The Learner Guide Innovation: Improving equitable access to secondary education for marginalised girls in rural communities in Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

• In Event: Improving educational equity and social justice in Eastern Africa

Proposal

Education systems in sub-Saharan Africa, including Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, are not translating the substantial gains that have been made in terms of school access into improved learning and life outcomes among marginalised girls. The efforts to dismantle the barriers to equitable and quality secondary education are failing to meet the needs of marginalised girls, especially in impoverished rural communities. The government efforts to improve secondary school enrolment and completion include the universal removal of school fees, but such top-down policies have, however, failed to meet the needs of the most marginalised, who need more holistic, tailored support to stay at school and learn. The overall result is that the school systems are inefficient in terms of delivering the sustainable socio-economic outcomes associated with equitable, inclusive, and quality education. Less than one in 20 girls in rural sub-Saharan Africa complete secondary school (Education Commission, 2016). In Tanzania, for example, just 5% of the poorest rural girls do so compared to 60% of boys in the highest economic quintile [UIS]. Many girls are nominally in school, yet their erratic attendance undermines their opportunity to learn. Girls in rural areas are consistently the poorest academic performing constituency. The efforts to dismantle the barriers to equitable, quality secondary education targeting the needs of marginalised girls, especially those living in impoverished, underserved communities, are falling short. In this regard, the Learner Guide Campaign for Female Education – CAMFED- led programme, was introduced in 2013, to complement the existing efforts and specifically target marginalised girls from poor rural communities.

The Learner Guide programme addresses the reality for many girls in lower secondary school, a period when adolescent girls are vulnerable to premature marriage and pregnancy and encounter a predominantly masculine environment and increased risk of school related gender-based violence (SRGBV). It is intentionally gender-transformative in addressing the gender-related barriers to girls’ progression through secondary school, in delivering a bespoke life-skills My Better World curriculum that addresses and challenges harmful cultural norms and gender dynamics.

The Learner Guides are young women who have experienced poverty-related challenges associated with their schooling. They were formerly supported in schools by CAMFED and trained to return on invitation to their local schools as Learner Guides (facilitators), volunteering 2-3 hours a week. They deliver a uniquely tailored Life Skills and wellbeing programme namely My Better World (MBW) sessions to complement, but not replace, the formal academic curriculum. The MBW class sessions are designed to promote skills such as self-confidence, effective communication and problem-solving and challenge harmful gender norms and stereotypical type behaviour. The Learner Guides are from the local communities and provide a critical ‘bridge’ between home and school.

This research seeks to generate evidence on the impact of the Learner Guide progrmme in the context whereby the governments of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe assume additional responsibility for co-implementation and co-resourcing of the Learner Guide programme. .
This project uses a multi-pronged research design to investigate how the Learner Guide innovation can continue to target marginalised, rural girls as it makes progress scaling towards a sustainable phase. It will apply a process-oriented research stream to learn how participatory methods for engaging government partners in Tanzania through the Real Time Scaling Lab (RTSL) approach through which CAMFED Tanzania and the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at Brookings Institution have engaged Tanzanian government stakeholders since 2019, can be adapted in support of the Learner Guide program scaling transition in Zambia and Zimbabwe and to enhance stakeholders’ use of evidence-based methods. In Tanzania the study is designed to measure the impact of the government-implemented Learner Guide innovation vs. the existing CAMFED -implemented programme on positive program outcomes. It will use this process approach to develop a Learner Guide model which can be implemented by the government of Tanzania, and then it will test that model and provide evidence and learning about its effectiveness.
The overall research evidence will be shared regionally.
The comparative baseline has been implemented in Tanzania in a total of 6 districts selected purposefully to participate in the study. Of the selected districts, three are CAMFED partner and three are non-CAMFED partner districts. The research team selected CAMFED partner districts which match with the non-CAMFED districts as near as possible using 2020 Form 4 national exams pass rate and 2021 students’ enrolment. Other inclusion characteristics include geographical representation of regions where CAMFED works, and district rural characteristics. Ten (10) schools per district, which makes a total of 60 schools (30 from CAMFED partner districts and 30 from non-CAMFED partner districts).

The baseline study involved a total of 2,393 Form 1 students, boys (49.4%) and girls (50.6%) with an age range between 12 and 22 years, from the selected schools involved in the study. A stratified simple random strategy was employed to select 40 students from each school. Firstly, Form 1students were grouped by sex. Secondly, from each sub-group 20 students were randomly selected to be in the sample. The sample further involved 60 Learner Guides. The study employed a students’ questionnaire to generate baseline data on marginality, students’ attitudes to learning, self-esteem levels and academic confidence. The study will also measure levels of student secondary school attendance and retention.

The baseline data and analysis will be complemented by endline results and analysis in 2023. These results together with the process workstream evidence will enable governments in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Zambia to make informed decisions on which elements of the Learner Guide innovation can be adapted by governments, aligning with cross-sector ministry priorities and budget allocations at national and local levels.

The outcome will be a model for scaling a proven education innovation focused on improving equitable, quality education for marginalised girls. This will include a costing analyses for adaption and uptake in education systems, the identification of critical success factors that underpin a cross-sectoral approach to scaling an education innovation and strengthened capacity in education systems to serve marginalised girls.

Author

• Richard Shukia, University of Dar es Salaam