Building Functional Adult Literacy and Numeracy with Mobile Phones: Can you Text me Now?

Abstract

We report the short-term results from a randomized evaluation of a mobile phone literacy program (ABC) in Niger, in which adult literacy students learned how to use mobile phones as part of a literacy class. Students in mobile phone literacy villages showed substantial gains in numeracy exam scores. There is also evidence of heterogeneity in program effects across regions, suggesting the impact is context dependent. These results were stronger in one region, for women and for participants younger than 45. There was also evidence of learning dynamics: six months after the end of the first year of classes, students in ABC villages retained what they had learned better than the non-ABC students