Teacher mismatch and the challenge of learning equity in sub-Saharan Africa

• In Event: Learning Equity: Sampling Challenges of Who, What, Where and How?

Proposal

Education systems in sub-Saharan Africa are undergoing a significant reorientation, shifting their focus from serving privileged groups to providing universal access to quality education for all. This transition has led to a "learning crisis" where many children are enrolled in school but are not acquiring sufficient knowledge and skills. Several countries, including Ethiopia, have initiated ambitious reforms to tackle this learning crisis.

In Ethiopia, as in many other African countries, teachers have the responsibility to deliver the curriculum specific to each grade, as outlined in textbooks and teachers' guides. The curriculum is designed to progressively build higher-order skills upon foundational knowledge in a cumulative manner. However, due to slow learning progress in the early grades, challenges with language transitions in the upper grades, and policies promoting automatic promotion, a significant number of students reach seventh or eighth grade without acquiring the necessary prerequisite skills. Consequently, it can be argued that the transfer of learning to these students is constrained by the mismatch between the curriculum content and their skill levels (Author et al., 2020).

This mismatch is identified as a contributing factor to low educational outcomes and limited progress in learning, as well as to learning equity. Some teachers possess the ability to make necessary adjustments in the classroom to address the disparity between student skills and curriculum expectations. They may offer additional support to students who are initially struggling, enabling them to catch up and successfully engage with the content of their grade. However, there are other teachers who may face challenges in making such adaptations, particularly when there is a diversity of students in his/her classroom.

Some of these findings can be attributed to limited pedagogical skills, inadequate awareness of individual student skills within large class sizes, a wide variation in skills among the incoming group of students that makes adaptation seem futile, or the pressure to strictly adhere to the predetermined curriculum for the academic year (Author et al., 2020). In this paper we make use of a uniquely rich dataset comprising longitudinal school surveys conducted by RISE (Research on Improving Systems of Education) Ethiopia between 2018 and 2021 to examine teacher impact and which teachers are most impactful on which groups of students teachers are effective for in Ethiopia’s context. These findings are particularly relevant to the “how” question in learning equity – ways for policymakers to rethink how to achieve improved learning equity in diverse low-income classrooms.

Author

• Moses Oketch, University College London (Ucl)