Technology, Monitoring and Teacher Support in Niger

尽管过去20年来入学率有所提高，但全球仍有7.57亿成年人无法用任何语言进行读写（联合国教科文组织，2015年）。在本研究的主题尼日尔，只有不到30%的人口被认为是识字的（IMF 2013），虽然大量研究集中在提高学校参与率，但对于如何以具有成本效益的方式改善学习仍有相当多的争论。不断出现的一个制约因素是教师缺勤：在西非，教师缺勤率在27-40%之间（透明国际，2013年）。经济学的实证研究发现，教师监督可以提高教师出勤率，但对学习的影响好坏参半（格雷罗等人，2013年; Duflo等人，2012年; Cilliers等人，2014年）。一些政府已经转向社区教师，他们是以短期合同雇用的，根据表现可以续签。然而，监督仍然是一个挑战，特别是在运输成本高和机构薄弱的国家。在尼日尔以前的成人教育项目中，社区教师错过了1/3的课程（Aker等人，2016年）。整个撒哈拉以南非洲地区移动的电话技术的发展有可能影响偏远农村地区教师、社区和教育服务提供者之间的关系。通过允许政府和非政府组织定期与偏远地区进行沟通，移动的电话可以改善对教师出勤的监控。移动的电话还可以让社区向教育提供者提供反馈，从而提高社区参与度。最后，可以使用移动的电话为教师提供更频繁的“长途”教学支持。我们的研究团队在2014年至2016年期间在尼日尔进行了一项随机评估，结果显示，在成人教育计划的背景下，移动的电话监控干预-每周给教师，学生和村长打电话-显着提高了学生的考试成绩（Aker等人，2016）。虽然干预措施不包括对教师的财政奖励，但移动的监测提高了教师的出勤率和积极性。与此同时，教师经常要求提供教学支持，而监测小组无法提供这种支持。首先，它将把该方案扩大到更多的村庄，以便在更大范围内测试干预措施。其次，该研究将测试不同类型的移动的监控-即，只打电话给教师，与打电话给教师、村长和学生相比，以确定哪种方法对提高教师绩效和学习最有效。第三，该计划将评估使用移动的手机为教师提供教学支持的潜力。第四，我们的研究将寻求了解教育和技术如何影响村庄内部的动态，以及教师，社区和教育服务提供者之间的动态。最后，这些干预措施将在少数小学进行试点，以了解教师监督和支持的动态在小学环境中是否与政府机构不同。这项研究有助于现有的文献在几个方面。首先，干预使用低成本技术，不需要专门的软件。它还建立在现有的研究教师的表现，包括教学支持和省略的财政奖励。最后，我们的研究将集中在成人教育计划，一个高度被忽视的教育干预的切入点。这项研究将通过尼日尔、美国和欧洲的政府、非政府、大学和研究公司合作伙伴之间的独特合作来实现。

Despite improvements in school enrolment over the past 20 years, 757 million adults worldwide are still unable to read and write in any language (UNESCO 2015). In Niger, the subject of this study, less than 30% of the population is considered to be literate (IMF 2013).While a substantial body of research has focused on increasing school participation, there is still considerable debate about how to improve learning in a cost-effective way. One constraint that has consistently emerged is teacher absenteeism: In West Africa, teacher absenteeism rates range between 27-40% (TI 2013). Empirical research in economics has found that teacher monitoring can lead to improvements in teacher attendance, with mixed results on learning (Guerrero et al 2013, Duflo et al 2012, Cilliers et al 2014). Some governments have shifted to community teachers, who are hired on short-term contracts renewable upon performance. Yet oversight remains a challenge, especially in countries with high transport costs and weak institutions. In a previous adult education program in Niger, community teachers missed 1/3 of their classes (Aker et al 2016). The growth of mobile phone technology throughout sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to affect the relationships between teachers, communities and education service providers in remote rural areas. By allowing governments and NGOs to communicate with remote areas on a regular basis, mobile phones can improve monitoring of teachers' attendance. Mobile phones can also allow the community to provide feedback to education providers, thereby increasing community engagement. And finally, mobile phones could be used to provide more frequent "long distance" pedagogical support to teachers. Our research team ran a randomized evaluation in Niger between 2014-2016, which showed that a mobile phone monitoring intervention in the context of an adult education program - whereby teachers, students and village chiefs were called on a weekly basis - significantly improved students' test scores (Aker et al 2016). Although the intervention did not include financial incentives for teachers, mobile monitoring increased teachers' attendance and motivation. At the same time, teachers often asked for pedagogical support, which the monitoring team was unable to provide.This proposal builds upon this initial research in five ways. First, it will expand the program to more villages in order to test the intervention at a larger scale. Second, the research will test different types of mobile monitoring - i.e., calling the teacher only, as compared with calling the teacher, the village chief and students - to determine which approach is the most effective in increasing teacher performance and learning. Third, the program will assess the potential for using mobile phones to provide pedagogical support to teachers. Fourth, our research will seek to understand how education and technology affect intra-village dynamics, as well as the dynamics between the teacher, community and education service providers. And finally, these interventions will be piloted in a small number of primary schools in order to understand whether the dynamics of teacher monitoring and support are different in a primary school setting and with governmental institutions. This research contributes to the existing literature in several ways. First, the intervention uses a low-cost technology that does not require specialized software. It also builds upon existing research on teacher performance by including pedagogical support and omitting the financial incentive. Finally, our research will focus on adult education programs, a highly neglected entry point for education interventions. This research will be achieved through a unique collaboration between governmental, non-governmental, university and research firm partners in Niger, the US and Europe.