Using actionable data to strengthen inclusion programming: improving girls’ education and life prospects within the GEC-T

• In Event: Making girls’ education programming inclusive and relevant: using data to adapt and strengthen initiatives that empower girls to prosper

Proposal

Inclusive education is a process leading towards education systems that do not marginalise students physically, socially, emotionally or academically; it addresses barriers to education that exist from individual to system level. Quality education is inclusive if the system, teachers, the curriculum, school management bodies and school infrastructure adapt to support and meet the needs of all learners. To design appropriate inclusive approaches, researchers must provide practitioners with a thoughtful selection of items, creative analysis of data and analyses of the complex intersection of multiple barriers that may be faced by an individual child.

Using data from the baseline evaluation of Link Community Development’s project in Ethiopia (at the beginning of a 7-year, longitudinal study), this presentation examines a variety of barriers to education faced by marginalised girls. Using the baseline data, the external evaluating team from School-to-School International explored three studies that highlighted a need for programmatic changes that would meet beneficiary needs: first, a student’s ability in mother tongue and how that impacts their ability in numeracy; second, classroom pedagogies and practices and how these impact transition and student performance; and third, household support and how this impacts girls’ wellbeing and retention in school. Underlying educators’ and policymakers’ efforts to provide an inclusive education to each child is the ability of evaluators to understand the compounding effect of multiple barriers – to that end, we examine the compounding effect of these intersecting barriers on a child’s academic performance and retention in school. Exploring the intersection of these multiple barriers for which we now have data, highlights the challenge for poor girls from a minority ethnic group who speak a different language, has multiple household chores, and maybe has a disability, to access, remain and succeed in school. Strengthening all interventions using an inclusion as well as a gender lens is the most effective way to support these marginalised girls.

The results show that thorough data analyses help identify barriers and the intersectionality of barriers that may not be readily apparent and can better inform approaches to inclusive education. Multi-level modeling techniques showed that students in grades 4 and 6 who did not have adequate proficiency in foundational reading skills in their mother tongue were less likely to achieve proficiency in English or Maths; girls in classes of teachers who did not use gender and inclusive responsive practices did not transition as often as others; and girls who received little support from home had lower wellbeing scores which translated to poorer transition. These findings have implications for inclusive approaches at every grade level, particularly in grade 5 and onwards when students transition to English instruction. Implications for inclusive programming – appropriate to grade and age – will be discussed as Link uses a Twin Track approach to embed inclusive practices across the education system.

Author

• Chris Martin, Link Community Development International