.
Mali is among the countries with extremely low levels of access to pre-primary education and high levels of dysfunction in the primary system. Gross pre-primary enrollment rates in Mali remain below 5 percent, and measures of primary school inefficiency have actually increased in recent years (for example, the proportion of children under/over age and primary completion rates), to say nothing of the learning happening within primary schools. These factors were among those that motivated the Selective Integrated Reading Activity (SIRA) in Mali. SIRA is currently being implemented by Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), in partnership with Partners Institut pour l’Education Populaire (IEP), Oeuvre Malienne d’Aide à l’Enfance Sahel (OMAES), Save the Children (SC), School-to-School International (STS), and CRC Sogema. The program aims to improve teacher training, gender integration, curriculum and materials development, and engagement of communities and parents to promote sustainable advances in learning for children in Mali.
SIRA is also engaging in policy-oriented research activities to help illuminate the national education situation and needs of early-grade teachers, schools, and students. Related to students’ transition into primary school, SIRA is using Save the Children’s International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) to ask and answer pressing questions about the policy implications of current practices. This research will assist the Ministry of Education in Mali (MEN) in considering how to invest in pre-primary activities, formal and informal, and to communicate with schools and families about the importance of a child’s development as s/he enters school.
The SIRA School Readiness Study will include a representative sample of children in four southern regions in Mali (Bamako, Koulikoro, Segou and Sikasso). Ten children (5 boys and 5 girls) will be sampled from 96 schools at the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year. The IDELA tool will be administered by trained enumerators over the course of two weeks in October 2017. Results will be disaggregated by district, gender and child age. Information about district and gender will help identify whether specific groups of children are in greater need of early learning support. Further, data on children’s development by age will help illuminate the maturity and developmental composition of students in grade 1 classes.

Author

• Lauren Pisani, Save the Children