Adaptive management: girls’ education challenge transition baseline findings and their impact on project interventions in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The Girls’ Education Challenge-Transition (GEC-T) is a global programme which will help over 1.5 million of the world’s poorest girls receive a quality education, improving their lives and transforming their future. The GEC-T programme follows successful GEC phase 1 projects as they support the same cohort of girls through secondary school, vocational training and beyond.

The presented projects implement complex interventions that seek to improve learning outcomes and support girls as they transition from primary to secondary education, to employment or professional training by developing girls’ agency and improving teaching practices in literacy and numeracy, transforming gender and power relationships affecting marginalised girls at the household, school and community levels, creating a positive environment for girls in school. Sustainability is central to all interventions.
The projects were informed by an extensive baseline study, analysing the multiple barriers that affect girls’ learning, attendance, participation in class, relationships with peers and teachers, transition and completion. Baseline results indicated that marginalised girls’ learning outcomes were negatively affected by the complex intersection of traditional gender norms, religious practices, limited ability to engage with the language of instruction, teacher absenteeism, being disabled and widespread poverty. Gender-based violence, distance to school, and many household chores contributed to absenteeism and dropout.

Across all three contexts, learning outcomes for female primary students are poor, particularly in the case of numeracy. In Zimbabwe, 51% of the female students are not able to perform multiplication or division. In Link’s Ethiopian project, across grades four, six and eight, on average 65% of girls demonstrated limited subtraction skills. The literacy findings show that in Zimbabwe, only 23% of the female students are able to understand simple texts, whilst in Ethiopia (Link’s project, figures are averages) only 37% of girls could understand simple texts in their local language and just 26% of grade 8 girls in English, their medium of instruction. The use of a second language (English) as the language of instruction in Zimbabwe and in Ethiopia remains a major barrier for reading comprehension, particularly for girls, for whom limited mobility restricts their exposure to a second language not spoken at home or in their community. Poor teacher competency in English is also a major barrier.

In order to respond to this complex scenario, the projects have been deliberately designed to be holistic and sustainable and include interventions that address issues at the household, community, school and government levels. Engaging community and religious leaders as well as school and government staff will generate a broader dialogue about gender, marginalisation and education.

The combination of these components has a powerful effect on learning outcomes as demonstrated in our GEC-1 projects. In Zimbabwe, girls who joined leadership clubs in IGATE’s schools had a significantly higher average reading fluency – 77 words per minute (wpm) compared to 61 wpm for the control group. Their average numeracy score (EGMA) was five percent points higher than the control group. In Ethiopia, Link’s project girls showed a 197% increase against the target set for improvement above the control group in literacy scores and a 301% increase against the target set in numeracy.

Thus, the first stage of GEC (2013-2017) demonstrated effectiveness in improving education outcomes (reading fluency and numeracy) in comparison with control groups. Projects also contributed to deeper changes in attitudes and practices influencing girls’ social status and participation in school and society, as well as major shifts in the participation of communities in school governance. Girls and communities are breaking the silence on cases of gender-based violence and girls’ increased self-confidence is contributing to enhance their participation and learning in class.

This panel will explore how three projects have conducted their baseline evaluations for GEC-T and adapted their interventions to meet their findings. Key to success of these GEC-T projects is sustainability – all beneficiaries should exit the projects with functional literacy and numeracy and life-skills enabling them to succeed safely and healthily in their lives; interventions should be inclusive so they meet the needs of all; and activities scalable so that the respective governments can continue delivery within their resource envelopes. The panel will present how baseline findings have influenced project interventions to ensure sustainable learning, attendance and transition for adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa and presenters will examine how their interventions may influence policy and practices at the local and regional levels through project evidence.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Africa

Chair

• Michele Schweisfurth, University of Glasgow

Individual Presentations

• Journey to Inclusive Education in Zimbabwe - Teresa de Sousa, World Vision UK

• Excelling Against the Odds, Ethiopia - Angela Keenan, ChildHope

• Supporting sustainable inclusion in Ethiopia - Samantha Ross, Link Community Development International

• From the minds of adolescents: What has worked for girls in an education intervention in the Slums of Nairobi - Benta Abuya, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC); Nelson Gichuhi Muhia, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)

Discussant

• Michele Schweisfurth, University of Glasgow