Research on School Effectiveness on Pupils’ Achievement in Developing Countries with Special Reference to Malawi: Some Methodological Issues.

A ZJER comparitive research on school effectiveness in the developing world with emphasis on Malawian schools.Most previous research on the comparative effectiveness of schools in developing and developed countries, particularly the effect of school inputs and resources on academic achievement, have concluded that the effect of school quality on academic achievement is greater than that of pupil Socio-Economic Status (SES). However, the basis on which this conclusion is based is questionable. Of particular concern are the major methodological and conceptual weaknesses of most school effects research in both developed and developing countries. Most of the studies have heavily relied on production function models and as such veiy few process variables have been studied. In addition, the studies also suffer from conceptual limitations, especially in the way family socioeconomic status variables have been specified. Most studies have tended to use conventional social background measures appropriate to developed countries. On the methodological issues, the studies have suffered from over reliance on single-level models, particularly Ordinary • Least Squares (OLS) regression models to analyse hierarchical data. This paper suggests that a deeper understanding of the process of schooling and the determinants of achievement in developing countries can be gained from applying multilevel models using socio-economic status background measures appropriate to developing countries. The paper also presents results of a study undertaken in Malawi which employed multilevel models in order to address in part, some of the methodological limitations leveled against school effectiveness research

Promoting Girls' Education in Africa - The Design and Implementation of Policy Interventions

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An Investigative Study of the Abuse of Girls in African Schools

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L'assurance basée sur un indice climatique : une solution pour les petits exploitants face aux enjeux climatiques

Le changement climatique représente l'un des grands enjeux de notre siècle. Le défi est immense mais des solutions existent. Dans cet article, Oluyede Ajayi et Mariam Kadzamira détaillent comment le CTA a couplé l'assurance basée sur un indice climatique à d'autres services afin de renforcer la résilience de 140 000 familles de petits exploitants en Afrique australe

Weather-based index insurance: a climate-smart agricultural solution for smallholder farmers

The athors explain how CTA has been bundling weather-based index insurance with other services to increase the resilience of 140,000 smallholder households in Southern Africa to climatic changes

Interactive apps promote learning of basic mathematics in children with special educational needs and disabilities

Interactive apps delivered on touch-screen tablets can be effective at supporting the acquisition of basic skills in mainstream primary school children. This technology may also be beneficial for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) as it can promote high levels of engagement with the learning task and an inclusive learning environment. However, few studies have measured extent of learning for SEND pupils when using interactive apps, so it has yet to be determined if this technology is effective at raising attainment for these pupils. We report the first observational study of a group of 33 pupils with SEND from two primary schools in Malawi that are implementing a new digital technology intervention which uses touch-screen tablets to deliver interactive apps designed to teach basic mathematical skills. The apps contain topics that align to the national curriculum. To assess learning gains, rate of progress (minutes per topic) for each pupil was determined by calculating the average time taken to complete a topic. Progress rate was then correlated with teacher ratings of extent of disability and independent ratings of pupil engagement with the apps. Results showed SEND pupils could interact with the apps and all pupils passed at least one topic. Average progress rate for SEND pupils was twice as long as mainstream peers. Stepwise regression revealed extent of disability significantly predicted progress rate. Further exploratory correlations revealed pupils with moderate to severe difficulties with hearing and/or language made slower progress through the apps than those with greater functionality in these two domains because the use of verbal instructions within the apps limited their capacity to learn. This original quantitative analysis demonstrates that interactive apps can raise learning standards in pupils with SEND butmay have limited utility for pupils with severe difficulties. Softwaremodifications are needed to address specific areas of difficulty preventing pupils from progressing

Modelling the impact of women’s education on fertility in Malawi

Many studies have suggested that there is an inverse relationship between education and number of children among women from sub-Saharan Africa countries, including Malawi. However, a crucial limitation of these analyses is that they do not control for the potential endogeneity of education. The aim of our study is to estimate the role of women’s education on their number of children in Malawi, accounting for the possible presence of endogeneity and for nonlinear effects of continuous observed confounders. Our analysis is based on micro data from the 2010 Malawi Demographic Health Survey, and uses a flexible instrumental variable regression approach. The results suggest that the relationship of interest is affected by endogeneity and exhibits an inverted U-shape among women living in rural areas of Malawi, whereas it exhibits an inverse (nonlinear) relationship for women living in urban areas