KENYA PRIMARY EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT (PRIEDE) PROJECT

Ruth Charo

March 5, 2020

Strengthening Schooling for Learning Brazil’s Experience

1. Human Capital Development: Why it Matters

2. Kenya’s Human Capital Development: The Role of Education.

3. Improving Kenya’s Human Capital: Schooling for Learning

Presentation Outline

Human Capital Development:

Why it Matters

TRAILER: ANNA’S STORY

ACTION

How much human capital will a child born today expectto attain by age 18, given the risks to poor health andpoor education that prevail in the country where s/helives?

Understanding the Human Capital IndexHuman Capital Index:

The Story

The HCI is made up of five indicators:• Survival to Age 5: Proportion of children expected to

survive until the age of 5.• Expected Years of School: Number of years of school

a child is expected to complete by the age of 18• Harmonized Test Scores: A metric that equates

results from international and regional tests tocompare learning outcomes around the world.

• Adult Survival Rate: Proportion of adults expected tosurvive until the age of 60.

• Healthy Growth: The proportion of children that arenot stunted.

SURVIVAL

Human Capital Index: Distance to Frontier

SCHOOL HEALTH HCI

x =x

Children who don’t

survive don’t grow

up to become

future workers

Frontier is 100 percent

survival to age 5

Contribution

of quality-adjusted

years of school to

productivity of

future workers

Frontier is 14 years of

school and 625 as

harmonized test score

Contribution

of health (adult

survival rate and

stunting) to

productivity of

future workers

Frontier is zero stunting

rate and 100 percent

survival of all adults to age

60

Productivity

of a future

worker

(relative to

benchmark of

complete

education and full

health)

INDIVIDUALSInvestment in human capital is

a dynamic process akin to investment in physical capital

ECONOMIESHuman capital is a key

ingredient for higher income and growth

SOCIETIESWell nourished and educated individuals participate more in society, foster trust, are more

politically aware.

Human Capital Matters For:

Kenya’s Human Capital

Development:

The role of Education

Human Capital Index: Africa & Kenya’s performance

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Kenya

HCI SCORE

HCI Score Kenya vs Benchmarks countriesA child born in Kenya today will be 52 percent as productivewhen she grows up as she could be if she enjoyed completeeducation and full health. This is because in Kenya:

• Survival to Age 5: 95 out of 100 children born survive to age 5.

• Expected Years of School: A child who starts school at age 4can expect to complete 10.7 years of school by her 18thbirthday.

• Harmonized Test Scores: Students in Kenya score 455 on ascale where 625 represents advanced attainment and 300represents minimum attainment. When adjusting schooling tolearning, Kenyan children can only expect to learn for theequivalent of 7.8 years.

• Adult Survival Rate: 79 percent of 15-year-olds will surviveuntil age 60.

• Healthy Growth: 26 percent of children are stunted and at riskof cognitive and physical limitations that can last a lifetime.

Human Capital Index: Kenya’s performance

• Kenya has made good progress in primary education completion and transition to secondary education.Primary Net Enrollment Rate (NER) was 91%in 2017. Transition from primary to secondary was 83% in2017, compared to 55% in 2009. Expected years in school for Kenya is 10.7 years.

• However, stark disparities exist along geographical area and income lines. These must be addressed. Forexample, secondary enrolment is less in some counties and more in others (awaiting 2017 and 2018statistical booklet) due to a lack of teachers and schools, and demand side constraints. Femaleparticipation in education continues to be a challenge in parts of the country

• Kenya has performed well compared to neighboring countries in learning outcomes (SACMEQ).However, regional disparities exist in the country and educational quality can be improved at all levels.Teacher proficiency tests show room for improvements in pedagogical and content knowledge

• Tertiary education and TVET do not meet the needs of industry, including research and development.There is a need to rationalize investments in tertiary education to focus on performance based financing;coverage and equity; quality and relevance of tertiary graduates; research and technology transfer output.

• Kenya is a young nation, with about 76 percent of its population younger than 34 years and 52 percentyounger than 19 years (*reconfirm with recent Census data).

Important Reflections

Improving Kenya’s Human Capital:

Schooling for Learning

**In past forums, we have shared lessons learned in improving learning outcomes from Shanghai China, and

Vietnam. Today, we focus on the State of Ceara in Brazil.

Why the State of Ceara, in Brazil?

1. Ceara is a role model in terms of education quality and efficiency. It has the 5th lowest GDP per capita

among the 27 Brazilian States, with a population of approximately 9 million.

2. Ceara has experienced the largest increase in the national education quality index (school learnings

scores and school progression rates) in both primary and lower secondary since 2005.

3. Ceara is highly efficient in the use of the limited resources to generate education outcomes. Ceara spends

less than a third of top States spenders in Brazil, and yet achieves higher national education quality

index compared to the richer States.

4. Ceara has 10 out of the top 20 municipalities in the education quality ranking for primary education and

the lowest learning poverty rates in Brazil (share of children who cannot read and understand a short

age-appropriate text by age 10).

5. Education outcomes for schools in Ceara are substantially higher than expected when considering

Ceara’s socioeconomic context.

Key Lessons and Reflections

1. Strong political leadership and a desire to improve outcomes are key ignitors of education reforms.

2. We must take the politics out of school and education policies to protect education staff/principals/

teachers from interference.

3. Education reforms and policy decisions must be informed by evidence/data. Data is currently showing

that students are not mastering essential competencies at the appropriate level.

4. Transparent and clear rules for incentives and technical support are critical aspects to allow a candid

dialogue with all education stakeholders.

5. Autonomy combined with results-based accountability is important for counties/sub counties to meet

local needs. This should be replicated at school level.

6. Improving education equity and quality is key to achieving inclusive growth and resiliency, particularly

for girls and women in disadvantaged areas.

Key Lessons and Reflections-Ceara

Having studied countries that have improved learning outcomes (with equity), we now know that the main

features of effective education reforms are:

• Strong political leadership;

• High quality technical assistance;

• Robust learning assessments;

• Effective teacher professional development (TDP);

• High quality teaching and learning materials;

• Aligning schools to focus on learning;

• Appropriate financial incentives;

• Appropriate autonomy; and

• A focus on equity.

Lessons From Ceara-How to Improve the System?

Strong political leadership

• Political commitment: improving education must be made a national priority. This requires detailed

planning, ongoing monitoring, and appropriate resourcing.

• Stakeholders alignment: the system delivers as ‘one’ with ‘one’ goal. All key players at all levels are

‘singing the same song’. The ‘harmony’ needs to be outstanding to lead to impressive results.

High quality technical assistance

• Improving pedagogy: Assistance must be provided to schools, and teachers to improve teaching practices.

Robust learning Assessments

• Regular student assessment: benchmarks of proficiency (very critic, critic, intermediate, and adequate)

must be defined, and learning assessments/evaluations conducted frequently (internal and external).

• Transparency: assessment results should be ‘fully’ disclosed to parents and students regardless of

findings.

• Informative evidence: assessment results should inform curriculum design and delivery, teaching

practices, school management, and student support (especially for low-performing students).

• Teacher knowledge: Teachers must understand what to assess, and the purpose of the assessments, and

use continuous assessments to inform remedial/areas of improvement in subsequent lessons.

Effective teacher professional development (TPD):

• In-service training: must have a clear objective, be focused on improving classroom practice and learning

outcomes, and be an integral part of the school’s daily timetable. Teachers should be allocated specific

time during the school hours for planning and pedagogy support.

• Assuring time to teach: emphasize efficient use of time in the school and classroom. School principals

needs to ensure that teachers and students are in class and ready to learn.

• Pedagogical support/coaching: support should include regular classroom observation and lesson plan

review before class. Teachers need regular feedback (based on data and evidence including assessments).

• Incentives: linked to improved student performance. May be public recognition or other incentives.

High quality teaching and learning materials

• Lesson plans: structured lesson plans/templates comprising competencies/skills to be taught,

methodology, and activities are required.

• Students’ learning materials: all learners need both learning and writing materials. Material sequencing

should be well-aligned with learning standards and targets, with teachers able to assess student learning.

• Curricula: must clearly state expected learning outcomes. Teacher training and teaching/learning

materials need to be aligned to curricula.

Aligning schools to focus on learning

• Meritocratic selection of principals: through a rigorous and transparent process that recognizes classroom

practice and leadership skills. Clarity on what is expected by a principal, including performance targets for

the schools and teacher management.

• Improve school leadership: may include putting in place minimum qualifications, preparing a ‘pipeline’ of

school leaders, certifying and ranking principals on core competencies and performance, ensuring

principals receive systematic training and development opportunities, developing a career pathway for

school leaders, and rotating principals from high performing schools to low performing schools.

• Principals as instructional leaders: Principals drive change at the school level. They must support teachers

and ensure learning is happening in classrooms.

• Pedagogical support: deploy a monitoring and coaching system that provides TPD and support to help

schools play their role. Pedagogical support to schools should be based on: i) the school’s

learning/performance goals; ii) action plans to achieve these goals and; and iii) performance monitoring.

• Supporting low performing schools: structured support for the lowest performing schools provided by

high performing schools-align incentives accordingly.

• Families and community engagement: the whole community is engaged in achieving the school’s learning

goals. Families support students at home, ensure students' participation, and engage in schools’ activities.

Appropriate financial incentives:

• Financial incentives to schools: need to consider sustainability, how schools are rewarded for achieving targets, and whether bonuses at the school level foster collaboration.

Appropriate autonomy-with accountability:

• School management of financial resources: can be used to promote efficiency gains at school and system level.

A focus on equity

• Explore programs to support equity: this might include transport, school feeding, school kits with

essentials, etc.

• Providing learning materials to students: including textbooks and workbooks/ stationery , school bags and

uniform (and school feeding), creates a homogenous environment at school, and promotes learning

particularly for needy/vulnerable learners.

“We believe that all children, regardless of their socioeconomic background, can learn, but some of them struggle with inadequate conditions to learn. We have been investing our resources for all

children of Sobral to able to read at the age of 6. There is no magic with what we have been doing” (Mayor of Sobral, State of Ceara,

Brazil).

Thank you

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