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Improving access to education in Ethiopia

Primary school students, Ethiopia


Improving access to education in Ethiopia: Longitudinal tracking of Speed School children

Project summary

The main focus of this research project in Ethiopia is a longitudinal study of children who attended Speed Schools and their families to measure the impacts of the project on primary school completion, learning outcomes and poverty. The research tracks learning outcomes and school attendance of children from the first year of the Speed School project as they complete primary school. Not only does the research track children who attended Speed Schools, but also those who have dropped out of school, and children in the control groups of the original evaluation. This will enable the research to compare outcomes for children who attended Speed Schools to those who did not. The aim is to provide a comprehensive understanding of whether public schools into which Speed School graduates are re-integrated are able to sustain the improvements over time.

At the core of the research is a survey of 1,875 children and households, who participated in the original research in Shebedino and Boricha Woredas. 625 of these children are those who attended Speed Schools in the academic year 2011/12, and the others from local government schools. Half of the children in government schools are those who attended 'improved schools' and half in other schools, which received no intervention. The research aims to understand the impacts of the Speed School project in a way that was not possible in one year of the actual project.

The following questions will guide this aspect of the study:

  1. Of the children who completed the Speed School programme, what proportion is likely to complete the full eight years of basic education?
  2. What is the impact of the Speed School project on the learning outcomes of children who attended Speed Schools compared to others?
  3. What is the impact of the Speed School project on progression and completion rates of children who attended Speed Schools compared to others?
  4. How does impact differ across schools in which there is action research and those without such intervention?
  5. Which household, teacher and student-level factors are the most important correlates of differences in learning outcomes and progression over time?

Research team

Principal Investigator: Professor Kwame Akyeampong, University of Sussex

Co-investigators: Dr Ricardo Sabates, University of Cambridge; Dr. Caine Rolleston, Institute of Education

Country Partners: Asmelash Haile Tsegay, Independent Consultant, Ethiopia

Duration

September 2015 - September 2017

Funder

Geneva Global Performance Philanthropy