NOUAKCHOTT SUMMIT EDITION SA H E L E DUCAT I O N W H I T E PA P ER The Wealth of Today and PHOTO BY: ©OLIVER GIRARD/WORLD BANK Tomorrow OVERVIEW REPORT DECEMBER 2021 PHOTO BY: ©WORLD BANK 2   Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow Summit edition Acknowledgments The Sahel Education White Paper was prepared by a team led by Hamoud Abdel Wedoud Kamil (Se- nior Education Specialist, HAWE2), Melissa Ann Adelman (Senior Economist, HAWE2), and Halsey Rogers (Lead Economist, HEDDR). The core team consisted of Shyam Srinivasan (Young Profes- sional, HAWE2), Setou Diarra (Consultant, HAWE2), Fatim Lahonri Diabagate (Consultant, HAWE2), Mahugnon Stanislas Cedric Deguenonvo (Consultant, HAWE2), and Jason Allen Weaver (Senior Economist, HAWE2). The report was prepared under the overall guidance of Dena Ringold (Region- al Director, HAWDR) and Meskerem Mulatu (Practice Manager, HAWE2). Special thanks to Ous- mane Diagana (Vice President, AFWVP), Mamta Murthi (Vice President, GGHVP), Jaime Saavedra (Global Director, HEDDR), and Amit Dar (Regional Director, HAEDR) for their wisdom and guidance. The extended team included Nathan Belete, Clara Ana de Sousa, Elisabeth Huybens, Albert Zeu- fack, Jeffrey Waite, Amina Denboba, Assane Dieng, Stanislas Honkuy, Cristelle Kouamé, Boubakar Lompo, Pamela Mulet, Zacharie Ngueng, Harisoa Rasolonjatovo, Djiby Thiam, Rebekka Grun, Chris- tophe Rockmore, Waly Wane, Cristina Panasco Santos, Joëlle Dehasse, Maimouna Fam, Kofi Nou- vé, Rasit Pertev, Roya Vakil, Stephan Massing, Asbjorn Wee, Khadijetou Cissé, Thiane Dia, Seimane Diouf, Khady Fall Lo, Aissata Ngam, Bintou Sogodogo, Sidi Traoré, Enó Isong, Nayé Bathily, Christelle Chapoy, and Habibatou Gologo. The team thanks peer reviewers David Evans, Deon Filmer, Scherezad Latif, Christophe Lemiere, and Atou Seck for their careful review and suggestions. The team is also grateful for inputs and comments from Joao Pedro Azevedo, Dmitry Chugunov, Soukeyna Kane, Rebecca Lacroix, Sergio Venegas Marin, Marianne Joy Anacleto Vital, Yi Ning Wang, Quentin Wodon, and many other colleagues. The team benefited greatly from the guidance it received from an External Advisory Panel led by Mamadou Ndoye, Etienne Baranshamje, Alassane Diawara, and Therese Rukingama Niyonzima, with contributions from Birger Fredriksen. Panel members included Mahamane Tassiou Abouba- kar, Cissé Backary, Messaouda Min Baham, Moussa Kadam Djidengar Bassae, Karifa Bayo, Ngar- toide Blaise, Boubacar Bocoum, Amadou Diawara, El Khalil Ould Ennahoui, Mahamat Seid Farah, Ba Fatimata, Souleymane Goundiam, Madame Halimatou Hima, Kader Kaneye, Saadana Mint Khey- tour, Danda Laouali, Mahamat G. Louani, Baro Mamadou, Assétou Founé Samake Migan, Zeidane Mohamed, Perside Naimo Beguy Nguedah, Stanislas Ouaro, Afsata Pare, Kenekouo Dit Barthélémy Togo, Nebghouha Mint Mohamed Vall, and Maiguizo Rakiatou Zada. The team is also grateful to the many development partners whose views and inputs helped shape this White Paper, especially during the in-country consultations. Most importantly, the team thanks the dedicated colleagues from the governments of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger who participated in consultations and who are taking for- ward the mission of ensuring that all children and youth in the Sahel region have a brighter future. The team apologizes to any individuals or organizations inadvertently omitted from this list and ex- presses its gratitude to all who contributed to this White Paper, including those whose names may not appear here. Summit edition Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow   3 PHOTO BY: ©DORTE VERNER/WORLD BANK 4   Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow Summit edition Overview Report Nous savons ce que nous souhaitons : que tous les enfants aillent à l’école, que tous terminent leur éducation de base avec un socle commun, que leur éducation apporte des bénéfices individuels et collectifs, que l’apprentissage contribue à une masse critique capable de transformer l’économie…Toutes les mêmes questions se sont posées depuis l’Indépendance : accès, qualité, dualité du système - défis persistants - comment aller vers le changement en identifiant des points d’ancrage ? – Expert Panel Member, 2021 Good education for all is the key to a better long-term fu- a vision of change that is feasible in the next 3 to 5 years. To ture for the Sahel region. It can improve employability and ensure its relevance to this audience, the White Paper bene- incomes, narrow gender gaps, lift families out of poverty, fited from the guidance of an External Expert Advisory Panel strengthen institutions, and yield benefits that echo to the consisting of policymakers and other leaders in the field of next generation. And by enrolling millions more children in education and skills, as well as from numerous other con- school over the past two decades, the region has taken a sultations. Within the World Bank, the paper aims to provide first step toward this future. But the potential is still largely guidance to education staff and inform Country Manage- unfulfilled, because many children in the region remain out of ment Units on the main education priorities in the region. school, even at the primary level, and learning outcomes are While drawing on a lot of good analysis from the region, poor for the great majority of those who are enrolled. Condi- the White Paper adds value to that past work by combining tions outside the education sector are barriers to improve- breadth with focus. The breadth comes both in the system- ment, because the Sahel region faces a unique constellation wide diagnostic, which scans throughout the system, and in of challenges caused by widespread extreme poverty, pop- the regional focus, which identifies challenges common to ulation growth, conflict, and climate change. The COVID-19 the five Sahel countries. Breadth is necessary to avoid adopt- crisis has exacerbated the problem of poor education out- ing partial solutions that could fail for lack of complementa- comes by closing schools and worsening families’ financial ry reforms. But focus is necessary too, especially given the circumstances. scarce implementation capacity in the region. By identifying a limited set of targets and game-changers, the White Paper This Overview of the new White Paper on Sahel education helps countries to prioritize in a way that will allow progress offers a concise diagnosis of those challenges, together in the short to medium term. with strategies for overcoming them and unleashing the region’s potential. It focuses primarily on basic education, from preschool to lower secondary, because progress there The Sahel region’s future depends on is a necessary foundation for a thriving education system improving education outcomes and society. It documents the problems at school, system, and societal levels that prevent many children from being in Building the Sahel region’s human capital is fundamental school and learning. But it argues that there are short-term to its development. Education empowers people econom- responses and medium-term game-changers that could ically in the region, as it does globally: each additional year lead to substantial progress in the next 3 to 5 years—policies of schooling is associated with increases in earnings that that can begin to reduce learning poverty, expand girls’ ac- range from a low of 7 percent in Chad to a high of 15 percent cess to secondary schooling, and improve young adult litera- in Burkina Faso and Niger. These returns accrue despite the cy. For the longer term, it also lays out the many dimensions low quality of education, because workers with more than of system strengthening that are needed to sustain these a few years of education are in such short supply. For this medium-term gains. If the Sahel countries can use the fall- reason, education offers the surest route out of poverty for out from the COVID-driven school closures to focus attention individuals and their households.1 on the great needs in education, and thereby summon the societal commitment to make change happen, it will unlock Expanding education can also narrow gender gaps in new social and economic possibilities for the region. earnings. For the same amount of education, women have a higher rate of return than men across the Sahel region. Who is this report for, and why is it needed? The White Pa- Education matters especially for girls because of the link for per is, first, for policymakers, stakeholders, civil society, and development partners in the region: it offers them a clear understanding of challenges and possibilities, together with 1  For sources and references, please see the full report. Summit edition Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow   5 Overview Report girls between dropping out of school and marrying or having be translated into more action and better outcomes. Too children early. Each additional year of secondary education often, high-minded policies fail to overcome the barriers is associated with lower risks of marrying as a child and that block change—especially change to improve quality— having a child before age 18 by about 7 percentage points on throughout the system, so it is crucial to identify and lower average. those barriers. The rest of this White Paper first describes the outcomes that the region has achieved, and those it has The economic benefits of basic education and learning ac- failed to achieve, in improving access and quality. It diagno- crue to countries too, not just individuals. Over the past 60 ses the barriers to better outcomes and then discusses how years, the countries that have made the most dramatic, sus- the region can build on its high-level commitment to make tained escapes from low-income status fueled their launch real progress at ground level and thus claim the future. It with better schooling and learning outcomes—not for the proposes a set of focused and ambitious goals—in learning elite attending the best schools, but for all children. This is poverty, girls’ secondary education, and young adult litera- the pattern seen most notably in East Asia, from Japan in cy—combined with game-changer policies to achieve them the early modern era to Vietnam in recent decades, but ed- over the next few years. It closes by describing the long-term ucation is paying off in increased growth and productivity in system strengthening that will be necessary to sustain prog- other regions too. And within education, statistical analysis ress in these areas. shows that what matters most for economic growth is not the number of years that students spend in school, but the skills they acquire—learning, not just schooling. Where the region stands: Despite progress on enrollment, many Education strengthens societies in many other ways. It im- children are out of school and proves the human capital of the next generation: better-ed- learning levels in school are low ucated mothers have healthier, better-educated children. It improves the quality of government: better-educated teach- ers and health-care workers provide higher-quality services, Sahelian countries have nearly doubled enrollment in and service delivery is better in better-educated commu- primary education and tripled secondary education en- nities. And it can contribute to social cohesion and peace: rollments over the past 15 years. At the primary level, the wealth built on human capital is less likely to spark conflict number of students enrolled increased from 5.9 million to than natural-resource-based wealth, and more educated 10.8 million between 2005 and 2018; at the secondary level, people have more trust, tolerance, and civic engagement. enrollment rose from 1.4 million to 4.6 million. And as a result of the rapid growth in access, gross enrollment rates (GERs) For all these reasons, the future of the Sahel region de- increased across all levels of education in each of the five pends on better education outcomes and greater human countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger) capital. In the short run, many other tools can improve the between 2005 and 2018, with the exception of pre-primary lives of the people of the region—improvements in gover- education in Burkina Faso and Chad. nance, an end to conflict, increased agricultural productivity. But unless the region’s countries manage to nurture the cu- This increase in access to education represents tremen- riosity, creativity, and skills of their children and youth, none dous progress, and it will make a major difference in the of this is likely to be sustainable. lives of these millions of children. Children who enroll in and remain in school have far better employment prospects Today’s education systems, despite the efforts of many and better outcomes in many dimensions of their lives, as de- educators, are not yet achieving the outcomes the Sahel scribed below. needs. As the next section describes, the region has made real strides in improving access. Yet rapid population growth But universal access even to basic education remains a makes that progress much harder, and the quality of educa- challenge: rapid population growth has constrained the tion is too low to give children and youth the start they de- improvements in enrollment rates, and more than 40 per- serve in life. cent of the region’s primary-school-age children remain out of school (due to lack of enrollment, late enrollment, and Governments in the region have launched numerous ini- dropout). Even with the surge in numbers of students en- tiatives and announced high-level commitments that indi- rolled, the gross enrollment rate at the primary level of ed- cate a desire to take on this challenge; now, these need to ucation increased by only 10 percentage points on average, 6   Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow Summit edition Overview Report PHOTO BY: ©DORTE VERNER/WORLD BANK from 69 percent to 79 percent, from 2005 and 2018. At that from 2 to 10 percent. And although we lack comparable mea- pace of improvement, the region will not attain even the goal sures of learning at other levels of education, the shortage of universal primary enrollment until at least 2045. And the of skills of new labor-force entrants indicates that learning is average primary completion rate is only 61 percent, meaning not happening at the rate it should be. that nearly 2 of every 5 children fail to finish primary. Enroll- ment rates at other levels of education remain much lower. Unless the Sahel region can rapidly improve both access and quality, it will continue to suffer from low human cap- And those children who do attend school learn far too lit- ital for the next generation or longer. Between 56 percent tle, whether compared with global standards or with the (Mauritania) and 72 percent (Niger) of current working-age expectations embodied in the curriculum. The average rate adults have no education at all. The situation has improved of learning poverty in the region is 88 percent; this means with the gains in enrollment, but the need to improve quality that only 12 percent of children are in school and able to read and quantity is still urgent. and comprehend an age-appropriate passage by late prima- ry age. This learning poverty rate is high in all five countries, Children living in the Sahel countries complete far fewer ranging from 75 percent in Burkina Faso to 95 percent in years of education than their peers in other regions in the Mauritania. While the results on the 2019 PASEC internation- world; when we take quality into account, the discrepancy al assessment suggest there has been some improvement is even starker. On average, children in the Sahel countries over the past few years, learning indicators remain very low attend just 6.1 years of school, compared to a global average by international standards, and the progress will need to be of more than 11 years. However, when adjusted for learning, confirmed and sustained for many years to reach the basic these 6.1 years are reduced to the equivalent of 3.4 years of quality that all children should be guaranteed. high-quality schooling, compared to a global average of 7.8 years. A starker way of expressing this: it is as if the aver- The access and learning problems are magnified at other age child in the Sahel region received 3 years of Singapor- levels of education. Even in lower secondary, enrollment ean-quality education but then dropped out of school forever. rates do not exceed 56 percent anywhere in the region, and the rate is just 33-34 percent in Chad and Niger. Rates of en- The long-term result is lower productivity and slower rollment in pre-primary and tertiary are much lower, ranging development, because working-age adults, particularly Summit edition Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow   7 Overview Report women, lack basic literacy and numeracy skills. Despite girls (boys) from the bottom wealth quintile of households, improvements among the younger cohorts, levels of ed- compared to well over 100 percent for both boys and girls ucation in the labor force remain extremely low by global from top quintile, urban households. This disparity is even standards. In every Sahel country, fewer than 50 percent of more extreme at higher levels of education: the upper sec- adult females are literate, compared to 59 percent on av- ondary GER is only 5 percent for the poorest rural girls, com- erage across Sub-Saharan Africa, and 80 percent across pared to 100 percent for top quintile, urban boys. Even when low- and middle-income countries globally. Because they enrolled, they suffer from the worst learning conditions and lack foundational skills, including literacy and numeracy, outcomes. For example, only about 20 percent of public pri- young adults find it harder to acquire other job-relevant mary schools in Niger had minimal infrastructure, compared and higher-order skills that they need for the labor market. to 80 percent of private schools, in the 2015 Service Delivery Across the five Sahel countries, an average of 31 percent of Indicators sample. firms report that an inadequately educated workforce is a major constraint to their business, compared to 16 per- Finally, the COVID19 pandemic has exacerbated all these cent on average across Sub-Saharan Africa. At the same challenges. School closures have been shorter than in some time, about 44 percent of youth across the five countries other regions, but the damage in terms of learning and ac- are neither in school nor working. Of these inactive youth, cess could still be substantial. Students lost between ¼ (in between 60 and 80 percent have had no formal schooling. Burkina Faso and Mali) and ½ (in Chad, Mauritania, and Ni- Two-thirds are female and, except in the case of Mauritania, ger) of the school year, and only a small share of students like- about 80 percent live in rural areas. ly benefited from remote learning during closures. Estimates show that without effective dropout prevention and learning All these problems are most severe for the poorest chil- remediation following students’ return to school, the learn- dren and youth—which is to say, those who most need ing-adjusted years of schooling (LAYS) in the Sahel countries a good education to have a chance in life. Children from could drop by 5 to 15 percent across the region. This is just a economically disadvantaged groups and rural areas are en- summary indicator, behind which lie many impacts of the dis- rolled at much lower rates than other children, at all levels of ruption on the learning and socioemotional wellbeing of chil- education. The primary GER is only 54 (58) percent for rural dren and youth. Beyond losing months of learning opportu- 8   Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow Summit edition Overview Report PHOTO BY: ©OLLIVIER GIRARD/WORLD BANK nities during the closures, children and youth (especially girls experience of the typical student, and then look outwards in and women) who have experienced these disruptions face a concentric circles at what the drivers of that learning expe- greater risk of dropout. The Sahel needs better monitoring of rience are, out to the system level. This perspective makes it actual learning losses and dropout to quantify these impacts, clear where barriers to good education must be lowered so but studies emerging from other parts of Africa confirm that that all children and youth can learn. Even before that, it is the pandemic has widened learning gaps for disadvantaged important to consider the challenging regional and societal students, such as those in rural areas. context in which all of this takes place. Society-wide conditions of fragility and conflict in the Sa- hel make these challenges harder to solve—but also raise Barriers outside education: poverty, the stakes for solving them. As discussed below, the Sahel demographics, conflict, and climate shocks region stands out for high rates of poverty and population growth, even compared with other parts of Sub-Saharan Af- Outside the education sector, the many dimensions of fra- rica. Conflict and climate change also weigh heavily on the gility and conflict exacerbate the education challenges, region. These conditions worsen access and learning. At the in ways that are uniquely challenging in the Sahel region. same time, education is the most effective remedy for these They increase the strains on households and educators, re- societal problems, so it is crucial to make progress on it. duce the resources available for education, and reduce the efficiency of spending by creating more obstacles to school- ing and learning that the education system must overcome. So why aren’t more children in school and learning? • Extreme poverty limits public and private resourc- es to invest: Four of the five Sahel countries are in the To map out the most effective strategies for improving bottom quintile of countries globally in terms of GDP access with learning, it’s crucial to understand what’s per capita, and in the top quintile in terms of popula- holding education back. Within the education system, the tion share living in extreme poverty. Parents have lim- best way to do this is to start by focusing in on the learning ited human capital themselves and struggle with live- Summit edition Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow   9 Overview Report lihoods, yet they shoulder the burden of about 1/3 of meaning that they are not yet realizing the demographic div- education spending—far more than in rich countries, idend. Finally, temperatures in the Sahel are expected to rise where the share is around 10 percent. 1.5 times faster than the global average, posing even greater • Rapid population growth forces systems to sprint challenges for the semi-arid subregion. just to stay in place: The region has the highest fertility rates in the world. Sahel countries are adding nearly 1 These societal problems should not induce fatalism, but million school-age children per year. Even well-man- they do accentuate the need for a whole-of-society com- aged, well-resourced systems would struggle to ab- mitment to education. Even with these broader problems, sorb such rapid growth smoothly, but in the Sahel, the there is much that could be done to improve education (and systems are failing to provide adequate education to thereby help address the societal problems) by strength- more than a small share of today’s much smaller co- ening systems and focusing on key proximate drivers of ac- horts. The rapid population growth puts even more cess and learning. At the same time, education will be bet- strain on quality, because it requires systems to hire ter able to thrive when society is thriving—when children, large numbers of teachers, many of them without the families, and educators can live without the constant threat necessary qualifications or skills. of extreme poverty, armed conflict, and extreme climate • Conflict disrupts and directly attacks education: All events. of the Sahel countries except Mauritania suffer from elevated levels of conflict. Continued attacks by violent extremist groups cause trauma, forced displacement, Proximate causes: Gaps in all the and food insecurity. Schools, teachers, and students school-level drivers of learning are sometimes directly targeted. Between April 2017 and December 2019, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger With this societal perspective as context, it is important witnessed a six-fold increase in school closures due to to focus in on the proximate causes of poor learning and violence. access—the barriers in schools and communities that di- • Climate shocks worsen all these problems: The in- rectly constrain children’s education outcomes: creased frequency and severity of climactic shocks threaten livelihoods, force households into hu- • Learners: Poverty, a lack of early childhood develop- man-capital-reducing coping strategies, and exacer- ment, and social norms leave many children unpre- bate conflict. pared for learning or out of school, trapping them in an intergenerational cycle of low human capital. All of this has increased demands on the education sys- Education starts with the learner, yet too many chil- tem, and those demands have increased further with dren in the Sahel lack the nutrition, health care, early COVID-19. Society-wide problems have led to high levels of stimulation, and support necessary for them to ben- migration and forcibly displaced peoples, together with mas- efit fully from schooling. Stunting rates for children sive urban-rural disparities and constant exposure to shocks. under the age of five reach 48 percent in Niger and The latest of these major shocks is the pandemic. Beyond the 40 percent in Chad, and they are quite high in the direct impacts of the school closures, COVID-19 has led to the other countries, at around 25 percent. Children are first Sub-Saharan African recession in 25 years, which will not getting the cognitive and socioemotional stimu- increase budget pressures and could push millions of people lation they need in preschool years either; even with in the Sahel into extreme poverty. recent growth, enrollment rates for pre-primary are just 2 to 10 percent around the region. Social norms Other West and Central African countries face these chal- are another barrier: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, and lenges too, but the problems are especially acute in the Niger are all among the 10 countries globally with Sahel. Four of the subregion’s five countries (Burkina Faso, the highest rates of child marriage, and many girls Chad, Mali, and Niger) are among the 10 poorest and least are forced to drop out of secondary school. Surveys urbanized countries in West and Central Africa, with undi- show that pregnancy and marriage are cited as the versified economies reliant on agriculture and commodity top reasons for female dropout. And conditions in exports. They also account for four of the seven countries in school, such as violence or a lack of bathrooms for the region that are classified as having relatively high levels girls, can cause children to drop out even before they of conflict. And all five countries are among the 10 countries reach that point. For all these reasons, lowering the in the region whose populations are growing most rapidly, barriers to schooling and learning will require con- 10   Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow Summit edition Overview Report PHOTO BY: ©OLLIVIER GIRARD/WORLD BANK certed action outside the education system as well small pools of educated adults to draw on, pre-service as within it. and in-service teacher education that is not practical, • Teaching: Shortages in both quantity and quality of and lack of supervision, evaluation, and feedback for teaching make time in school less productive for chil- teachers. dren. The Sahel countries face a shortage of teach- • Learning resources: Inadequate learning resources, ers, with among the highest student-teacher ratios including curricula, hold back both teachers and stu- in the world, ranging from 34 in Mauritania to 57 in dents. In many cases, students lack access even to text- Chad. High rates of teacher absence compound the books. Visits to representative samples of classrooms problem, with about 27 percent of teachers absent in Mauritania found that only 1 in 6 primary students from their classrooms during unannounced visits by had a textbook for the class observed; the situation in Service Delivery Indicator (SDI) survey teams in two Niger was even worse, at 1 in 11 students. Another bar- of the countries. Lack of availability of teachers is es- rier is the language of instruction: in most of the Sahel pecially high in rural areas. Even when teachers are countries, most students enter school with little to no available, lack of preparation reduces teaching qual- knowledge of French or Arabic, yet their progress in ity. Rapid expansion of education systems has led to school depends on familiarity with the language of the hiring of contract teachers, who are typically less instruction. Inappropriate curricula are also a major qualified and typically have less content and peda- barrier. Curricula typically have too many different ob- gogical knowledge. But the problem of inadequate jectives, distracting educators from the core responsi- teacher skills extends to civil-servant teachers as well. bility of ensuring that all children master foundational In both Mauritania and Niger, none of the thousands skills. Curricula are often also outdated, especially in of teachers tested reached the minimum benchmark STEM subjects, and they fail to give students skills that for competency in both French and mathematics, as employers are looking for. the SDI showed. These deficiencies can be explained • School: School infrastructure is inaccessible and inad- by structural factors that are hard to change quickly— equate. There are too few schools, especially in rural Summit edition Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow   11 Overview Report areas and at a secondary level. The most acute chal- Education systems do not provide the assessment, curric- lenge is in Chad, where lack of an accessible primary ula, and other support that schools need to ensure that all or lower secondary school is the top reason for 35-45 children are learning. On student assessment, while some percent of girls and boys not being enrolled. Through- countries have participated in international assessments, out the Sahel, rapid population growth will increase they lack the national and classroom assessments necessary the strains on school availability. And schools already to highlight learning gaps and inform support to students. struggle with widespread infrastructure shortages: for Curricula are outdated, poorly connected across levels, and example, 80 percent of public schools in Niger and 95 overly ambitious, and the difficulties are compounded by percent in Mauritania lack even the minimal infrastruc- language-of-instruction policies that force children to try to ture of having both clean, functional toilets and class- learn to read in a language they do not understand. Human rooms with enough light to read by. Beyond physical resource management systems fail to get teachers—and es- infrastructure, schools are in many cases not provid- pecially stronger teachers—posted to the rural communities ing safe and supportive environments for learning; for where they are most needed. example, a large share of primary teachers (ranging from 25 percent in Burkina Faso to 72 percent in Chad) What exacerbates many of these challenges is the low lev- self-report using corporal punishment on students. el of financing going to education, including primary edu- cation, in most of the Sahel countries. By global standards, most countries in the region spend little on education—not System-level barriers: low capacity, just in absolute terms, but even relative to their low incomes. incoherence, and inadequate financing Despite some increase over the past decade, public expen- ditures on education are only about 3 percent of GDP in But these proximate causes of poor outcomes don’t exist the region, well below the Sub-Saharan Africa average of 4 in a vacuum. Access and learning fall short in schools and percent and the international aspirational benchmark of 6 classrooms largely because education systems function percent of GDP (Figure 1). Most countries spend less than 50 poorly, and also because broader societal problems exac- percent of the total on primary education, which is likely a erbate the weaknesses within education. To ensure that all problem, given that learning at all higher levels of education children are in school and learning, countries will need to depends on foundations that students acquire in primary tackle these broader problems. school. Only Burkina Faso is close to the benchmarks, with Figure 1: Revenue mobilization and share of budget devoted to education are low in 4 of 5 Sahel countries (Education as a share of total government budget and government spending as a share of GDP in low and lower middle-income countries (%), 2017-19) 25 TZA Combinations equal to public education spending of 6% of GDP TGO BFA KEN 20 BEN BDI Education as share of budget (%) STP MDG MOZ KGZ NPL COM HTI 15 TCD NER MLI MWI COD GIN TJK UGA PAK RWA AFG BGD GNB GMB 10 MRT KHM LBR CAF Low & lower middle income average 5 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 Government spending as share of GDP (%) Source: World Bank calculations based on World Development Indicators, UIS and IMF Note: BFA=Burkina Faso; MLI=Mali; MRT=Mauritania; NER=Niger; TCD=Chad. 12   Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow Summit edition Overview Report Figure 2: The Sahel countries get fewer A final exacerbating factor is a lack of real political com- learning-adjusted years of schooling than mitment—expressed in actions throughout the system— expected for their spending to ensuring that all children and youth learn. One reason (Learning-adjusted years of schooling compared for the low levels of expenditure and inefficiency is likely that with spending per child, 2019) political attention in the region focuses more on strength- 10 ening elite education than ensuring that all children are in school and learning, and the political economy reinforces a ALB sub-par quality of schooling. Another likely factor is the rapid HCI Learning Adjusted Years of Schooling (LAYS) ECU MEX PER COL turnover of education ministers and other senior staff at the LKA LCA MDA GRN IRN 8 DMA ministries, which makes sustained commitment to equity- SLV JOR VCT WSM and quality-focused reforms almost impossible. Beyond that, JAM even where there are signals from the top that learning for EGY DOM LMO GTS all children and youth is a top priority, this rhetorical commit- 6 ZAF ment is often not internalized by education ministry staff, and MWI AFG so is not reflected in their day-to-day decisions. SLE CIV BFA MRT 4 RWA This situation must improve—and it can TCD NER MLI The problems laid out here will not be fully resolved easily 2 or quickly. They are the product of many years of poverty, 0 1000 2000 3000 conflict, poor management, and a lack of political will. Re- Spending per child, const 2017 PPP$ versing them will take a similarly long-term sustained ap- Source: Authors’ calculations; data from World Bank Education Finance Watch da- proach, with domestic leadership and commitment accom- tabase panied by international support. Despite these challenges, there are many reasons for education spending at over 4 percent of GDP and 60 percent hope. First, there have been positive developments in the re- of the total going to primary education. The rest of the re- gion that lay the foundation for rapid action and sustained gion likely needs to invest much more. Financing alone will progress. The progress in improving enrollment has been not solve these problems, but especially with rapidly growing encouraging, and there are other examples of how the Sahel populations, money will be needed to support the reforms countries are working around limitations posed by inade- that could address the schooling and learning crisis in the quate national education systems: region. • Communities are playing a key role in creating and Moreover, this limited budget is spent inefficiently, so that improving schools. Communities across Sahel coun- its impact is much less than it could be. The many problems tries have a history of organizing and opening schools described above mean that what is spent on schools, mate- where government services do not exist. In Chad, 39 rials, technology, and teachers does not translate efficient- percent of primary schools (accounting for 27 percent ly into better education outcomes. Lack of resources does of the system’s students and teachers) are community not fully explain the litany of problems listed above. True, it schools. Community management of school construc- is hard to guarantee a first-rate education on a shoestring. tion is the most cost-effective and efficient approach to But at any given level of income and financing for education, expand or upgrade school infrastructure, with success- different countries attain very different outcomes in terms es in Mauritania (Ministry of Education to parents’ asso- of schooling and learning. One way to see this is to compare ciations), Mali (community-driven development projects the learning-adjusted years of schooling (LAYS) achieved by through social fund), and across Sub-Saharan Africa. each country with its per-child public spending on education Community involvement can also strengthen the quality (Figure 2). In all the Sahel countries, with the possible excep- of services and improve learning: School Management tion of Burkina Faso, the LAYS are lower than expected for Committees in Niger were supported to organize simple the countries’ levels of education spending, as illustrated by learning assessments and remedial extracurricular ac- the fact that they lie well below other countries in the figure. tivities, which significantly improved student math skills. Summit edition Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow   13 Overview Report PHOTO BY: ©DORTE VERNER/WORLD BANK • Public-private partnerships can extend the reach of gram (SASPP). And at the tertiary level, the World Bank the state. Religious and secular private providers are Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence (ACE) expanding quickly in certain contexts: in Mali, where program was implemented successfully, with a very the secondary GER has grown by 2.5 times since positive experience in Burkina Faso that also benefited 2000, 80 percent of general secondary schools are trainees and students from Mali and Niger. private, and private schools also growing quickly in Mauritania, reaching 50 percent of enrollments in Moreover, the current moment offers real opportunity the capital. But well-targeted financing and perfor- to make change happen. Although the pandemic has ex- mance management are needed to ensure that this acerbated the education challenges, the Sahel countries growth contributes to real opportunity and equity. Is- can also use it as a chance to accelerate progress. With lamic schools have a long tradition in the Sahel, and the school closures, the immediate threats to access and formally recognized ones have grown in recent years. learning will have become salient to everyone, not just to Many out-of-school children and youth (23 percent in education experts. This awareness could increase societal Mali, 26 percent in Niger, and 41 percent in Chad) also willingness to do what it takes to invest in this generation participate in informal Koranic schools. In such cases, of children. And because some of the best interventions for experiences in Senegal and Niger suggest a path for learning recovery are also those that will strengthen educa- incorporating academic subjects and giving formal tion over the longer term, the Sahel countries could ride the recognition to schools. momentum from better policies today to stronger systems • Regional cooperation can support countries on com- tomorrow. mon problems. One example is the Alliance Sahel, which coordinates development partners’ efforts Most importantly, there are policies and programs that around six priority areas, including education and could be game-changers for schooling and learning in the training. There are also successful World Bank Sahel short to medium term. If implemented quickly, these inter- regional projects under implementation that tackle ventions could make a substantial difference in the next 3 to shared human capital challenges, including the Sahel 5 years and could sow the seeds for a longer-term flourish- Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend ing of the education system. They are not miracle cures; they (SWEDD) and Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Pro- will require true political commitment and good technical 14   Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow Summit edition Overview Report Strategic approach to education in the Sahel STRATEGIC APPROACH TO EDUCATION IN THE SAHEL Today 2025 2030 Game-changers for quick progress and building momentum Support a resilient recovery by advancing on critial education goals by 2025 Medium-term policies and investments for sustainability Invest in system strengthening for continued progress for 2030 and beyond Basis for interventions: • Scale what works, focus on highest priorities for equitable growth • Informed by global evidence, regional experiences, and most promising old and new technology design, as well as increased financing in some cases. But 2. Increase girls’ education, to break the intergenera- they can yield noticeable improvements in outcomes. tional cycle of low human capital These game-changers need to be combined with policies • 2025 target: Increase girls’ secondary gross en- for long-term system strengthening. Such policies will take rollment rate (GER) by 12 percentage points, from longer to bear fruit, which is why it is crucial to put them in 31 percent to 43 percent place now. But paired with the game-changers, they can lead • 2030 target: Increase girls’ secondary GER to 52 to sustained improvements in education outcomes, both in percent the next few years and in the decades to come. • Impact by 2030: Total of 3.3 million girls in secondary school, or an additional 2.0 million girls Targets to focus these efforts 3. Raise the young adult literacy rate, with a focus on young women, to improve labor force productivity and To keep its efforts focused on the most pressing challeng- foster empowerment by complementing job-focused es, the Bank’s strategy in the Sahel will be guided by three skills training targets. There are many needs throughout the education systems of these five countries, and the Bank will continue to • 2025 target: Raise the young adult literacy rate by provide support where they request it. But to have an impact 9 percentage points, from 51 percent to 60 percent will require greater focus on the most fundamental need: • 2030 target: Raise the young adult literacy rate to ensuring that children, youth, and young adults—especially 68 percent women and girls—develop the foundational skills they need • Impact by 2030: Total of 26.5 million literate young for life and work. Setting these targets will sharpen that fo- adults, of which 11.8 million are female; this will be cus operationally. Accordingly, the three targets proposed an additional 13.4 million young adults, of which 6.5 for the Sahel region are: million are female 1. Cut learning poverty, as a necessary condition for These targets aim to be ambitious stretch targets, but sustainable growth and development grounded in the region’s experience. They are based on recent trends in the subregion, with some adjustment for • 2025 target: Reduce learning poverty rate by 9 per- the expected worsening of outcomes in 2020-21 due to the centage points, from 88 percent to 79 percent COVID-19 pandemic. The growth rate underlying each target • 2030 target: Reduce learning poverty rate to 67 per- is the average performance of the better performers in the cent Sahel region on that target over the previous 5 years. In es- • Impact by 2030: Total of 13.8 million children in sence, each target asks what can be achieved if the region school and able to read, or an additional 10.2 mil- as a whole can progress as rapidly as the top regional per- lion children formers have. Summit edition Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow   15 Overview Report Short-term: Building commitment over the next year or two, then when they set out to tackle the and implementing game-changers problems that already existed before COVID-19, they will find that can make a difference in the themselves having to climb out of a much deeper hole. Key next 3 to 5 years policies for doing this are: • Tracking which students have not returned to school The first step toward achieving these ambitious goals is to and devising outreach measures targeted at groups build political commitment. Commitment should start from that are at greatest risk the top, with clear signals from senior political leaders that • Equipping teachers to do basic assessments of stu- real education for all—meaning schooling with learning—is a dents’ learning levels, to shine a light on learning losses top priority. After that, the challenge is converting rhetorical • Giving teachers the pedagogical tools and learning commitment into the kind of commitment that shows up in materials needed to recover foundational skills decisions and actions throughout the system. To make it ac- tionable, experience suggests the commitment needs to be Speed is essential for these measures, to prevent longer-term concrete, not general, for example by focusing attention on scarring. Evidence from past school closures, notably from the goal of all children in safe schools and reading by grade Pakistan, shows that learning gaps can continue to grow af- 4. Societal commitment requires that stakeholders be able ter school reopening if they are not remediated quickly. to understand the objective. These signals will be most pow- erful if they come not just from the minister of education, but This approach can turn the “building back better” slogan from the president or prime minister as well, with clear sup- into reality. There has been a lot of talk since the pandem- port from the ministry of finance.. ic hit about “building back better” or “rebuilding better.” This can be more than a slogan: many of these policies designed At the same time, this top-down commitment should be to reverse learning losses are also those that can strengthen accompanied by bottom-up support from communities. student outcomes over the longer term, if they are sustained. Catalyzing this requires engaging communities with mes- Recovery and system strengthening are not two separate sages about how the government is improving education activities to be implemented in sequence; they are intimately and holding itself accountable for all children learning. In- related, and the former, if well designed, can contribute to the volving communities in the management of schools can latter. also help, by giving parents and other community members a greater stake in the success of the reforms. This is a lon- Building on these immediate measures, a set of game-chang- ger-term objective (see below), but it can start during the ers can deliver substantial progress over the short term— initial campaign to signal commitment. Such measures are that is, the next 3 to 5 years. Once leadership has signaled its mutually reinforcing with the game-changers described in commitment in the short term, both rhetorically and with im- the next section: to inspire community involvement, govern- mediate post-COVID response, that signal can create a climate ments need also to show that they can deliver results quickly for medium-term policies to deliver results over the next 3 to 5 in priority areas. years. These game-changers include interventions aimed at each of the three targets, as well as an overall game-changer This combination of top-down and bottom-up political that is essential to support all the others. commitment can begin to build accountability for results. It has the best chance of shifting the political economy calcu- lations of key actors and orienting the system toward better Game-changers for reducing learning education and learning. This can support the longer-term poverty goal of improving the professionalism of teachers and prin- cipals, but it also increases the accountability of political Reducing learning poverty in the next 3-5 years will leaders and of society in general, which is crucial. require immediate and concerted action on 3 major fronts—improving early childhood development, efficiently Then, in the short term—especially over the next year—it expanding access to decent primary school, and improving is critical to use this political commitment to reverse the the effectiveness of early grade teaching. To make a differ- impacts of the COVID-19 school closures. Learning loss- ence quickly in each of these areas, it will be important to es and increased dropout risk reversing years of progress. track progress against measurable goals in such areas as Unless the Sahel countries focus on minimizing those costs children’s cognitive and physical development and teach- 16   Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow Summit edition Overview Report Improve Early Childhood Development What Why How Goals Provide more extreme poor Caregiver practices critical to young Coordinate with Sahel Adaptive parents with support and children’s development; combining Social Protection Program to resources for care, nutrition, & knowledge + funds + materials may provide training & storybooks stimulation be especially effective (Read@Home) Widely disseminate information Knowledge as an important Radio programming to directly on effective parenting practices factor that can be addressed at engage parents in local languages scale at relatively low cost Young children with measurably be er physical and cognitive development… Prioritize maternal & child health Removal of supply-side constraints Financial commitments & strategies as critical investments for future to child development—e.g., to eliminate malnutrition, drastically …Who are ready to enter primary school on human capital through access to water and reduce mortality time (at age 6) and learn sanitation, and health services ing practices in classrooms. The figures below summarize • Efficiently expand access to decent primary school concisely the rationales for and elements of each of these by funding communities and integrating informal game-changers: schools: Children cannot learn if they are not in school, so a top priority must be to get all children in school, • Improve early childhood development by sup- while at the same time improving quality to give their porting families through safety net programs and families a better reason to keep them in school. One parenting interventions: Improved ECD support for promising mechanism for increasing access quickly is households can translate quickly into a better start in to rely more heavily on community-managed schools; primary school for children, one that could show up community management can increase accountability quickly in better acquisition of foundational cognitive for results in the system while expanding access. A sec- and socioemotional skills. Interventions to support ond is to integrate informal Koranic schools into the sys- early stimulation through parenting education and tem in a way that ensures quality. Governments can do provision of appropriate learning materials are a key this by recognizing Koranic schools and bringing them element of this approach. In addition, to improve the under a formal regulatory umbrella, and they can con- health and nutritional status of young children, gov- sider supporting such schools via performance-based ernments can support parents through programs contracting, sequencing these policy changes in a way like the Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program. that ensures a solid foundation of mutual trust. Developing the whole child will require coordinated • Improve effectiveness of early-grade teaching by efforts with other sectors, for example with ministries providing structured support to teachers, paired of water and health, but it is essential for improving with better learning materials, curriculum, and tech- outcomes, especially for the most vulnerable children. nology: Improving foundational teaching and learning Efficiently Expand Access to Decent Primary School What Why How Goals Expand public primary Evidence from across low-income Start/expand financing through school access through countries that community-managed social funds, parent associations, communities construction and community-run and other mechanisms for local schools are cost-effective way to communities to manage expand rural access construction & operations of schools Integrate informal Koranic Global experiences (Bangladesh, First, recognize schools & build Increased primary school participation rates schools into the system Indonesia) show that religious shared vision; gather data, in rural areas through performance-based schools can be successfully develop requirements, and contracting integrated and newer programs rigorously pilot programs More schools meeting minimum standards (Senegal, Niger) provide relevant (infrastructure, student-teacher ratios) context Summit edition Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow   17 Overview Report Efficiently Expand Access to Decent Primary School What Why How Goals Focus on early grade Global evidence shows that -Scripted lessons and guidance for teachingof literacy, literacy is foundational for teaching large, multigrade classes with adaptations for all other skills –not learning rural and urban to read is a recipe for -Practical, regular coaching realities failure through technology –partner w/ Digital Development -Quality textbooks and reading Grades 1-3: teachers utilizing more effective materials practices, students with relevant materials, more time in class -Increased class time for learning to read By end of grade 3: more students learning how to read in the early grades is essential, both to improve overall ing equity. Reducing learning poverty will have ripple effects outcomes and to give the most disadvantaged chil- in secondary schooling and beyond, as girls (and boys) prog- dren a chance in life. There are proven approaches ress through the levels of education with better skills and for building foundational skills quickly, even in low-ca- more confidence in their abilities. But there is also much that pacity systems, such as providing scripted lessons and can be done in the short term to lower other barriers to the practical guidance for teachers and streamlining the secondary schooling of girls. curriculum to devote more time to foundational liter- acy. Technological interventions—for example, deliv- On the demand side, game-changer interventions for ering coaching to teachers via mobile phones—can achieving this goal include: support these evidence-based interventions. Finally, because these programs will be effective only if teach- • Scholarships to pay for direct and indirect school ers are in the classroom teaching, policymakers will costs as well as incentivize participation need to take steps immediately to support the profes- • Empowerment training in safe spaces to help girls de- sionalism of current teachers, through both providing velop key life skills better support and requiring more accountability, even • Behavior-change campaigns for parents, teachers, as they start the longer-term task of making teaching a and community leaders more merit-based, skilled, and valued profession. • Reforms to support delaying marriage and providing access to schooling for married girls In each of these areas—and the ones that follow— game-changers need to fit the region’s fragile and con- On the supply side, interventions include: flict-affected context. For example, the reliance on communi- ties and informal schools for school management and supply • Public-private partnerships (PPPs) with perfor- is a response to fragility, aiming to compensate for weak state mance-based financing to expand supply of second- capacity that prevents the government from reaching all chil- ary schools that meet needs of girls (e.g., with appro- dren. At the same time, in areas characterized by higher in- priate sanitary facilities) security, community cohesion and capacity can be especially • Innovations to improve schooling quality and thereby low, limiting the effectiveness of this approach and requiring keep girls in school, such as pedagogical improve- more direct support from the state or other actors. ments and adaptive learning software to effectively meet students where they are and allow them to make rapid learning gains Game-changers for increasing girls’ secondary education How can these interventions be put in place quickly? By combining proven approaches with new initiatives: Another urgent priority is increasing rates of secondary education for girls, which is key to breaking the intergen- • Continue scaling up the most effective activities in erational cycle of low human capital and thereby increas- SWEDD 18   Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow Summit edition Overview Report What and How: Large-scale adult literacy programs that… Target young adults, especially young women Why Are appropriately tailored: lift young adults from illiteracy to emerging literacy to functional literacy Under 50% of female adults are literate (as low as 13% in Chad) -limits life outcomes, Goals Leverage mobile phones as motivation for learning and to undermines skills training, constrains growth complement instructors Increase functional literacy rates among young adults (age 15–34), especially Small but promising body of evidence on how Coordinate closely with safety nets as productive inclusion young women to effectively teach adults to read, including platforms and other sectors offering training programs from Niger and Burkina Faso. (e.g., agriculture, entrepreneurship) • Develop public-private partnerships to incentivize cre- households learn to read. Success in adult literacy programs ation of new secondary schools where they are most will depend on learning from the small but promising body of needed, coupled with scholarship programs and on- evidence in this area, including innovative programs that lever- going financing flows to families age technology to reinforce literacy instruction. One tool for • Equip lower secondary classes with tested software doing this is to coordinate with safety net programs, catering for rapid remediation and learning acceleration to the needs of adult learners by coordinating with platforms and training programs in other fields like entrepreneurship. These first two sets of game-changers are particularly cru- cial for recovery from COVID-19 closures. Over 500,000 children and youth across the Sahel are estimated to have M&E: A game-changer to support all dropped out due to COVID-19 school closures, and uncer- the others tainty remains over evolution of the pandemic as well as its economic impacts. Focusing on expanding access in primary, In addition, there is a meta-game-changer that will make improving teaching quality, and supporting girls will mitigate it possible for these others to succeed: better monitoring these negative impacts and help the sector to rebound quickly. and evaluation. This is necessary both to implement the game-changers and to learn what is working. For example, structured support to teachers relies on frequent feedback Game-changers for increasing young on student learning from well-designed learning assess- adult literacy ments. And while we know the basics of how to teach early lit- eracy, good evaluation can help in adapting those approach- A third set of game-changers targets improvements in es to make them as effective as possible in the Sahel context. adult literacy where they can have the most impact. This Similarly, keeping girls in secondary school requires systems means starting with young adults, and especially young wom- for tracking attendance and learning systematically, given en—those who can benefit the most over the course of their that frequent absence and low marks are early-warning sig- working lives and who will most need to help children in their nals for dropout. Indeed, a review of all the game-changers What Why How Monitor dropout risk To prevent increased dropout as a result of the New early-warning systems using simple predictors pandemic (like a endance and grades) to flag students most at risk of dropout for targeted support Regularly assess student learning To identify learning losses during pandemic and Simple assessment tools for teachers to use in prevent gaps from sidening formative classroom assessments, plus sample-based systemwide assessments to guide policy Evaluate impacts of major game-changer initiatives To allow course correction shere interventions aren’t Rapid evaluation of program impacts on key pathways, sworking (especially necessary in adult literacy plus longer-term evaluation on outcomes programs, where less is known) Summit edition Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow   19 Overview Report above will show that each one depends on good data and the more years to benefit from the foundational and job-focused ability to interpret it. The key is to build feedback loops into skills they acquire and may also find it easier to learn. the most important game-changer interventions, so that ad- aptation and improvement is possible. Changing the game beyond basic Here too, starting out right over the next year would make education: Technical/vocational a difference. As governments work to bounce back from skills and tertiary COVID-19 in the immediate future, the patterns they set can either help or hinder the medium- and long-term responses. Beyond basic education, technical/vocational and tertiary If they track the participation and learning of each child to education require attention too. While the current genera- guide learning recovery effectively, that will create a jump- tion of youth have benefited from the expansion schooling in ing-off point for a deeper integration of M&E into the other recent years, most of them have emerged from basic educa- game-changers and the long-term system strengthening. tion without the foundational skills that they need for further education and training, or for rewarding employment. Equip- ping them better can both boost their productivity and pre- Providing foundational skills for vent the social instability that can result from large cohorts youth who have been left behind of unemployed and underemployed youth. In addition to implementing these game-changers, it is The forthcoming World Bank West and Central Africa Ed- crucial to support youth who are slipping away from the ucation Strategy will provide directions on strengthening education system and equip them with foundational skills. education at these levels. For technical/vocational educa- Because of past weaknesses in education systems, a very tion, strategic investments that are closely linked to sectoral large share of youth have left schooling, or are about to drop demands will be needed from key development partners, out of school, without even the most basic skills, including lit- building for example on the EU’s commitments under the Al- eracy and numeracy. This problem can be attacked through liance Sahel. At the tertiary level, given the current capacity both retention and remediation policies. Retention targets of the Sahel’s systems and size of their economies, strong youth in school and aims to reduce the likelihood of drop- regional cooperation will be required to strengthen quality out; these programs should begin before secondary school, and access. The forthcoming strategy will discuss how these as this is the level at which students commonly drop out. objectives can be achieved. Remediation targets youth who are already out of school, with second-chance education programs to bring school- Progress requires focus, however, and this White Paper age children back to school and equip youth with the basic focuses on basic education because of the unique needs literacy and numeracy skills necessary for employment. Pro- of the Sahel region. As discussed above, the unique set of grams with flexible entry and exit and close links to the formal regional stressors and history has led to some of the lowest education system have demonstrated success. In the Sahel levels of learning-adjusted years of schooling in the world. region, a number of programs are attempting to do this, History suggests that to power development and shared including the Stratégie de Scolarisation Accélérée avec la growth, the Sahel countries will have to change this and Passerelle (SSA/P), which has been implemented in Burkina provide education of reasonable quality for all their children. Faso, Niger, and Mali. With too small a share of the limited education resources currently going to basic, this means that TVET and tertiary Youth who are unlikely to return to formal education re- will likely have to become much more efficient rather than quire practical skills training for integration with the labor relying on an infusion of new financing. market—but also foundational skills. Interventions that pro- vide targeted financial incentives to increase participation in training have been shown to help. Providing information on Medium- to longer-term: System employment and training opportunities may be a cost-effec- strengthening to deepen the impact tive way of boosting participation in training. But even this of the game-changers job-focused skills training is likely to be less effective without attention to building up foundational skills, so they should be Implementing these game-changers would be a ma- combined with remediation. The primary focus should be on jor step forward, but sustaining the gains and building youth and young adults through their mid-30s, who will have high-quality education systems will require much more. 20   Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow Summit edition Overview Report PHOTO BY: ©WORLD BANK The serious work of system strengthening should begin now, section, by institutionalizing the reforms and steadily because building up the pillars of an education system takes increasing quality. time. Action is needed on each of the 4 proximate drivers of a • Strengthen teaching through better attraction and strong education system: selection policies for new teachers, and through practical training and support for existing teachers. • Put learners on high-development trajectories and As noted above, it is important to support teachers keep them in school: It is possible to provide early while focusing on improving the quality of teaching as nutrition, care, and high-quality pre-school education the goal. Part of this will come from making teaching even in low-capacity settings. Nutrition and care will a more attractive profession for potential teachers, require high-level political leadership and concerted especially for high performers, and from selecting action of other ministries beyond education, because them based on merit. But given that many of those it depends on support—including financial assis- who will be teachers a decade from now are already tance and advice—to households with infants and in the teaching force, helping them teach more effec- young children well before they enter formal school- tively is paramount. This means shifting to more prac- ing. Finding cost-effective ways to expand preschool tical, classroom-based in-service training, with more education is also important, because otherwise dis- coaching and mentoring—while at the same time advantaged children find themselves well behind by making pre-service education more practical, so that the time they arrive at primary school. Finally, get- new teachers don’t start out with so little classroom ting children into school is not enough; it is crucial to experience. These efforts have to start now as part adopt measures to keep all of them, especially girls, of the game-changers discussed above, for example in school through basic education and beyond. This through the use of structured pedagogy that incor- all requires building on the game-changer policies porates practical training, but reforming the teacher for ECD and girls’ education described in the previous education system is a longer-term effort. In addition, Summit edition Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow   21 Overview Report PHOTO BY: ©WORLD BANK systems can strengthen teachers’ motivation by im- mother-tongue instruction in the early grades more proving their career and salary frameworks. Exam- common, wherever that is politically and technically ples include ensuring that teachers can get their feasible, because it has been shown to improve litera- paychecks more easily—for example, through man- cy in both the mother tongue and (eventually) the na- datory use of mobile money—and appointing princi- tional language. And good learning materials—at the pals who can provide useful pedagogical guidance to right level and in the right languages—are an essen- teachers. tial companion to well-designed curricula. Technol- • Improve the classroom experience by strengthening ogy can support this improvement in the classroom learning resources—most notably through reimagin- experience, but only if systems focus on lower-cost ing the curriculum and providing mother-tongue in- evidence-backed technologies and help teachers inte- struction where feasible. On curricula, the “quick win” grate those tools into their pedagogy. described earlier would streamline the curriculum on • Make schools safe, inclusive, and well-managed learn- an emergency basis to focus on foundational learning ing spaces. The game-changers will start the process recovery after school reopening. But more thorough of making schools more welcoming, better-supported reform of curricula is also needed, and that is a lon- spaces, by increasing community involvement. But ger-term process. Curricula should be refocused to much more needs to be done to build professional- ensure that they provide enough time for all children ized school management that can provide the ped- to learn foundational skills; they should also be re- agogic and administrative leadership necessary to oriented to ensure that what children and youth are run schools in challenging circumstances. This re- learning is relevant for their lives and their livelihoods. quires reform of the system for selecting, training, and One important element of curricular reform is to make mentoring school principals, combined with greater 22   Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow Summit edition Overview Report autonomy for well-prepared principals to make deci- sions about their schools. In parallel with this process of professionalizing school leadership, systems could integrate more community involvement in advising the school leaders, through school management commit- tees that are given training and communication chan- nels to local public officials. To support these school- and community-level changes, it is crucial to improve system coherence, management, and governance: Systems that succeed in improving learning for all children are those in which policies are co- herent and aligned toward that goal; it does not happen by accident. • One key element of this is well-designed curricula, as discussed above—curricula that are more focused on the core learning needs. • A second is assessment systems that are stronger at all levels. This means teachers who can carry out classroom assessments, so that they can know what their students are learning and adapt instruction ac- cordingly; national and regional assessments to show levels and patterns of learning, so that policymakers PHOTO BY: © VINCENT TREMEAU / WORLD BANK are not “flying blind”; examinations that test relevant skills and are not used just to select an elite cadre; and international assessments to benchmark levels of learning. Alignment with international assessments such as PASEC should be strengthened to provide an external benchmark of quality. • Third, greater coherence is necessary; for example, teacher training, curricula, textbooks, and exams all need to be consistent in the material they cov- er. The structured pedagogy programs listed under Game-Changers will help establish the pattern for this, but need to be built on with a systemwide realignment. • Finally, because commitment and technical skill are Political commitment and financing necessary to implement these reforms, depoliticizing to support these reforms the system is crucial: teachers, principals, inspectors, and other public officials should be selected based on All these reforms will require sustained political will and merit and supported as professionals. Establishing commitment that prioritizes children’s learning and wel- clear political commitment to foundational learning fare. At each of these levels, there are forces pushing strong- for all children, and tracking progress toward that ly for the status quo. The needs of young children and their goal, can clarify the costs of a politicized system and families, especially in rural areas, are ignored by political make these technical reforms possible. A key step processes because of their lack of access to power. Teaching toward depoliticizing the system is professionalizing improvements are held back by hidebound teacher-training school management. Principals selected on merit institutions that do not focus on giving teachers the skills that need to be given the training in pedagogical leader- make them more effective in the classroom. Learning ma- ship and operational management that they need to terials are provided by uncompetitive, high-cost producers, deal with the many challenges facing schools in the with the process of procurement sometimes undermined by region. corruption. School functioning is compromised by a lack of Summit edition Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow   23 Overview Report professionalized management and community involvement, ing all decisions—for example, decisions about textbooks or as well as lack of resources. teacher recruitment or technology—based on whether they improve the learning of all children. If they do, outcomes will The commitment must extend from the top throughout improve, making spending more efficient. the bureaucracy. System coherence is undermined by bu- reaucracies that do lack either the inclination or the ability to With real commitment from leadership and the society ensure alignment of policies and processes toward learning as a whole, dramatic progress is possible. It is not easy, for all. Numerous systems around the world have shown that but experience from around the world shows the fruits of such forces can be overcome, with sufficient political lead- persistence. In the early 1950s, the Republic of Korea was a ership and societal support. What is needed is a very strong war-torn society held back by very low literacy levels; by the signal from the top that the status quo is unacceptable—that 1990s, it had achieved universal enrollment in high-quality countries owe the next generation a much better start in education through secondary school, and today its youth life—combined with widespread public understanding of the perform at the highest levels on international learning as- challenges and how to overcome them. This understanding sessments. More recently, Vietnam surprised the world in needs to be internalized by all officials working on education, 2012 when the new PISA results showed that its 15-year-olds and they need to be equipped with the skills and support to were performing at nearly the same level as those in Ger- act on it. many—even though Vietnam was a lower-middle-income country that had suffered a devastating war just a few de- One major manifestation of commitment should be an in- cades before. And a decade of learning- and equity-focused crease in public financing for education in the Sahel, espe- reforms was enough to lift lower-income states like Ceará cially for basic education. Even adjusted for income, spend- (Brazil) and Puebla (Mexico) to the top rank of their coun- ing on primary education is quite low in some countries in tries in terms of ensuring that all children and youth develop the region, such as Chad. Additional resources do not guar- foundational skills. antee better outcomes, but some of the reforms described here will not be possible without new investments. Some of that increase can come from reallocations, but especially How the World Bank can help as student populations continue to surge, the countries will need to find much more funding for education, primarily With committed country leadership, the World Bank can from domestic sources. help make the game changers and system strengthen- ing possible. First, it can use analysis like this White Paper If governments really want “game-changing” improve- to help catalyze dialogue between governments and other ments for all children, they will need to devote a large stakeholders, helping them to coalesce around action to share of this financing increase in the short term to promote learning and skills for all children and youth. Sec- basic education, and specifically primary. The most suc- ond, it can help to strengthen government capacity to imple- cessful education systems globally have taken an approach ment the game changers by sharing knowledge about what of “progressive universalism,” meaning that they expand- works. Even the limited set of game-changers proposed ed access to high-quality education for everyone, starting here will be very challenging given low government capacity, with basic education, while prioritizing the greater needs and the World Bank can help each country sequence a set of of disadvantaged children. In fragile states, with their very actions that will be feasible to implement. Third, it can pro- limited institutional capacity and resources, it is impossible vide financing for new investments—for example, in target- to do everything at once. For both equity and system quality, ed teacher training or better monitoring systems—that can the focus right now should be on getting primary education improve the effectiveness of the resources that the country right. is already spending. Fourth, it can help governments work across sectors to achieve education goals, for example in Political commitment also needs to show up in greater cross-cutting areas like early childhood development or efficiency of spending. Weak governance and inadequate skills development. strategies have further reduced the impact of the region’s already-low levels of spending. As a result, outcomes have The strategy proposed in this White Paper reflects les- been poor, and households have had to spend even more on sons learned from the Bank’s experience with helping education to try to fill the gaps. True political commitment countries design and implement education reforms, espe- throughout the bureaucracy will result in governments mak- cially in contexts with low capacity. The Bank has learned 24   Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow Summit edition Overview Report PHOTO BY: ©SARAH FARHAT/WORLD BANK from both successes and failures—its own and those of the alytical work it carries out in the Sahel. An important part governments it works with. Some of the important lessons of this effort is learning from the rich experience of other applicable to the Sahel include the following. First, focus is partners in the region and beyond—whether they are bilat- necessary. Where capacity of governments is very limited, erals like AFD and JICA, multilaterals like the UN agencies trying to tackle too many challenges at once can lead to fail- and the regional development banks, NGOs, or academics. ure across the board, so prioritization is necessary. This is Concerted action by these partners is crucial to supple- why the White Paper focuses on game-changers, while not ment government capacity, and having a shared diagnosis neglecting the importance of longer-term system strength- and a focused set of priorities can help with that. A third ening. Second, evidence matters: when policy changes and point, very salient in the Sahel, is that the scarcity of govern- projects are based on good evidence and analytical work, ment capacity makes it especially important to draw on the this increases the probability of success. For this reason, strengths of communities and non-governmental actors. the Bank has devoted substantial effort to preparing this The actions proposed in this White Paper draw on those White Paper and the forthcoming West and Central Africa strengths, rather than requiring governments to bear too education strategy, as well as all the country-specific an- much of a load in the short term. Summit edition Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow   25 Overview Report The choice facing the Sahel Strengthening education and human capital is the region’s only real choice—and that’s a good thing. The region’s popula- tion continues to surge, with the number of children and youth growing faster than in any other region. The countries of the Sahel therefore face a choice that is not really a choice: Do they want their communities and workplaces in a decade or two to be filled with a huge cohort of young people who either haven’t gotten an education or who have discovered their credentials do not translate into actual skills, productivity, or employment? Especially given the higher aspirations of today’s youth, which are fueled by an awareness of what is happening elsewhere in the world, this is a recipe for disillusionment and strife. Or will the Sahel countries commit themselves—at a societal level, not just within the ministries of education—to nurturing the human mind, which is the most powerful driver of prosperity, poverty reduction, and human flourishing? 26   Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow Summit edition PHOTO BY: ©WORLD BANK Summit edition Sahel Education White Paper   |   The Wealth of Today and Tomorrow   27 PHOTO BY: ©DORTE VERNER/WORLD BANK