tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/worldliteracyday-109728/articles#WorldLiteracyDay – The Conversation2021-07-12T14:23:04Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1639352021-07-12T14:23:04Z2021-07-12T14:23:04ZHow African countries can reform education to get ahead after pandemic school closures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410162/original/file-20210707-23-1l8j3rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Without urgent action, short-term learning losses could stunt the next generation of students for a lifetime.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a historic shock to education, shuttering schools for over <a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/one-year-covid-19-education-disruption-where-do-we-stand">1.6 billion children</a> worldwide. This shock will worsen a pre-existing “learning crisis” in which many students in school were <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03323-7">learning very little</a>. The World Bank estimates that the percentage of children who are unable to read a simple sentence by age 10 could rise <a href="https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/163871606851736436/learning-poverty-in-the-time-of-covid-19-a-crisis-within-a-crisis">from 53% before the pandemic to 63%</a> as a result of school closures.</p>
<p>These learning losses could stem from a combination of things: forgetting what was previously known, and missing what would have been learned if schools hadn’t been closed. These learning losses can accumulate in the long run. Students who re-enter school far behind the curriculum expectations might be too far behind to learn anything from daily instruction and fall even further behind. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S073805932100050X">new paper</a>, we looked at how much learning loss might be experienced in Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Tanzania and Uganda as a result of school closures in the pandemic. We used data from early grade reading assessments in these countries. Our model suggests there could be up to a year’s worth of learning loss in the short run. Our estimates suggest learning losses will be distributed unequally, with students who started at lower learning levels falling the farthest behind. </p>
<p>We <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S073805932100050X">estimate</a> that these short-term learning deficits could accumulate to 2.8 years of lost learning in the long run. This is if the curriculum – often overambitious and not aligned to students’ learning levels – is not adjusted to allow students to catch up.</p>
<h2>Opportunity for reform</h2>
<p>But that doesn’t have to be the outcome.</p>
<p>While COVID-19 has held back learning, bold reform is possible and the pandemic presents a historic opportunity to revamp education systems. It could be a time to institute practices and policies that have been needed to address the underlying learning crisis for decades.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S073805932100050X">Our review of the literature</a> identified two strategies which could help to mitigate learning losses and improve learning even beyond pre-COVID-19 levels. This review builds on a growing evidence base of interventions that have worked at scale in low- and middle-income countries to improve basic numeracy and literacy skills.</p>
<p>The first strategy is to <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.31.4.73">target instruction to a child’s learning level</a>. This can be achieved at little cost by testing the child’s knowledge during the learning process – known as formative assessment – and <a href="https://www.teachingattherightlevel.org/">a menu of activities</a> tailored to each child’s level. This has more potential than teaching prescriptive one-size-fits-all syllabi.</p>
<p>The second strategy is to introduce <a href="https://www.unicef.org/esa/documents/structured-pedagogy">structured pedagogy programmes</a>, which combine <a href="https://scienceofteaching.s3.eu-west-3.amazonaws.com/index.html#/lessons/pw4nS4OM7i8RlNTLi_2HIB1QNz0sRP3f">structured lesson plans</a>, teacher coaching and instructional support. Many teachers in the status quo are often left to fend for themselves and write their own daily lesson plans. By providing some structure and ongoing support, big learning gains are possible.<br>
Both approaches in past reviews have been found to <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/34658">improve learning</a> by three years of high-quality schooling gained per US$100. These learning gains are nearly equivalent to the <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/34658">system-level education gap</a> between Zambia, one of the lowest performers in sub-Saharan Africa, and Kenya, one of the highest performers.</p>
<p>Our model suggests that short-term remediation through these strategies can make a sizeable dent on learning losses. More strikingly, ambitious reforms linked to these strategies, such as aligning instruction with children’s learning levels on a long-term basis, can not only mitigate all learning losses, but also improve on pre-COVID-19 learning levels.</p>
<h2>Signs of progress</h2>
<p>In our study we <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S073805932100050X">describe a few examples</a> of countries which are starting to enact such reforms, including Botswana and Madagascar. In Botswana’s second largest region, the North-East, the Ministry of Basic Education’s regional director called for all schools to conduct simple formative assessments and implement targeted instruction immediately as schools reopened in June 2020 following the first wave of COVID-19 induced school closures. </p>
<p>The region updated staff’s roles and responsibilities to formalise this expectation. Training sessions were held with support from one of the largest youth-serving NGOs in the country, <a href="https://www.young1ove.org">Young 1ove</a>, in partnership with USAID and UNICEF. The ministry expected frequent reporting on progress, and the regional director visited schools directly to monitor implementation. Although no causal evidence is available yet, early data suggest learning levels are improving faster than in other regions.</p>
<p>Madagascar provides another example. The government has strengthened the national catch-up programme, called <a href="https://www.unicef.org/madagascar/en/stories/without-catch-class-i-would-have-had-stop-school">CRAN</a>, which prior to the pandemic had been providing a two-month intensive learning period to children targeted to their level. By the end of 2018, CRAN had been implemented with UNICEF support in seven out of 22 regions of Madagascar. In late 2020, in response to COVID-19 school closures, this approach was accelerated. Although the government and UNICEF are in the early stages of this work, it shows how governments can strengthen existing programmes to shift teaching and learning practices.</p>
<p>These reform efforts are promising. Yet, too few countries have taken bold steps to date. Without urgent action, short-term learning losses could stunt the next generation of students for a lifetime, with potential inter-generational consequences. COVID-19 presents a need to act urgently and an opportunity to think differently. Perhaps some education systems will reform to achieve the long sought-after goal of learning for all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163935/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noam Angrist is the Executive Director of Young 1ove, an NGO which has supported the government of Botswana to enact reforms mentioned in this article.</span></em></p>While COVID-19 has held back learning, the pandemic presents a historic opportunity to revamp education systems.Noam Angrist, Executive Director, Youth Impact, Senior Fellow, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1322802020-03-11T13:25:19Z2020-03-11T13:25:19ZNew evidence supports the belief that South Africa’s education is not all bad<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317068/original/file-20200225-24668-6ae9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Global education assessments show that South Africa's education system is moving upward.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the past few years, there has been uncertainty around whether the learning outcomes of South Africa’s schools are improving from their historically low levels.</p>
<p>There are three testing programmes South Africa can draw from to gauge trends, and all are international: the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), focusing on Grade 9; the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SEACMEQ), focusing on Grade 6; and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), focusing on Grade 4. </p>
<p>In 2012, <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/research-outputs/view/6480">TIMSS results</a> pointed to substantial improvements in lower secondary maths and science since 2002. A few years later, <a href="https://www.education.gov.za/Portals/0/Documents/Reports/SACMEQ%20IV%20Project%20in%20South%20Africa%20Report.pdf?ver=2017-09-08-152617-090">SEACMEQ revealed</a> improvements in the upper primary level. </p>
<p>Then in late 2017 came the news from PIRLS that reading in lower primary had remained <a href="https://www.up.ac.za/media/shared/164/ZP_Files/pirls-literacy-2016_grade-4_15-dec-2017_low-quality.zp137684.pdf">static between 2011 and 2016</a>. Was the schooling system not starting to pick up after all? The evidence was inconsistent and unclear. </p>
<p>In late 2019, I was asked by South Africa’s Department of Basic Education, the national authority for schools, to examine the raw data from the literacy study, which are <a href="https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/pirls2016/international-database/index.html">publicly available</a>, to verify the flat no-change trend. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/sza/wpaper/wpapers337.html">findings</a> were surprising. The raw data appeared not to have been properly analysed in arriving at the conclusion that there was no progress. In fact, the progress was remarkably large. </p>
<p>It’s important to note, however, that even after improvements, South Africa still underperforms relative to most other middle income countries. What’s encouraging is that there’s a move in the right direction. </p>
<h2>Inconsistencies</h2>
<p>Testing done by programmes such as these involves selecting a nationally representative sample of around 300 schools in one year, and another such sample in a later year. Students in these schools write tests which repeat identical and highly confidential questions across different years. </p>
<p>This is what makes results comparable in ways that would never be possible in an examination system. It would be impossible to keep past examination papers secret. </p>
<p>If samples of schools are not nationally representative, that could result in national averages which are not comparable over time. </p>
<p>Was this perhaps driving a no-change trend in the Grade 4 literacy results? </p>
<p>Sampling problems had been found to produce <a href="https://johnjerrim.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/final_paper.pdf">inaccurate trends</a> in a few cases outside South Africa.</p>
<p>I <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/sza/wpaper/wpapers337.html">found</a> there was nothing wrong with the sampling in the literacy study. But what was completely unexpected was to find that the 2011 to 2016 trend in classical scores didn’t correspond to the flat trend appearing in the study’s official reports. Classical scores are what teachers would be familiar with: 15 correct out of 30, meaning a 50% score. </p>
<p>These testing programmes use a complex statistical approach which results in another kind of score, called an item response theory score. As seen in the graph below, officially South Africa’s item response theory score in the study moved from 323 to 320. </p>
<p>The classical scores, in contrast, pointed to a large increase over the 2011 to 2016 period, from around 32% correct to 42% correct. Of 43 countries with a 2011 to 2016 trend, South Africa’s trend was the third-steepest increase, after those of Morocco and Oman. If correctly calculated, the item response theory scores should have pointed to a similar gain.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319559/original/file-20200310-61060-vax85q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319559/original/file-20200310-61060-vax85q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319559/original/file-20200310-61060-vax85q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319559/original/file-20200310-61060-vax85q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319559/original/file-20200310-61060-vax85q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319559/original/file-20200310-61060-vax85q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319559/original/file-20200310-61060-vax85q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Provided by the author</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The inconsistency came about when the 2011 national score was converted from one scale to another by Boston College, the institution responsible for processing the data. This conversion affected only South Africa, as only South Africa took part in an easier test in 2011 and also participated in the study in 2016. </p>
<p>In early 2020, all references to the no-change finding were removed from the <a href="http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/pirls2016/international-results/wp-content/uploads/structure/CompletePDF/P16-PIRLS-International-Results-in-Reading.pdf">international report</a> in response to the findings described here. Unfortunately, given that the erroneous trend was published in 2017, it remains replicated in many places. </p>
<p>The correction has important policy implications for South Africa. It removes the uncertainty. All three programmes now point in the same direction, which is upward. This offers hope in a context where South Africa’s underperformance in the international programmes is widely known and <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/sza/wpaper/wpapers255.html">lamented</a>. </p>
<h2>What changed?</h2>
<p>What lies behind the improvement? It’s a mix of education and non-education factors. Urbanisation has improved the access of young people to resources which facilitate learning, from electricity in the home to public libraries. In the schooling system, there’s <a href="https://www.education.gov.za/Portals/0/Documents/Reports/20191104_GHS_final.pdf?ver=2019-11-04-111833-313">evidence</a> that access to textbooks has improved. Curriculum <a href="https://evaluations.dpme.gov.za/evaluations/601">reforms</a> have made it clearer what teachers should do. </p>
<p>Not acknowledging that there are improvements raises the risk of policy change, where perhaps policy stability is necessary. On the other hand, South Africa’s historical levels of performance have been so low that it would have been relatively easy to shift scores in the right direction. For further improvement to be assured, it can’t just be business as usual. </p>
<p>Research <a href="https://www.education.gov.za/Programmes/EarlyGradeReadingStudy.aspx">indicates</a> that better teaching of reading in the early grades, a prerequisite for virtually everything else in education, is possible and necessary. </p>
<h2>Understanding the limits</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://sdg.uis.unesco.org/2020/01/30/benchmarks-using-data-to-set-evidence-based-targets-to-improve-learning-proficiency/#more-1836">recent report</a> on the attainability of the Sustainable Development Goals in the area of educational quality, I looked at what historical trends across the world suggest are the fastest possible rates of improvement in the international testing systems.</p>
<p>South Africa is in fact making progress not too far from the “speed limit”. An inconvenient truth about schooling systems is that when they progress, they are more like tortoises than hares. This has implications for testing programmes which monitor systemic progress. They need to be sufficiently rigorous and fine-tuned to pick up even relatively small gains. </p>
<p>During the past 20 years, the quality of South African schooling <a href="http://www.myemissions.co.za/facebook.php#timssgraph">progressed</a> from a level well below that of Botswana, to almost the level of Botswana. But Botswana too is an underperformer relative to income per capita. </p>
<p>Both countries need to improve the quality of teaching and learning much further. A proper basic schooling for all citizens is a human right. And the evidence is clear that quality schooling also bodes well for <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/44417824.pdf">socio-economic development</a> in the long run.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132280/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Gustafsson works for Stellenbosch University and the South African Government. He has moreover done work for the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. He receives funding from the National Research Foundation, through his work with Research on Socio-Economic Policy (ReSEP), based at the University of Stellenbosch. </span></em></p>New insights show that South Africa’s education system is heading in the right direction.Martin Gustafsson, Education economist, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1256772019-10-30T15:18:47Z2019-10-30T15:18:47ZPreschools in Kenya and Tanzania boost learning outcomes in the long run<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298723/original/file-20191025-173537-1aiwrdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Primary school can be demanding and hard to follow for children without previous experience of learning in a classroom setting.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">flickr/ Stars Foundation</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Countries across sub-Saharan Africa have made <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.NENR?locations=ZG">impressive progress</a> towards achieving universal school enrolment over the past few decades. But schooling isn’t the same as learning. </p>
<p>Recent studies reveal that children in this region learn remarkably little at school. For example, <a href="https://www.twaweza.org/uploads/files/Uwezo_EA_Report-EN-FINAL.pdf">only one in five</a> third-grade students in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda have second-grade literacy and numeracy skills, and <a href="https://janbietenbeck.com/BPW_teacher_knowledge_preprint.pdf">less than one third</a> of sixth-grade students in Southern and Eastern Africa can solve a simple subtraction problem. </p>
<p>This “<a href="http://uis.unesco.org/en/blog/new-data-reveal-learning-crisis-threatens-development-around-world">learning crisis</a>” means that sub-Saharan Africa is currently a long way from achieving quality education for all, which is one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. The low levels of skills also reduce students’ labour market prospects, and <a href="https://wol.iza.org/articles/for-long-term-economic-development-only-skills-matter">dampen countries’ economic growth</a>.</p>
<p>Among the many potential causes of this crisis, one that’s often mentioned is the lack of preparation of children who enter school. The primary curriculum is demanding and can be hard to follow for children without previous experience of learning in a classroom setting. Increasing enrolment in preschools, which prepare children for primary school, is therefore often <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2018">seen as a promising policy</a> for raising learning levels. Accordingly, preschool education is on the rise in sub-Saharan Africa, with <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRE.ENRR?locations=ZG">enrolment doubling</a> from 15% to 32% between 2000 and 2017.</p>
<p>But until recently, there has been little empirical evidence of preschools’ effectiveness in boosting learning outcomes. Some observers even speculate that <a href="https://theconversation.com/kenyas-early-learning-centres-may-be-doing-more-harm-than-good-68798">preschools might be doing more harm than good</a> due to their narrow focus on teaching basic academic skills, which ignores children’s need for social and emotional development.</p>
<p>In our <a href="https://janbietenbeck.com/BEW_preschools_preprint_no_OA.pdf">research</a> my co-authors, Sanna Ericsson and Fredrick M. Wamalwa, and I sought to close this gap. We investigated the long-term impacts of preschools on children’s learning outcomes in Kenya and Tanzania. Our study employed new, large-scale data from the <a href="https://www.uwezo.net/">Uwezo</a> initiative, which uses household surveys to measure school-aged children’s literacy and numeracy skills in both countries. </p>
<p>Importantly for our purposes, the data included individual-level information on whether a child attended preschool before starting primary school. This allowed us to trace the effect of children’s preschool attendance on their skills up to the age of 16. Mirroring the scope of the Uwezo surveys, our analysis covered more than half a million children aged between seven and 16 across Kenya and Tanzania.</p>
<p>We found that there are important long-term benefits from attending preschool. In particular, children who went to preschool were less likely to drop out of school and had higher levels of literacy and numeracy when reaching adolescence.</p>
<h2>The research</h2>
<p>An important feature of our study is the focus on causal effects, rather than mere correlations. To illustrate the difference between these concepts, imagine two primary school children from different families, one of whom did go to preschool and one of whom did not. Now imagine that the former child has better literacy and numeracy skills. Preschool attendance and learning seem to go together, they’re correlated.</p>
<p>This correlation could be due to many factors: for example, the family who sent their child to preschool might be richer and foster the child’s education in other ways too, which could explain the better skills. In our research, we wanted to measure the improvements in learning that preschool education actually causes, not just those that could be due to other aspects of the family background, such as financial resources. </p>
<p>To overcome this challenge, we studied siblings – children who share exactly the same family background. By comparing the skills of siblings who did and did not attend preschool, we were able identify the causal effects.</p>
<p>Our results show that there are important long-term benefits from attending preschool. For example, 64% of all Tanzanian 13 to 16 year-olds master basic, second-grade literacy and numeracy skills. We found that going to preschool boosted this rate by 5%, a significant difference. Similarly, preschool education increased the share of 13-16 year-old Kenyans mastering these skills by 3%, compared to a baseline of 84%. </p>
<p>Our results also show that adolescents who attended preschool are more likely to still be enrolled in school. This effect is particularly pronounced in Tanzania, where enrolment at ages 13 to 16 is increased by 8%. This is a considerable improvement given that 12% of all children of those ages in our sample report to be out of school.</p>
<p>Finally, our analysis reveals that the improvements in skills and enrolment are larger for children from less-educated mothers. While we cannot pin down the exact reason for this difference, one potential explanation is that these mothers tend to be poorer and thus might have fewer age-appropriate learning materials at home. </p>
<h2>Going forward</h2>
<p>Taken together, our findings suggest that policies that increase access to preschools can be an effective instrument to improve learning outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa, as they have already been <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/714321468194946196/Early-childhood-development-a-review-of-the-global-evidence">in other parts of the world</a>. As such, they would also bring countries closer to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of quality education for all.</p>
<p>A further benefit of getting more children from poor families to enrol in preschool would be that this could help close the achievement gap between children from different family backgrounds. <a href="https://www.twaweza.org/uploads/files/Uwezo_EA_Report-EN-FINAL.pdf">Recent evidence</a> shows that the pass rate of children in financially secure households on the Uwezo literacy and numeracy tests is more than 20% above that of children in very poor households. </p>
<p>The latter children are also much less likely to attend preschool, even though our results suggest that they could particularly profit from attending. Making it easier for poor children to go to preschool could thus decrease the differences in learning outcomes compared to children from financially secure households.</p>
<p>Finally, one important question that we were unable to answer is what actually makes a good preschool. Our analysis found that preschools in their current form, with their focus on teaching academic skills, are beneficial for children. Improving the quality of teaching in preschools might well lead to further benefits, and should be an important issue on the agenda of both researchers and policymakers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125677/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jan Bietenbeck receives funding from the Jan Wallanders, Tom Hedelius and Tore Browaldh foundation. </span></em></p>Research shows that children who had preschool education were less likely to drop out of school and have higher levels of literacy when they reach adolescence.Jan Bietenbeck, Assistant Professor of Economics, Lund UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/925342018-03-01T14:09:57Z2018-03-01T14:09:57ZActive citizens for better schooling: what Kenya’s history can teach South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208088/original/file-20180227-36683-15r4g0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=73%2C49%2C927%2C821&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The idea of "Harambee" - self-help - was central to Jomo Kenyatta's thinking and politics.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bootbearwdc/225535252/in/photolist-f65GKx-eELByD-eFaCHS-eF7DSL-eFkBoP-eESFJM-eEYYH2-eEW4fF-eEUpgK-eF7zvk-eEQZsM-RaPM1-eFc9mY-4dubcJ-ihgULH-7VcD9i-kVVLQ-zKf2BY-ihUSQz-ihkuAa-ii8x8o-ihp7kR-ihsmco-ihHsRY-ii5VcQ-ihBgqx-ihzaZz-ihE7zv-ihw6w2-9yNbNN-9prugd-DEHQaG-nQ4nAd-nQ5cFD-9DkaA-9DkBh-E5vf9m-9Dkfw-9DkkR-ihRJ3U-9DkvB-HVef6A-vb2PDf-uTXQ93-uU6b7X-uTXi7W-ueGiv2-nQ4GwY-8nthVT-RaL6q">bootbearwdc/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Weak governance” is a popular scapegoat for the <a href="http://www.up.ac.za/media/shared/164/ZP_Files/pirls-literacy-2016-hl-report-3.zp136320.pdf">poor results</a> achieved by South Africa’s education system. And there is no doubt that many aspects of how the education bureaucracy operates are problematic. </p>
<p>But what about setting the scapegoats aside for a moment and seeking solutions? One way to do this is to look elsewhere for inspiration. So, in that spirit, consider Kenya. For much of the half-century since it became independent the East African nation had been an over-performer on the continent in its measured education outcomes.</p>
<p>To get a sense of Kenya’s historical overperformance, consider the 2007 results of <a href="http://www.sacmeq.org/sites/default/files/sacmeq/reports/sacmeq-iii/policy-brief/kenya_achievement_05_october_2011_final.pdf">standardised tests</a> for sixth graders conducted by the <a href="http://www.sacmeq.org/">Southern and East African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality</a>. Kenya’s average score was 557 points. That’s well above South Africa’s average of 495 points. Kenyan children’s basic literacy and numeracy skills were stronger than South Africa’s. </p>
<p>Kenya has <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.KD">a much lower per capita income</a> than South Africa. In part as a result, its <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS?locations=KE">public spending</a> on education per pupil is <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS?locations=KE-ZA">only one-fifth</a> that of South Africa. Its educational bureaucracy is <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/801891468773756126/pdf/280640KE.pdf">relatively messy</a>.</p>
<p>Despite all this, as the graph in a more extended discussion <a href="https://workingwiththegrain.com/2018/02/28/better-education-kenyas-history-lesson-for-south-africa/">underscores</a>, it has historically been an over-performer in southern and eastern Africa, both relative to South Africa and more broadly. </p>
<p>How did this happen? The answer lies with active civic engagement. Kenya’s first president of the independence era, Jomo Kenyatta, championed this in the form of a self-help ethos known as “Harambee” as the pathway to development, including a strong focus on educating the country’s citizenry. For years after his tenure as head of state ended, the principle remained deeply embedded in Kenyan society – and the country’s <a href="http://africanphilanthropy.issuelab.org/resource/the-role-of-harambee-in-socio-economic-development-in-kenya-a-case-of-the-education-sector.html">education system</a>.</p>
<p>There could be valuable lessons here for South Africa. Kenyans believe that fixing education is not someone else’s task or someone else’s failure. It involves active citizenship and proactive engagement at all levels: public officials; principals, teachers and their unions; parents and communities. </p>
<p>Perhaps what South Africa needs now is not a top-down government policy of “education for all” – but rather, “all for education”.</p>
<h2>Kenya’s history of Harambee</h2>
<p>In an email exchange with me, Dr Ben Piper, a <a href="https://shared.rti.org/users/ben-piper">seasoned educational specialist</a> and long-term resident in Nairobi, identified some key things that he finds remarkable in Kenya:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…[I]n rural Kenya there is an expectation for kids to learn and be able to have basic skills … Exam results are far more readily available than in other countries in the region. The ‘mean scores’ for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and its equivalent at secondary school are posted in every school and over time so that trends can be seen. Head teachers are held accountable; paraded around the community if they did well, or literally banned from school and kicked out if they did badly.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This sort of accountability and community involvement forms part of the “softer” dimensions of school governance. And the roots of this approach run deep. They were part of the foundational ideas that shaped modern Kenya.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/jomo-kenyatta">Jomo Kenyatta</a> was a powerful advocate for better quality education. His focus on education persisted during his activist days, through his years in the UK and in his role as director and principal of the Kenya African Teachers’ College, run by the independent schools movement.</p>
<p>He became independent Kenya’s first president in 1963 and immediately offered a vision of a nation imbued with Harambee (“let us pull together”). The country adopted the term as its official national motto. As numerous studies have <a href="http://www.researchkenya.or.ke/thesis/10994/the-contribution-of-harambee-(self-help)-to-the-development-of-post-primary-education-in-kenya-:-the-case-of-sosiot-girls-high-school,-1969-1979">underscored</a>, engagement <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12313234">with education</a> held pride of place within the Harambee movement.</p>
<h2>Harnessing existing structures</h2>
<p>The key to turning around South Africa’s education system may be to spend less time deciding who to blame and more seeking out renewed opportunities for engagement. </p>
<p>This wouldn’t involve reinventing the wheel. The country’s institutional framework for education, <a href="https://www.education.gov.za/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=aIolZ6UsZ5U%3D&tabid=185&mid=1828">promulgated in 1996</a>, creates multiple entry points for participation by a variety of stakeholders. </p>
<p>School governing bodies, which consist mostly of parents, can play a central role. These bodies are generally in the news for all <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/sgbs-receive-wake-up-call-on-school-fraud-2008568">the wrong reasons</a>; as tools for elites to keep control of their schools, and as sites of corruption. Indeed, the South African government’s recent Basic Education Laws Amendment proposal, following an investigation of ‘jobs for cash’ scandals in schools, proposed scaling back the authority of school governing bodies.</p>
<p>But, as I’ve <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2017-05-03-to-help-eastern-cape-schools-add-a-dose-of-active-citizenship/#.WpaKc66WbIU">written elsewhere</a>, research at school level also shows that school governing bodies can be a source of resilience, including in poor communities. </p>
<p>Perhaps the crucial lesson from Kenya’s history is that our current discourse has it backwards. Fixing education is not someone else’s task, and someone else’s failure. Active citizenship implies pro-active engagement at all levels – by public officials, by principals and teachers (and their unions), by parents and communities. </p>
<p>If South Africa is willing to learn from Kenya, what is called for now is not another top-down “education for all” target from government –- but rather “all for education”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92534/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Levy receives funding from the DfiD-funded Effective States and Inclusive Development (ESID) Research project, led by the University of Manchester; ESID funded the research on which this article is based. </span></em></p>Kenyans believe that fixing education is not someone else’s task or someone else’s failure.Brian Levy, Professor of the Practice of International Development, Johns Hopkins UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.