Technology, Monitoring and Teacher Support in Niger

Despite improvements in school enrolment over the past 20 years, 757 million adults worldwide are still unable to read and write in any language (UNESCO 2015). In Niger, the subject of this study, less than 30% of the population is considered to be literate (IMF 2013).
While a substantial body of research has focused on increasing school participation, there is still considerable debate about how to improve learning in a cost-effective way. One constraint that has consistently emerged is teacher absenteeism: In West Africa, teacher absenteeism rates range between 27-40% (TI 2013). Empirical research in economics has found that teacher monitoring can lead to improvements in teacher attendance, with mixed results on learning (Guerrero et al 2013, Duflo et al 2012, Cilliers et al 2014). Some governments have shifted to community teachers, who are hired on short-term contracts renewable upon performance. Yet oversight remains a challenge, especially in countries with high transport costs and weak institutions. In a previous adult education program in Niger, community teachers missed 1/3 of their classes (Aker et al 2016).
The growth of mobile phone technology throughout sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to affect the relationships between teachers, communities and education service providers in remote rural areas. By allowing governments and NGOs to communicate with remote areas on a regular basis, mobile phones can improve monitoring of teachers' attendance. Mobile phones can also allow the community to provide feedback to education providers, thereby increasing community engagement. And finally, mobile phones could be used to provide more frequent "long distance" pedagogical support to teachers.
Our research team ran a randomized evaluation in Niger between 2014-2016, which showed that a mobile phone monitoring intervention in the context of an adult education program - whereby teachers, students and village chiefs were called on a weekly basis - significantly improved students' test scores (Aker et al 2016). Although the intervention did not include financial incentives for teachers, mobile monitoring increased teachers' attendance and motivation. At the same time, teachers often asked for pedagogical support, which the monitoring team was unable to provide.
This proposal builds upon this initial research in five ways. First, it will expand the program to more villages in order to test the intervention at a larger scale. Second, the research will test different types of mobile monitoring - i.e., calling the teacher only, as compared with calling the teacher, the village chief and students - to determine which approach is the most effective in increasing teacher performance and learning. Third, the program will assess the potential for using mobile phones to provide pedagogical support to teachers. Fourth, our research will seek to understand how education and technology affect intra-village dynamics, as well as the dynamics between the teacher, community and education service providers. And finally, these interventions will be piloted in a small number of primary schools in order to understand whether the dynamics of teacher monitoring and support are different in a primary school setting and with governmental institutions.
This research contributes to the existing literature in several ways. First, the intervention uses a low-cost technology that does not require specialized software. It also builds upon existing research on teacher performance by including pedagogical support and omitting the financial incentive. Finally, our research will focus on adult education programs, a highly neglected entry point for education interventions.
This research will be achieved through a unique collaboration between governmental, non-governmental, university and research firm partners in Niger, the US and Europe.

There are two primary direct beneficiaries of this research: adult education students and teachers in Niger. The adult education program will directly target 15,000 non-literate adults, allowing them to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills. 300 adult literacy teachers will receive monitoring or pedagogical support (or both), potentially strengthening their labor market skills. The program will also target 35 primary school teachers in a pilot.
Indirect beneficiaries are other household members, as having a literate adult can improve household socio-economic outcomes. Other indirect beneficaries are non-benficiary households in the villages, who may benefit from having a more highly educated population and a more highly skilled teacher. Additional indirect beneficiaries are village chiefs, who will be participating in the mobile monitoring component and thus more informed of local activities.
There are six sets of stakeholders who will also benefit. The first is CRS, the primary implementing partner. This research will inform CRS about the effectiveness of its adult education program, as well as the impact of mobile monitoring and technical support on learning. Since CRS has programs in over 80 countries and several adult education programs in West Africa, it is likely that it will replicate the approach in other countries if successful. CRS has also expressed interest in testing these approaches with field agents and service providers in other sectors.
The second stakeholder is the Nigerien government, particularly the Ministries of Non-Formal and Primary Education (IRP). Cost-effective adult education and pedagogical support are priorities for the government, yet the ministries face challenges in managing and providing technical support to teachers in remote rural areas. The ministries will use the results from this research to determine whether mobile monitoring and pedagogy should be integrated into their curricula. As the adult education methodology in Niger is similar to other programs in francophone West Africa, this research could benefit programs in those countries.
A third stakeholder is the University of Abdoul Moumouni, particularly the collaborating professor (Dr. Malam) and graduate students. Dr. Malam will co-author one of the academic papers, and we will jointly conduct impact evaluation workshops for UAM faculty and students. Project data will also be available to graduate students for their theses.
A fourth set of stakeholders is donors, international organizations and private sector enterprises interested in learning about technology-related adult and non-formal education programs, such as USAID, DFID, UNESCO, the World Bank and VotoMobile.
A fifth stakeholder is Sahel Consulting, the team's data collection partner. Sahel will be involved in all aspects of planning and implementing the surveys, as well as participate in the UAM impact evaluation workshops and exchange visits, thereby increasing their capacity to conduct impact evaluations within Niger for other organizations.
A final set of stakeholders is researchers in the fields of economics, international education and information technology. This research will provide additional evidence on the impacts of information technology on learning and welfare and hopefully stimulate further research in this area.
Engagement and impact with these groups will take place through our written project outputs (papers, policy briefs), blog posts, annual stakeholder meetings, impact evaluation workshops, final policy conference, dissemination workshops with teachers and village chiefs, conference presentations, film and exchange visits. These activities are described in more detail in the "Pathways to Impact" document. The first stakeholder workshop in Niger will include the PI, CRS, MNFE, Sahel and UAM, and will review the research questions, research design and data collection plan, set out the work plan and identify roles.