Impact evaluation of the Speed School programme

• In Event: Building the evidence base for accelerated education

Proposal

A recent Norad-funded impact evaluation of Strømme Foundation’s Speed School programme in West Africa concludes that the programme provides an efficient and cost-effective way to bring out-of-school children (OOSC) back into education. This is especially significant in the context of West Africa, where a high proportion of children – notably 32% in Mali, 23% in Burkina Faso and 33% in Niger – remain out of school. Across the three countries more than 3 million children are out of school, of whom close to 54% are girls. This presentation will summarise the key findings and recommendations from the impact evaluation and outline the main lessons learnt.
Speed School is an accelerated education programme that provides three years’ worth of schooling in only nine months. The programme is formally recognised by the governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, meaning that successful graduates can transfer directly into the fourth grade of formal school. Since 2004, more than 186,000 OOSC have completed Speed School across the three countries. The programme is currently being scaled up through Strømme Foundation’s collaboration with Plan International in the PASS+ project.
The presentation will particularly address the key findings related to the gender equality aspect of programme. The impact evaluation found that 90% of children enrolled in the period 2014-2017, completed the course, of which 48% were girls. Furthermore, the evaluation recognises that girls’ enrolment is complemented by the recruitment of female teachers in the Speed Schools, serving as role models. Between 2014 and 2018, 40 percent of Speed School teachers were female. The gender focus is also reflected in retention rates. Among students who graduated from Speed School in 2015, more girls than boys are currently in formal primary schools both in Niger (69%) and Mali (57%). The presentation will discuss how these results were achieved and how the gender focus can be further strengthened.
The framework used for the value-for-money analysis in the evaluation will be presented together the key results. The evaluation found that the programme provided high value for money. The average cost per enrolled child over a 10-month period was 132 US dollars in the period 2014-2018, while the cost per day was 0.4 USD, substantially lower than the poverty line of 2 USD per day. The presentation will discuss how the programme can continue to provide high value for money while addressing the recommendations put forward in the evaluation.

Author

• Anne Breivik, Stromme Foundation