Supporting complex government education infrastructure to transform into an outcome-focused system - lessons from Nigeria

• In Event: Education System Strengthening Through Increasing Affinity between Education Outcomes, Governance and Mindset

Proposal

“One in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria. Even though primary education is officially free and compulsory, about 10.5 million of the country’s children aged 5-14 years are not in school” (UNICEF Nigeria). Education has been declared in crisis in Nigeria by countless successive governments. The many agencies, commissions, and institutions that define Nigerian government structures form a complex web of interests, responsibilities, and authorities with overlapping roles and competing demands. Project-driven prioritization will fail in this context, as will any efforts that do not tackle overlap and confusion. Over the last 15 years, development interventions have focused on improving participation and learning outcomes for some of the most marginalised children. This paper explores the extent to which government systems have transformed over this period because of these interventions and the gaps and problems that remain.

Building on a deep understanding of the complex context in Nigeria, the L2R Project is at the start of its journey to support transformational systemic change that improves reading outcomes. It recognises that evidence-based classroom interventions are necessary but insufficient on their own and that strengthening governance and the systems that underpin sustainable improvement to the teaching and learning of early grade reading at all levels are key to transformational change.
This paper outlines how lessons from Nigeria and other system-strengthening and education governance programmes alongside the 5 Cs framework (context, collaboration, coherence, connection and continuation) are being used to develop a robust approach to systems transformation. These lessons include:
• All parts of a system are interdependent. Implementing the National Reading Framework (NRF) in Nigeria requires the right curriculum, timetable, teachers, reading materials, etc. We need to understand the context to be able to make the right connections.
• An effective system needs a coherent aim: A system must have an agreed aim, which should be the same for all parts. Without a joint objective the system cannot work properly.
• A key outcome of system strengthening is all parts interacting effectively: In Nigeria, this requires collaboration horizontally between the multiple relevant central institutions as well as vertically between the levels of education governance down to schools.
• Good governance is the fuel that makes the system work sustainably. With good governance you have (i) the legal framework based on key principles (accountability, transparency, state of law, concertation, participation), (ii) the operational delivery of the legal framework (iii) incentives and control mechanisms, and (iv) behaviors compliant with the framework. These mechanisms can enable the continuation of effective practices.

We conclude by showing that within L2R these principles are used to guide reform to policies, guidelines, funding and capacity within the system to address the systemic challenges, strengthen implementation in the classroom, and help children meet curriculum expectations. The success of the approach will be analysed and measured by the extent to which the system uses data to stimulate reading reform; policy to strategize effective coordination and implementation; and innovative education financing to sustain evidence-based strategies which improve reading outcomes.

Authors

• Scott Frick

• Toun Akinsolu, USAID LEARN to Read by CREATIVE Associates