Report
Data Must Speak: Ethiopia
The Ministry of Education in Ethiopia developed its Education Sector Development Plan (ESDP) 2020/21-2024/25, outlining its vision of transforming society through harnessing the full potential of learners to become productive citizens. The ESDP includes several goals, including improving equitable access and parti...
Report
Exploring the Reasons Behind Primary School Dropout in Mozambique
This research brief presents the results of the third round of Mozambique’s Longitudinal Assessment of School Dropout (ALDE), conducted in 2021. It investigates trends in school attendance, performance and dropouts since the previous rounds of the assessment, conducted in 2018 and 2019. The brief examines factors ...
Report
Data Must Speak: Burkina Faso
The Burkinabe education system aims to guarantee universal and equitable access to quality education for all school-age children. Despite the progress made in implementing quality education in Burkina Faso, significant challenges remain.In Burkina Faso, some schools demonstrate exceptional performance. These "posi...
Report
Data Must Speak: Exploring Innovative Methods and Approaches in Education Research
Around 70 per cent of students in low- and middle-income countries grapple with learning poverty, unable to read and understand a simple text by the age of 10. Yet even in the most challenging educational contexts, some schools outperform others located in similar contexts and with similar resources. How do these ...
Report
Implement: Bridging Policy-Practice Gaps in African Education
classroom-level changes that improve learning. Drawing from research across 33 African countries involving over 167,000 schools and thousands of education stakeholders, the paper identifies four key elements for effective policy implementation:Clear Implementation Planning: Beyond evidence-based policy design, edu...
Report
Invest: Harnessing the Latent Potential in African Education Systems
This paper examines how African governments can invest in under-resourced areas to transform education systems. It focuses on three key areas of latent potential:Early childhood education (ECE) lays the foundation for lifelong learning, but less than one third of preschool-age children across the continent are enr...
Report
Inform: Using Available Data to Optimize Education Investments in Africa
This is a synthesis of UNICEF Innocenti’s research on education. It shows data from over 167,000 African schools and identifies the most effective ways to optimize current investments in education across the continent. The analysis examines:Workforce priorities - Evidence shows teacher deployment and support can m...
Report
Improving Education in Africa
Improving Education in Africa synthesizes research across 33 countries in Africa to identify promising pathways for enhancing learning outcomes while strengthening equity and resilience in African education systems.Drawing from data covering over 167,000 schools, and insights from thousands of students, teachers, ...
Article
Strengthening local decision-making for a more effective education system in Madagascar
DMS SCALE (Strengthen Capacity and Advance Local Evidence Use) aims to empower local actors in the Malagasy education system, by providing them with tools and skills to effectively use the data they collect – enabling rapid and context-specific decision-making., DMS SCALE builds on the Positive Deviance research, ...
Report
Reporting and Responding to Sensitive Disclosures in School-Based Research
When conducting evidence activities with children, it is essential to have a robust, localized and resourced safeguarding response plan in place, even where the research is not specifically intended to address sensitive topics such as violence or abuse. During the Data Must Speak (DMS) positive deviance research, ...
Report
Making Digital Learning Work
Making Digital Learning Work, compiles six years of research, experiences and insights from the UNICEF–Akelius Digital Learning Initiative. The digital learning initiative focuses on improving learning for marginalized children including refugees who are acquiring a second or foreign language. Since 2018, the ini...
Article
Learning locked away?
Meet Nana, a third-grade teacher in Ghana. At the start of the school year, Nana eagerly watched as boxes of textbooks and workbooks arrived at her school. Hoping to use them to improve her instruction, she looked forward to facilitating new lesson plans and introducing more practice problems to her students using...