Bringing the School to the Children: Shortening the Path to EFA Recent education planning initiatives in West and Central Africa show that the path to EFA may be shortened considerably by reconsidering the way basic education is delivered in isolated rural communities. Since independence, education systems have been expanding rapidly and are now serving most of the easy-to-reach population. For progress to continue, the focus must be shifted toward the sparsely populated areas, which means adjusting the type of schools used, and building them close to where children live. August 2003 Most out-of-school children live in rural areas. As with any public service, the proximity to point of Unfortunately, few rural schools offer the complete delivery is a factor in determining whether the client primary cycle. A number of factors contribute to the will make use of the service. In education systems incomplete-cycle phenomenon. The most significant across the region, this issue is poorly understood. A is that the potential student population is insufficient World Bank program in West Africa (the Rural Access for a three- or six-teacher school. Having children Initiative, or RAI) uses simple Geographic Information walk to school from neighboring villages also con- System (GIS) technology to help education planners tributes to low enrollment and low student-teacher understand and take ownership of education supply ratios. Since teachers generally do not teach more and demand. Three dimensions of incomplete access than 1 or 2 grades at a time in a classroom, rural are identified and subject to analysis: (i) the proportion Massakory Massakory communities usually have low student-teacher ratios, of the population residing outside of all school recruit- and education system administrators cannot justify ment zones, (ii) the effectiveness of school coverage sending additional teachers to the school. In addition, within official school recruitment zones, and (iii) the schools with incomplete cycles tend to have extremely extent to which rural schools offer incomplete cycles. school with 1km low survival rates. school recruit area The resulting analysis gives a much more complete 0 5km 5km recruit 0 area 5km village picture of how difficult it can be for a child in a rural School year Chad community to complete the entire primary cycle. 2001-2002 Senegal (Sahelian region only) Problems that initially seem to be a result of low com- local school. Results suggest that when the distance is Another way of understanding the issue of uneven Total number of schools 3,933 1,145 munity interest in basic education actually prove to be greater than 1km, schools offer negligible coverage. access is to look at which villages are sending children in rural areas more an issue of insufficient supply. Field research in Proportionally, girls enrollment drops off more quickly to school: In the western Sahelian region of Chad, 179 villages in 2002­2003 in the western Sahelian than boys' for distances of less than 1km. 80% of enrolled children come from the 8% of the Rural schools with 3,111 792 region of Chad gave education officials insight into villages that have schools located in them. Even in vil- incomplete cycles (78% of total) (69% of total) the challenge of education in an area considered to The distance issue includes several dimensions: lages with schools, only 28% of students have access Average number of 2.68 3.10 be in the "low demand" category. Prior to this to a school offering the full primary cycle. grades taught research, education officials knew the approximate physical distance as measured in kilometers Average number of 3.39 3.62 location of most of the schools. Each school theoreti- With the relatively low density of population in the grades taught in schools cally covered a zone extending 5km. The field study cultural distance, or the drop-off that occurs when Sahelian region, it will be almost impossible for open for more than 6 years found that village enrollment rates dropped off children are expected to leave their own commu- enrollment rates to reach EFA targets if the smallest sharply for satellite villages officially served by the nity to go into a community that may be consid- full-cycle school requires three teachers. Schools in ered foreign or unfriendly; and remote areas will need to be smaller to ensure sus- tainable student-teacher ratios. As official recruitment (ii) Effectiveness of coverage GER and Distance, time distance, which takes into account the physi- areas decrease in size, the population per school will in villages within school Chad, western Sahelian region, 2002-2003 cal barriers such as mountains, rivers, forests or also decrease, reinforcing the need to develop one recruitment zones village 60% other obstacles that lengthen the travel time. and two-teacher school models. Education systems in more developed areas of the world relied heavily on 50% A limited GIS application also showed education plan- small rural school models prior to the development of (iii) Incomplete cycles modern, rural transportation networks; the United in existing schools ners where people lived in relation to the schools. It 40% was found that only 8% of the villages have schools, States still has 463 single-teacher primary schools, 30% and an additional 23% were within a 3km radius of a and once had tens of thousands of such schools, so a boys girls similar pattern may be effective in Africa. These 20% school. The remaining 69% were at a distance greater schools need not be low quality or costly, but they do 3km recruitment zone than 3km. The maps below contrast the way educa- 10% tion coverage looked to the Ministry before the study need support, and teachers need specialized training. 0% (above left), when there was little information on village 0 < 1 1 < 2 2 < 3 where people lived and how far children, in reality, Education decision-makers and planners have (i) Proportion of population living with km km km would walk to school, and after the GIS mapping was responded positively to analysis generated by the school outside of school recruitment zone conducted (above right). RAI. Several countries are implementing field data collection, and three have started exploring options Lessons Learned for developing rural school models. As consensus emerges for a smaller school model, pedagogical insti- Distance to school cannot be measured only by tutions will be called upon to prepare new teachers physical distance, but must take into consideration for classroom settings where several grades are taught cultural, time and natural/physical barriers. together. The widespread frontal teaching techniques, which constitute perhaps the greatest quality chal- Enrollment drops off dramatically when children, lenges for primary education in Africa today, are particularly girls, are asked to attend school in a incompatible with the one-teacher school model. village other than their own. In rural Chad, when the distance to school is greater than 1 km, enroll- Developing a sustainable rural school model also ment rates are negligible. Bringing schools closer means breaking down the barriers that currently limit to children can significantly reduce uneven educa- a community's involvement in basic education. These tion coverage. barriers range from centralist approaches to teacher recruitment, assignment and salary payment, school Simple GIS technology can provide valuable infor- calendar, classroom construction, and the opening mation previously unavailable to education planners. and closing of schools to such politically charged All children should have access to the complete issues as language of instruction and religious train- primary cycle; smaller one and two-teacher rural ing. While countries are already working on most of schools can be effective for areas with small num- these issues, it is vitally important that they view their bers of students. offerings to rural communities as a "package." Bringing schools closer to children can significantly reduce uneven coverage, but other issues, relating pri- Remaining Challenges marily to the quality of education, must also be addressed to cover the remaining distance to EFA. Cross-sectoral support will need to be provided so What residual demand-side issues would remain once that education planners gain access to georefer- the distance and quality problems are resolved? The enced population data. only way to answer this question is to isolate for the other factors. Over the medium term, several coun- Teacher education programs must be redesigned to tries will pilot a comprehensive rural-friendly strategy make the rural school model possible, including that would be cost-effective for nationwide applica- courses in multi-grade teaching. tion. The availability of EFA Fast-Track funding pro- vides an excellent opportunity for some of the poorest Sufficient support must be available to ensure countries to close the education gap between their timely supply of materials and training opportuni- rural and urban areas. ties in the rural multi-grade context. This note series is intended to summarize lessons learned and key policy findings on the World Bank's work in education. The views expressed in these notes are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank. For additional copies of Education Notes, please contact the Education Advisory Service by email at eservice@worldbank.org or visit the web site: http://www.worldbank.org/education/ Principal Author: Douglas Lehman