How widening the range of evidence enriches the quality of evidence in the Accelerated Education Programme Sector in West Africa

• In Event: Roundtable Group 12
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Protesting hegemonic definitions of quality education evidence: The case for a wider range of evidence

Proposal

As researchers and knowledge producers in the education sector, widening the range of evidence in education is particularly important in elevating and using the work we and other local researchers develop and produce in West Africa.

We are currently working on a three-year research project through IDRC’s Knowledge Exchange Programme (KIX) that provides an in-depth comparative study of the effectiveness of Accelerated Education Programmes (AEP) in Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The Consortium partners: Associates for Change (Ghana), Centre for Study of Economies in Africa (Nigeria), and Dalan Development Consultants (Sierra Leone) have relied on a wide range of sources to gather the evidence needed to assess effectiveness, efficiency and adaptability of Accelerated Education Programmes (AEPs).

In our work, we have found that a thorough review of literature, including grey literature, deepened our understanding of the out of school challenge in West Africa and the growing learning gap among the rural and urban poor and between low- and high-income earners. Additionally, a mapping exercise at community and household levels provided quantitative estimates of the out of school children (OOSC) phenomenon and underscored the Out of School challenge in relation to the social and economic impacts for governments and society at large. The mapping exercise also gave insights into the weak and under resourced formal school systems in the zones of deprivation and the persistent negative practices against particularly girls in these areas. This mapping, coupled with the use of grey literature in our review has helped to gain a more accurate picture of the current situation of AEPs in West Africa.

Along with seeing the value of using grey literature in our project, some of the outputs of our research will be grey literature. The findings of this research will be disseminated through multiple pathways including publications in peer review journals, along with advocacy papers in the form of working papers and policy briefs. We are sharing our findings through multiple avenues to help stimulate interest on the part of policy makers to scale up Accelerated Education Programmes (AEPs) and mainstream funding into government budgets.
As knowledge producers, it is important that the work and research we do promotes improvements in education and meets the basic education needs of marginalized students. Our contribution to this roundtable will look at the work we have done surrounding AEPs and how widening the range of evidence enriches the quality of education evidence in West Africa.

Authors

• Erin Sorensen, Education.org

• :Leslie Casely-Hayford, Associates for Change