Is EGRA Paving the Way?: National Policy Perspectives on Learning Assessment and the Future of EGR in Nigeria

• In Event: The role of EGRA in reading education, policy and reform

Proposal

EGRA has certainly made its mark in Nigeria. Current and past exercises in the design, development and application of EGRA tools seem to have helped raise the profile of reading education across the country—at least in national education policy circles. Recent examples include the Nigeria Reading and Access Research Activity (NRARA) and the current Northern Education Initiative (NEI) Plus, both of which have focused on the improving the quality and quantity of data on reading performance in Nigeria’s northern states of Bauchi and Sokoto. The use of EGRA under these two USAID-funded activities has provided data and insights toward improving the quality of education programs in reading. The availability of reliable data on such a large scale has arguably contributed to at least some improvement of systems and processes for supporting children’s language development across northern Nigeria and beyond. In this respect, federal and state policy makers have begun to view the ability to generate reliable data on reading performance on a large scale as among EGRA’s most attractive and compelling features. However, its use in the establishment of performance standards, as well as in setting and reviewing benchmarks against learner performance is only just beginning to influence policy at the federal level. Still, the effort to use these experiences in the development of Nigeria’s system capacity in early grade reading, such as to improve the quality of curricula, are gaining strength in meaningful, if gradual, ways.

The need for data to help drive the policy process toward improved capacity in reading education is apparent in many parts of Nigeria, according to stakeholders at all levels. This need for reliable data is particularly acute among Nigerian states where major issues of access to quality education opportunities persist. The path towards scale-up of reading education inputs (including learning assessment) is, however, less than clear. Discussions during national- and state-level policy forums serve to highlight the many challenges facing education decision makers, including the need to balance competing education priorities against a wide diversity of needs and interests within and across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.

As reading becomes increasingly prominent in Nigeria’s national education policy dialogue, questions about the way forward emerge as decision makers weigh how to best make use of EGRA—past, present and future—to drive the policy reform dialogue and efforts (e.g., curriculum development) to improve the access and quality of education in reading. What data are available? Where are the gaps and how will these be filled? Finally, what are the implications of these issues for the policy process? The present paper addresses these questions as a case-study analysis of the national dialogue on education and reading in Nigeria. The paper examines the ways in which EGRA’s application in northern Nigeria may be shaping whether or how reading is viewed among current education priorities in the national policy dialogue on education. Findings draw upon focus group interviews and document analysis, as well as new and existing EGRA data to shed light on this ongoing conversation.

Authors

• Madawaki Wadatau, Universal Basic Education Commission/Nigeria

• Ismail Junaidu, Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council

• Mark Anthony Hamilton, Creative Associates International