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Locally-driven monitoring: A practical approach to improving and sustaining coaching practice in EGR in Northern Nigeria

Wed, April 17, 1:30 to 3:00pm, Hyatt Regency, Floor: Pacific Concourse (Level -1), Pacific F

Proposal

The USAID-funded Northern Education Initiative (NEI) Plus employs an implementation strategy designed to strengthen systems and improve accountability for EGR outcomes in Bauchi and Sokoto states, especially at the local government (LGA) level. School support officers (SSOs), the main actors in the local quality assurance structure who serve as instructional coaches to teachers of EGR in NEI Plus-supported LGAs, are critical to the success of this strategy. However, despite receiving training on the evidence-based instructional support model, the SSOs have largely reverted to their historically administrative roles due to a lack of system capacity at the LGA level, especially quality assurance structured and processes. The introduction of a Local Education Monitoring Approach (LEMA) has since helped identify gaps in teaching and learning inputs, raising awareness among stakeholders of the value of readily-available data to improving education outcomes. Yet the quality of the LEMA data on coaching relies too heavily on self-reporting in this emerging MER model. The addition of tablet-based MER tools for SSOs is beginning to address these issues while providing reliable data on coaching and other inputs in real time. The LEMA and ICT tools together thus can provide much-needed information on state and LGA capacities to support education quality, further demonstrating the benefits of an efficient MER system to improving the quality of teaching and learning in EGR. The results are at once surprising and instructive, given the often-persistent misconceptions in Nigeria and internationally about the potential (or lack thereof) of technology to improve outcomes in poorly-resourced education systems.

The following paper will present findings based on analysis of data gathered through LEMA, EGRA and the use of ICT-based MER tools to examine how the increasing availability of evidence on coaching and other EGR inputs is shaping SSOs’ new roles as coaches in Nigeria’s Bauchi and Sokoto states. These findings include a renewed commitment of education decision makers to supporting local EGR monitoring, among other actions. The paper will draw upon these findings to describe and explain the use of this MER model to enhance and sustain the frequency and quality of coaching while building upon existing QA structures. These findings provide insight into the strategic use of locally-driven and ICT-based monitoring tools to build local ownership and accountability for supporting coaching and quality EGR instruction in northern Nigeria and other fragile, resource-poor contexts.

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