Improving Girls’ Access through Transforming Education (IGATE)

A non-traditional Randomized Control trial – The IGATE Baseline Study in

Zimbabwe.(UKFIET 2015, Oxford University)

Mbuso Jama & Lotte RenaultTuesday, 15 September 2015, Room 7

(UKFIET 2015, Oxford University, UK)

Project Background

Mothers Groups

Marginalised Girls & PW

Clubs

Village Savings & Lending Groups

Community

Leaders

School Developm

ent Committe

e

Male Champion

s

Matrons

CSGE Committe

es

EFZUDACIZA

MoPSE

IGATE Interventions

Improved academic performance for girl

child

Intervention Intervention Intervention

School

Household

Community

*MGs – parental support for girl child*CSGE – awareness on education standards*Religious Leaders Engagement – practices and value

*VSL – savings and IGAs

*BEEP – Provision of bicycles to boys and

girls*Male Champions – male supporting girls;

*SDC – School Management Training

and WASH;*CSGE – Establishing

abuse reporting mechanisms;

*Power Within – Establishing Girls Clubs

and training Matrons

Girl Child

*Low literacy and numeracy fluency levels for girls in

target school;

*Low parental support for girl children;*Low awareness on education standards and policy;*Religious beliefs, and practices attach low value to girl child;

*Low progression and promotion rates;

*Low School Management

Capacity;*School toilet

infrastructure not girl friendly;

*Low self-esteem and confidence for girls;

*Low economic capacity and investment in girls

education;*Less women

participating in decision making;

* Long distance between home and school – girls tired and attend less;

*Literacy Improvement – Material, camps

and practice

*Improved mechanisms supporting girls education (abuse, violence etc)*Increased support and value for girl child;*Increased awareness on education standards;

*Increased budget and activities for girl child in

school development plans;

*Increased retention, attendance and

enrolment;*Girls learning without

fear;

*Increased income and investment in girls

education;*More women participating

in decision making;*Reduced time to get to

school;

Baseline Study Design

Intervention group

(52) schools

Control group (33)

schools

Baseline

Baseline

Randomised Control Trial with data collected on baseline (t1), follow up at (t2) and (t3)

467 T Schools

Time, T1

33 C Schools

Year 1 - 2013 Baseline

Mixed Methods Approach

1,950 girls

950 girls

Use of Robust Mixed MethodsQuantitative

MethodsLevelQualitative Methods

KII with District Education Officials

(DEO)District

Quantitative Analysis of school

records (enrolment)

Sample of Schools

Sample of Teachers

Sample of Households

Quantitative analysis of school

records (Attendance, Performance)

Quantitative Survey (Performance,

Attendance)

Quantitative Household Survey (KAP, Assets, etc)

In-depth Interviews with Headmasters – School governance,

language

In-depth Interviews with sample for

teachers

FGD with households – perceptions,

practices, KII with Traditional Leaders

Sample of Girls

Quantitative Analysis of EGRA + EGMA test scores;

YLI and GEI

Focus Group Discussion with Boys

and Girls

Multiple Layers of Analysis

Enrolment (94%)

Attendance (96%)

Workload (45% > 4 chores)

Migration (7%)

Gender Equity + Chores

Violence / Safety

Youth Healthy Behaviour +

Pregancy

Youth Leadership

Infrastructure

Performance

Attendance

Enrolment

Trends in retention, attendance

Challenges faced by girl child

Quality of education

Drivers of drop-out & non-attendance

Remittances from children

under 16

Reasons for drop out

Caregiver Survey

Girl Child Survey

Focus Group

Discussion

Key Informant Interviews

Schools Survey

EGRA & EGMA

Poverty

OOS (13%)

Proportional Pilling on Income &

Expenditure

Perceptions and value for

education

Triangulation Illuminatio

nInformation Validation

Analysis of enrolment findings

Enrolment

90%

94%

EMIS

Out of school

10%

6%

EMIS

Add

Migration

6% 7%

Caregiver

Net

Out of School

12%

13%

Report

Reas

ons

FGDs reported several cases of children

being pressured by caregivers and

parents to migrate and support their families through

remittances

Poverty

65% of the 10% of total girls who

migrated were out of school.

41%

59%

Girls Survey

Overage

Girls’ enrolment rates

start decreasing at ages

11-12 and at 15 years of

age, they are at 83%

+

FGDs overwhelmingly

reported migration as a phenomenon affecting boys more than girls

BGA, IKS and School Surveys Apostolic sect (Johanne Marange) as endorsing child marriage and being more reluctant to send girls to school, but these opinions are not borne out by the quantitative data. Similar indications were obtained through participants in FGDs at the Gender Analysis and Indigenous Knowledge Study.

Early Child Marriage

DHS

201

2

The DHS 2012 indicates a high prevalence of pregnancy among 15-19 year olds in targeted areas, ranging from 17.6% in Masvingo to 24% in Matabeleland North.

FGDs - Caregivers Qualitative information indicates high occurrence of early marriage, particularly among specific religious groups, such as the VaPostori. .

Girls Survey only 0.6% of the girl respondents declared to be married, and only 0.3% are or ever have been pregnant. .

Information on early marriage not fully disclosed by

caregivers/households.

Caregiver Survey

• The increase in absenteeism and workload through time (Figure 2) suggests that underlying gender norms related to adolescent girls play a strong role in the decision of missing school, and may ultimately lead to the decision of dropping out altogether..

Analysis of attendance findings

Indicator / Finding Quantitative Analysis

Qualitative Analysis

*Twelve percent of the girls age 13 and above missed months or years of schooling, compared to 5% of those age 10‐12.

*The difference in absenteeism among older and younger girls is much higher than the difference in the degree of absenteeism among girls living in households able to meet basic needs (93% attending school most of the time). Poverty plays a role in absenteeism.

*There is a negative correlation between distance to school and attendance rates. In the 90‐99% attendance bracket, only 29% of the girls walk more than 30 min to school, while 48% of those in the 70‐79% bracket walk 30 min or more.

     

Quantitative Data*An analysis of school records indicates high absenteeism rates, with 33% of the girls in the age range 13‐15 missing 10% or more of the school days; during Form 1, 38% of the girls missed 10% or more of the school year.*24% of the girls had 100% attendance.

Qualitative Data*Peer support emerges as a positive factor: 67% of the girls who have good friends at school were present for 80‐99% of the time, compared to 55% of those who have not.*Qualitative data suggests that absenteeism is mostly related to the inequitable distribution of the workload at home; beliefs associated to menstruation, as well as lack of menstrual pads and inadequacy of school toilets;

Learning Outcomes

• Learning outcomes are poor at all levels, with girls in Form 2 reaching an average score of less than 40% in reading comprehension questions about a short, basic paragraph;

• Reading fluency (number of words read per minute) increases through time, while reading comprehension remains poor; Note - girls were tested in English (the official language of instruction), the results suggests that this second language was not mastered by most of the girls assessed in this study.

• Predictors of poor learning included, being absent more than 20% of the time (strong predictor), teacher absenteeism, less qualified teacher, textbook sharing and surprisingly religion (belonging to traditional or Va Postori Sect).

• Indigenous Knowledge Study (IKS) highlighted the social importance of virginity in local cultures, and the taboos associated with sexual activity among unmarried girls. It is possible that caregivers’ responses in relation to violence are not accurate due to the sensitivity of the issues involved.

Gender Based Violence (GBV)

25% of the female students said that

there are things that are not good in school

17% reported being afraid some of the

time in school

13% of the girls age 12-15 do not feel safe in

their community

Issues related to violence and gender-based violence were

also scarcely mentioned by caregivers.

Caregivers - Only 5% indicated that girls had seen violence in school (against girls or boys).

Qualitative data indicates the occurrence of gender-based violence on the way to school and in school grounds.

Girls Survey

Household Chores (Attendance and Learning)

• The number of chores performed increases considerably with age: by the time girls are 15 years old, 45% of them are performing four or more chores.

• In contrast, qualitative data indicated that girls are spending a massive amount of time doing chores, and both the Gender Analysis and the Indigenous Knowledge Study highlighted the cultural importance of girls performing chores as a way of training them for marriage and childcare, and of building a sense of responsibility.

Analysis both quantitative and qualitative data indicate a strong gendered pattern in the division of work, with traditional cultures reinforcing the need to engage girls in chores as a part of their preparation for marriage.

Workload, Chores & Attendance for girls

Indicator / Finding Quantitative Analysis

Qualitative Analysis

Workload and Chores - Household chores and the girl’s age have an important negative effect on attendance: as girls become older, they perform more chores and attend school less often.*The number of chores performed increases dramatically with age: by the time girls are 15 years old, 45% of them are performing four or more chores.

*Only 41% of the girls age 15 attend school 90% or more of the time.*Most caregivers did not point out household chores as a factor affecting attendance or enrolment.

     

Quantitative Data*61% of the girls performing no chores attended more than 90% of the time; only 51% of the girls performing four types of chores attended more than 90% of the time.

Qualitative DataMost caregivers indicated that girls spend little time doing household chores;

Girls described a heavy schedule of chores which reduces their sleeping hours and affects their ability to pay attention at school.

Conclusion• In contrast with traditional randomised controlled trials, IGATE’s

baseline made a conscious investment in qualitative research along with the use of robust quantitative tools.

• Benefit from the combined expertise of consortium members in the form of various tools tailored for use with marginalised adolescents, assessing complex outcomes related to behaviour, leadership and social norms.

• The use of tools targeting various respondent groups through different methodologies, quantitative and qualitative, combined with an analysis framework that focussed on triangulation of results at multiple levels, resulted in the identification of varying perspectives about factors affecting girls’ enrolment, attendance, participation, performance and retention in school.

• Baseline results have shown relationships between education outcomes and social norms and family characteristics.