Search

Research in the field of Higher Education in Emergencies (HEiE) starts to question the imposed Global North-centred perspective which arrives with ready-made solutions, considering refugees as objects of intervention rather than subjects of transformation. Leveraging the broader topics of Open Science and Open Education, this paper pioneers a new approach to scientific cooperation, fostering values of Openness in refugee higher education. It specifically addresses HEiE in Niger, Africa, in a training of trainers' programme. It is designed in a participatory manner involving academics from the Global South and Global North, refugees who are themselves educators, and NGOs. Taking the form of a Certificate of Open Studies (COS), the training empowers refugees as enabled change agents, capable of making sense of diverse knowledge systems to transform their reality. Preliminary understanding of Open Cooperation is shared through a conceptual framework, Empowering refugees through liberation-oriented education. It addresses sustainability at the ontological and epistemic levels and relies on four main dimensions: Epistemologies of the South, Openness, Common good and Education as empowerment.

Bilingual education that incorporates a local language alongside the official language has become an increasingly common approach in sub-Saharan Africa for improving literacy rates and learning outcomes. Evidence suggests that bilingual instruction is largely associated with positive learning and literacy outcomes globally. However, the adoption of bilingual education does not guarantee positive learning outcomes. This paper reviews bilingual programs in sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular focus on programs in six Francophone West African countries (Niger, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon). We identified factors critical to high-quality and effective bilingual programs. Implementation factors, such as teacher training and classroom resources, and socio-cultural factors, such as perceptions of local languages in education, constrain and contribute to the quality of bilingual education. These insights may help inform policy-makers and other stakeholders seeking to improve bilingual education programs in Francophone West Africa and other contexts.

This study reports on teachers' perspectives of the drivers and constraints of ICT integration into Mathematics Education in 50 private secondary schools in five cities in the Niger Delta region. The study employed a descriptive survey design to obtain the data. The sample or respondents for the study were two hundred mathematics teachers who were drawn through a random sampling technique. The sample represents four Mathematics teachers per school. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire, which was administered and retrieved by research assistants. The instrument was validated for content and construct. The reliability coefficient was obtained using Cronbach's alpha. The study employed the use of descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation in analysing the data. From the results, it was discovered that the major drivers of computer integration into the teaching and learning of mathematics were changes in pedagogical practices, school, and national policy to meet global standards, ease of teachers' jobs and saved time due to students' enrolment and overcrowded classrooms, and the need to promote a student-centred approach to learning through the digital classroom. It was also revealed that mathematics teachers in private secondary schools used ICT, although superficially, in the teaching and learning of mathematics. It was also revealed that ICT contributed insignificantly to the teaching and learning of the subject due to the daunting impediments, primarily, lack of access, lack of support by management to access Internet services, lack of power supply, theft and vandalization, and inadequate training and skills of teachers to use ICT, which were all major constraints. Based on the findings, it was recommended that teachers be encouraged to use ICT by training them for ICT literacy and competency, and government should create an enabling environment that would reduce anti-social vices and the cost of access to Internet services.

This critical review aims to question whether or not the enthusiasm around early childhood care and education (ECCE) programmes is producing premature models, ill-adapted to West African socio-cultural contexts. Reviewing research that investigates the impact of ECCE on cognitive development and school readiness, we first focus on the universal valuing of formal ECCE, supported by both scientific research and international education agendas. Second, we present a classification that provides a framework to grasp the multiplicity of ECCE programmes and models across West African countries and their relevance to local contexts. Based on the literature reviewed, we conceptualise a multilevel model of ECCE within a holistic and ecologic approach. In the third part, we present research that underlines the challenges for educators and their central role in the design of culturally relevant ECCE. The fourth part will draw from research findings and stress the need to rethink appropriate methods and research tools to assess the quality and outcomes of ECCE programmes in West Africa. We conclude by proposing to move away from ECCE perspectives in which marginalised communities are perceived as deficient towards locally relevant and socially just models.

The Diffa and Tillabéri regions of Niger, Africa, are greatly affected by violent security crises that impact the functioning of schools, disrupting learning spaces and teaching programs and internally displacing the population. This article analyzes educational provision in its dual social and urgent dimensions and questions both the state of education in emergencies and the challenges posed in Niger before proposing new directions to maintain educational provision.

Data from sub-Saharan Africa show that many students leave school without the skills they need. To address this issue, it is important to understand what factors influence learning. According to the Heyneman and Loxley effect established in 1983, in low income countries school quality influences how much students learn more than those students' backgrounds. Recent research suggests that this influential conclusion no longer holds, without discounting the possibility that this trend could still be observed in very-low income countries. The present work investigates this possibility by using the PASEC dataset, which includes ten countries in West- and Central Africa. Improving on Heyneman and Loxley's methodology by using general dominance analysis, this article finds no support for the 'Heyneman-Loxley Effect'. Both school resource and student background account for around half of the explained variance in learning. This suggests that both family- and school-related factors are important sources of inequality of opportunity in low-income contexts.

Despite substantial cross-national interest in remedial programming as a way to support low-achieving students, evidence of its effectiveness is rare, particularly in low-income and/or crisis-affected contexts. In this article, we present experimental evidence of the impact of a remedial tutoring program on academic outcomes from a two-level randomized trial of two treatments in Niger: school randomization testing the impact of skill-targeted SEL activities and within-school student-level randomization testing the impact of access to remedial tutoring. We find that tutoring for 4 h per week improves students' literacy and Math outcomes, and the addition of skill-targeted SEL activities positively impacts school grades above and beyond access to tutoring alone. These findings suggest the potential value of remedial tutoring to supplement formal schooling in low-income and/or conflict-affected contexts. They also suggest increased attention to implementation strategies, as access alone was insufficient for students to attain grade-level competencies.

This paper compares two institutional mentorships in the West African context: one is an institutional affiliation required by the National Accreditation Board (NAB) between a mentor public university and mentee private university in Ghana; the second one is a university-led mentorship between a mentor private university in Ghana and a mentee private university in Niger. The research questions are the following: How do the two models of institutional mentorship contrast? What is the role of the mentor and mentee in ensuring the effectiveness of institutional mentorship? To investigate these questions, qualitative data was collected through document analysis and interviews of key informants, who were involved in the mentoring relationship across the three institutions. Goleman's (2000) leadership styles theory was applied as the theoretical framework in analyzing the case studies. The NAB institutional affiliation was coercive and created a disempowering and constraining effect upon the mentee, whereas the university-led mentorship displayed an authoritative leadership style and empowered the mentee through the inspirational example of the mentor. The understanding of responsibilities of the mentor and mentee in ensuring effective mentoring was regulations-driven under the NAB affiliation model and values-driven under the university-led model. The study showed the importance of the sense of agency of both the mentor and mentee in contributing to the mentoring relationship and what both forms of institutional mentorship could learn from each other. The findings of this study are important and relevant in informing the NAB to improve its institutional affiliation program and for new universities that are seeking models for building mentoring relationships with other institutions to expand their potential and impact.

Background/Context: Amid rising immigration from the African continent to the United States, researchers have begun to explore the transnational identities and networks of African immigrants. There is a small body of literature about whether educational supports for immigrant youth are differentiated to address the particularities of African immigrant youth. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Transnational theories presume that subjects use social networks to connect home and diaspora. They are encountering both perceived and lived social spaces to navigate belonging in and across space. This study asks, "How do youth from the African continent mediate transnational belonging in NYC?" Studying the experiences of youth has implications for the curricular and extracurricular spaces of schools wherein newcomer youth navigate how to belong in the diaspora. Population/Participants/Subjects: Research participants are 19 newcomer African youth from Centrafrique, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal. Most of the youth are multilingual and speak French and English as third or fourth languages. Research Design: This qualitative study draws from participatory action research and visual methods. The study was conducted with Sankofa Club, a weekly afterschool student-led club. In the club, students responded to stereotypes by producing websites about the continent and carrying out research within the club to compare their homes and share their migration stories. Findings/Results: The article presents "Africa" as a Mediated Transnational Space, produced by hegemonic structures, that youth mediate as they connect homes. The study finds that youth wrestled with their identification as African. It reexamines transnationalism and positions Africa as a social field through which youth are produced (come to be) as African subjects, redress their belonging to that field by contributing their own symbols and experiences, and use it as they navigate an Africain-NYC that does not adhere to continental boundaries. Conclusions/Recommendations: Educators can support the belonging to home, Africa, and the United States by representing Africa as a generative space in curriculum and social practices.

This study explores the relationships between self-efficacy and observed quality of classroom interactions of EFL teachers in Niger and how they compare to their American counterparts. We collected and analyzed self-efficacy data from 609 EFL teachers using the Teachers' Sense of Self-efficacy Scale (TSES). In addition, classroom interaction data were collected from 53 Nigerien EFL teachers using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). All the self-efficacy subscales were significantly correlated with the CLASS Instructional Support domain. When we compared the self-efficacy and classroom interactions scores of Nigerien teachers with those of American teachers, a significant difference was only identified in the classroom management scale of TSES. In terms of the CLASS score difference, Nigerien teachers showed significantly higher scores on the Negative Climate and Analysis and Problem-Solving subscales. These findings suggest both teachers' self-efficacy and the classroom interaction quality may need to be assessed in different ways across the two cultures.

This paper aims to assess the impact of the parents' education on the progeny schooling using the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data of Niger. It focuses on verifying whether the mothers' education better impacts the children schooling, and therefore measures the intergenerational efficiency of the pro girls schooling policies in the case of Niger. The results prove that the education of female today could lead to a significant increase in the education of the children of tomorrow. However, this rise is slightly (or even not significant according to econometric models) lower than the rise due to the education of male. Furthermore, having both parents educated and uneducated have respectively strongly positively and negatively significant impact on the probabilities that their children go to school. Therefore, with the goal of an education system dynamically efficient, there is a necessity not to neglect the endeavors and political decisions for male in Niger. Any prioritization of one sex over the other is not justified in a mid or long-term vision, especially females' one over males.

This paper examines three interrelated factors outside of formal provision of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in sub-Saharan Africa that have undermined TVET systems. The first is the process, pace, and levels of industrialisation, which has had a direct effect on TVET provision: low numbers of well-paying jobs requiring technical expertise. This has an indirect effect, which is the second crucial factor: lack of economic development and change in labour markets. There are very few jobs that would be considered 'middle class' or 'mid-level' in wealthy countries. Most people are in survivalist work. An international consensus since the 2000s on palliative approaches to development which address the effects but not the causes of the lack of economic development in Africa has resulted in mass poor quality provision of education--the third factor. Education systems are rapidly expanding and achievement levels rising, in the context of very little possibility of labour market rewards for most people, and substantial labour market rewards confined mainly to graduates. This reinforces deeply embedded cultural preferences for general education, which originate in the type of education systems established by colonial powers, as well as the relationships between educational credentials and elite jobs.

One of the biggest criticisms of international law is the lack of effective enforcement, often compounded in human rights law by the system of treaty reservations that detracts from the main object and purpose of human rights protections. Ideally, once a country has ratified a treaty, it may create domestic law that provides an enforcement mechanism that may be lacking at the international level. However, in cases such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, one can see the limits of such an indeterminate system. The two questions being posed are: "Could the implementation of human rights education enhance enforcement within countries of international human rights accords?" and "How should one go about implementing a human rights education initiative?"To answer these questions, literature regarding human rights education initiatives around the world were reviewed and focus was put on initiatives working to enforce international human rights law. From reviewing the literature, a major component of the effectiveness of a human rights education initiative is the quality of training the teachers received and the level of commitment to the initiative by school administrations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed concerns about how shocks may affect religious and other private schools in low-income countries, especially when they do not benefit from state support. By reducing parental incomes, shocks -- not only epidemics but also natural disasters and conflicts, reduce overall enrollment in school. But they may also lead to a shift from private to public schools with potentially differentiated effects by type of private school depending on context. In addition, household responses to shocks such as migration may lead to a change in the socio-cultural context in which households live, and these changes may also affect school choice. This paper explores the effects of shocks and migration on school choice in West Africa. Results suggest that shocks and migration lead to a shift from private to public schools, but with differentiated effects by type of private schools.

The term Koranic school is often used to describe schools that are not part of the formal education system and typically place a strong emphasis on memorising the Koran in Arabic, as well as on knowledge of Islamic religious education and practice. Using data from Niger as a case study, this paper provides data on trends in the share of individuals that have a Koranic education, a formal education, or no education at all, as well as a basic profile (univariate and multivariate) of children with Koranic education, formal education, or no education at all. In addition, the potential impacts of Koranic education in comparison to formal education or no education at all on outcomes such as literacy and numeracy, labour market earnings, household consumption, assets and perceptions of well-being, and infant mortality is analyzed.

Influential reports about the "learning crisis" in the global South generally pay insufficient attention to social inequalities in learning. In this study, we explore the association between family socioeconomic status and learning outcomes in 10 francophone African countries using data from the Programme for the Analysis of Education Systems, a standardized assessment of pupils' mathematics and reading competence at the end of primary school. We start by showing that learning outcomes among grade 6 pupils are both poor and highly stratified. We then develop and test a conceptual framework that highlights three mechanisms through which family socioeconomic status might contribute to learning: (1) educational resources at home, (2) health and well-being, and (3) differences in school quality. We find that most of the effect of family background on learning outcomes operates through school quality, which results from a combination of the unequal distribution of resources (such as teachers and textbooks) across schools and high socioeconomic segregation between schools. On the basis of these results, we suggest that most countries in the region could improve equity as well as overall performance by "raising the floor" in school quality.

This paper aims at highlighting initiatives in developing future statisticians directed at high-school and university levels in Niger. More specifically, it focuses on collaborations, partnerships, outreach initiatives and supporting mechanisms, which may contribute to increase engagement and interest in and attraction to the field of statistics in the era of data science and data-driven innovations. Providing sufficient exposure to modern statistical analysis, computational and graphical tools, written and oral communication skills, and the ever-growing interdisciplinary use of statistics are key activities for building future generations of statisticians. Furthermore, current curricula as well as pedagogical approaches, teaching materials, and assessment methods need to be re-thought in order to meet the requirements of the skills needed in the 21st century ensuring effective interaction with scientists, public institutions, industry, civil society, and policy makers.

This paper is the second in a set of two on the extent to which Catholic and other faith-based schools are serving the poor well. Catholic and other faith-based schools reach millions of children who live in poverty, yet this does not necessarily mean that they are serving these children well enough. The paper considers two separate issues. First, beyond academic subjects, Catholic and other faith-based schools emphasise learning related to values and religion. Do they succeed in doing so? Based on small sample survey data and qualitative fieldwork, as well as broader data on parental satisfaction with schools, the paper provides a tentative and mostly positive answer to this question, at least from the view of parents. The second issue is where performance is weaker. Education systems are affected by a learning crisis in the developing world. All schools should ensure that students learn, but too often this is not the case. The second part of the paper documents this learning crisis and the fact that Catholic and other faith-based schools are not immune to it. This is done in part through a rapid review of the recent World Development Report on education's promise, and a companion piece for sub-Saharan Africa. Estimates of performance for selected African countries are also provided. The results are sobering: too many children are not learning while in school. Finally, the paper briefly summarises evidence from the literature on interventions that could improve learning, including in Catholic and faith-based schools. [For Part I of the series, see EJ1206878.]

Purpose: This paper explores the main factors that influence farmers in acquiring agricultural knowledge and adopting technologies with the aim of better understanding the agricultural innovation systems in West Africa. Design/Methodology/Approach: We use data collected between 2013 and 2014 across rice hubs in five West African countries: Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Nigeria and Togo. In total, 499 household heads were surveyed using a stratified random sampling technique. Data are analyzed with the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test and the Poisson regression. Findings: The findings show that farmers' knowledge is influenced by a range of factors, including household size, training, access to formal and informal knowledge sources and community socioeconomic status. Farmers rely heavily on personal experiences and fellow farmers to adopt technologies. Practical implications: The study suggests that key policies for strengthening the innovation systems are those that help farmers access both formal and informal knowledge sources, credit services, better welfare and information and communication tools. Theoretical implications: The study shows the need to consider both extrinsic factors (e.g. characteristics of the technology and attributes of the external environment) and intrinsic factors (e.g. knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of the potential adopter towards the innovation) when analyzing the decision process toward technology adoption in West Africa. Originality/Value: This initiative is to identify the conditions that will enable a more inclusive technology development and diffusion process. This is important because agricultural extension is currently undergoing a deep restructuring focused on privatizing the agricultural services in developing countries characterized by a low literacy rate.

The Rapid Assessment of Cognitive and Emotional Regulation (RACER) is a tablet-based assessment tool for children that measures executive function (EF) skills. Instructions that are brief and visually presented; game-like tasks are designed to easily engage children regardless of literacy level and variable test administration settings. RACER measures inhibitory control and working memory. This study presents the theoretical rationale and empirical evidence for tablet-based assessments of EF, the process of administering the RACER assessments. The current sample consists of students in Lebanon (N=1900) and Niger (N=850). The results indicate that individual differences in EF can be assessed by the RACER tablet tasks. Specifically, we demonstrate that EF scores are associated in expected ways with age and that tasks function similarly to what has been observed in high-income countries. The feasibility and utility for researchers, practitioners, and clinicians, of this cognitive assessment tool is discussed.

Serving the poor is a prime component of the mission of Catholic and many other faith-based schools. Do the schools succeed in doing so? This paper and a companion paper focusing on learning aim to answer this question. In this paper, the focus is on schooling or enrolment in school. The paper considers first global and regional data on the number of students in Catholic preschools and nurseries, primary schools, and secondary schools. The data suggest that Catholic schools are located proportionately more in low-income countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. However, having schools in low income countries does not guarantee that they serve disadvantaged children. Relying on household survey data from Africa, the second part of the analysis suggests that while Catholic and other faith-based schools reach many children in poverty, they often serve children from better off households proportionately more. The last part of the paper considers the constraints faced by Catholic and other faith-based schools in reaching the poor. Some constraints are shared with other types of schools, but others are peculiar to Catholic and faith-based schools, especially in terms of the funding from households that they need to operate given no or only limited state support.

As a tool in an educational delivery system contributing to social and economic development, distance learning has become an accepted and indispensable aspect of the mainstream of educational systems in developed and developing countries. Indeed, the globalization of distance education provides several opportunities for developing countries, including the West African sub-region, for the realization of education system goals, especially the growing need for continuing skills upgrading and retraining. As countries in the West African sub-region become more aware of the potential of distance learning, it is important for their educational planning that the opportunities provided by new technologies prominent in distance learning be realistically harnessed within the framework of well-defined policies. In this regard, a policy framework is needed to ensure that quality education is provided for learners in new and long-established distance education institutions in the West African sub-region. Regardless of the diverse distance education practices in the West African sub-region, a regional policy framework is possible and imperative to regulate the organization and implementation of quality distance higher education programmes in West Africa.

Background: Education is a fundamental human right, yet many children with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries remain deprived of educational opportunities. The movement towards quality inclusive education (IE) aims to support all children at school. Although gender and disability are key factors influencing IE, limited research explores their combined influence. Purpose: This study explored the gendered experiences of IE for children with disabilities in West and East Africa. Methods: A qualitative interpretive secondary analysis was conducted on studies from Guinea, Sierra Leone, Togo, Niger, Zambia, and Malawi. Interviews with children, community members, and policy stakeholders were thematically analysed to explore intersections among gender, disability, and education. Findings: Boys and girls with disabilities experienced similar cases of social exclusion at school. However, girls with disabilities were further hindered by societal biases against their educational potential and by sexual abuse. While boys with disabilities were stereotyped as more capable, their experiences of emotional and physical violence were often overlooked. Implications: To achieve quality IE for all, strategies should aim to foster inclusive and safe school environments for all children, empower girls with disabilities to pursue education, and challenge gendered societal attitudes that hinder educational opportunities.

This study investigated facilitators and challenges to designing, implementing and evaluating school-based sexual health education in sub-Saharan Africa, using interviews with intervention designers and researchers. At the pre-planning and planning stages, participants reported that facilitating factors included addressing the reproductive health needs of participants, contextual (culture, religion, economic and social) considerations and the adoption of holistic approach to sexuality education. Lack of open communication about sexual health matters between young people and adults; concerns that sexual health education could encourage sexual activity; and inadequate funding, were key barriers. Implementation was facilitated by the involvement of relevant stakeholders, the training of facilitators and adopting strategies to overcome resistance to sexual health education. The provision of structured, detailed lessons plans and monitoring with supportive supervision optimised fidelity of delivery. Barriers to implementation included facilitators' resistance to teaching safe sex promotion and logistical challenges in school environments. Participants also reported that the validity of self-reported adolescent sexual behaviour (as part of evaluation) may be improved by complementing well-designed self-report surveys with computerised audio devices for data collection, qualitative interviews and participant observation. Study findings generate recommendations to improve future forms of school-based sexual health education in sub-Saharan Africa.

More than one billion people do not have access to an adequate water supply. In Gambia and Haiti, people live on less than 4 liters of water per day. By contrast, most toilets in the West use several times that amount of water for a single flush. The global distribution of water is making it increasingly difficult for poor people to access it, and movements to commodify water and privatize the industries that provide it exacerbate this situation, trapping the poorest in a cycle of water poverty. Much research has been done on the problem of water scarcity. However, the link between scarcity and water as a human right is rarely articulated, even the current index of the website of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has no entry for water. This paper proposes a human right to water. It then considers the consequent obligations the right to water imposes on those who control water resources, such as governments, water corporations, and international lending institutions. (Contains 75 notes.)

Following the events of 9/11, many misconceptions entered the policy-making platform with regard to the need for education reforms in the Muslim world. Based upon Western cultural and societal norms and increased scepticism of the role of religion in violence, these assumptions have triggered a strong wave of calls for a top-down approach to reform formal state schools in predominantly Muslim countries, These calls often meet with resistance at national and community levels. This article seeks to examine these misconceptions and investigate why educational reform efforts through top-down frameworks which are especially motivated by countering violent extremism or terrorism have had only limited success. Many major international intergovernmental organisations, non-governmental organisations and governments have invested time and effort into education measures aiming to build peace and coexistence in Muslim countries, but they have been unable to build a relationship of trust with community leaders and school authorities. The authors argue that the main reason for defiance is reformers' failure to closely examine the cultural context of their chosen setting and work with existing tools and local institutions. Illustrating their point with a case study of an intervention carried out in informal Qur'anic schools in Niger, West Africa, the authors offer an alternative method which fosters changes from within. They argue that this model has a better chance of sustainability and could thus be used as the basis for future interventions.