TEPLEARN

We are Nigeria’s pioneering education partnership organisation  with a mission to improve the overall design, implementation, and evaluation of education initiatives  through effective, enduring, and scalable partnerships. We serve a broad range of education  sector stakeholders including policymakers, corporate organisations and foundations, development  agencies, donor-funded and assisted programs, civil society organisations, philanthropic  organisations, and educational institutions. We are signed up to the United Nations Global  Compact, adhere to national and international ethics, and prioritise safeguarding and privacy  policies when interacting with children and stakeholders respectively. With nationwide presence and  regional offices in Lagos and Abuja, we have a dedicated team of experts in its various units – Research, Consultancy, Assessment and Learning Programmes, Education Investments and  Communications. 

Mission

To partner with public and non-state actors to create a sustainable framework that will deliver improved access to quality education

Vision

To prioritise access to quality education as a foundation for a transformational [innovative | growing] economy

Core Values

1. Professionalism

2. Excellence

3. Respect

4. Integrity

5. Loyalty

6. Responsiveness

The team lead is responsible for developing and implementing effective curriculum and program designs that meet the needs of the target audience. This involves conducting research, analyzing data, and collaborating with subject matter experts to identify the most effective teaching and learning strategies.

In addition to curriculum and program design, the team lead is also responsible for developing and administering surveys and assessments to measure the effectiveness of the program. This includes designing evaluation tools and analyzing the results to identify areas for improvement.

The team lead is also responsible for overseeing the execution of the program in implementing communities. This involves managing a team of educators, trainers or trainees, monitoring their progress, and providing guidance and support as needed. The team lead is also responsible for ensuring that program delivery is consistent with the curriculum and program design.

The team lead and supporting team members are essential to the success of any project, including the LEAP project. In terms of effectively delivering on parameters of the LEAP project, here are some approaches the team will leverage on to successfully deliver the project.

1. Clear Communication: The team lead will ensure that there is clear communication among all team members. This includes setting expectations for project timelines, milestones, and deliverables. Supporting team members will provide input when necessary to ensure that the project is moving forward as planned.

2. Goal Setting: The team lead will establish clear goals for the project, including both short-term and long-term objectives. Supporting team members will be made aware of these goals and work together to achieve them.

3. Task Delegation: The team lead will delegate tasks to team members based on their strengths and expertise. This ensures that each team member is contributing in a meaningful way to the project and that the workload is evenly distributed.

4. Collaboration: The team lead and supporting team members will work collaboratively to identify any issues or challenges that arise during the project and develop solutions together.

5. Flexibility: The team lead and supporting team members will be flexible and adaptable to changes in the project scope or timeline. 

By working together in these ways, the team lead and supporting team members will be well-positioned to effectively support the LEAP project as they also work on other commitments in the organization. We will ensure that the project is completed on time, within budget, and meets the needs of the beneficiaries.

A low-cost, low-tech foundational learning catch-up programme that leverages on the support of parents/caregivers using SMSs content delivery and workbook

Nationwide school closures  due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 which caused extended gaps or discontinuities in student’s education led to millions of children staying at home unable to learn much coupled with limited access to learning opportunities. Protecting and prioritising foundational learning is key to reducing the potential damage that widespread school closures will have on children as these skills are essential to developing children’s competencies and subsequent lifelong learning opportunities.

In order to reduce the possibility of learning declines occurring for children - particularly those with limited access to the alternative education and learning programming delivered by governments via online platforms, educational television, and instructional radio, TEP Centre designed and implemented the “Zo Mu Koya Tare” programme in Kano state, northern Nigeria. “Zo Mu Koya Tare” is in the Hausa language - meaning “come let’s learn together”.  

The Zo Mu Koya Tare programme was designed to help preserve the foundational literacy and numeracy competencies of these children hereby preventing a looming learning loss. The programme uses targeted SMS learning activities sent as instructions to the caregiver/parent in the household from a TEP customised syllabi developed from the primary/grade 2 level of the Nigerian curriculum as well as supplementary instructional workbook to guide and help the children improve their literacy and numeracy skills while they are at home. The programme also seeks to improve the capacity of caregiver/parent who are primarily responsible for the learning needs of the children as they support their wards/children’s learning using low tech devices at home.

The Zo Mu KoYa Tare programme is committed to improving the literacy and numeracy skills of children. To achieve this, the programme adopts several innovative approaches.

Firstly, to embrace learning variabilities the programme adopts the Teaching at the Right Level (TARL) methodology. This involves grouping beneficiaries based on their literacy and numeracy competencies, which are determined through a baseline assessment. The learning content is then designed and tailored to address the specific learning needs of each group of beneficiaries, ensuring that the learning is relevant and effective

Secondly, the programme leveraged online learning to deploy its solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using SMS messages and basic feature phones, tailored learning content is sent to the parents and caregivers of the children. This ensures that learning can continue despite the limitations posed by the pandemic, and it highlights the project's commitment to finding innovative solutions to challenges.

Thirdly, the programme involves developing customised instructional materials. The content development team will design a syllabus that is tailored to meet the learning needs of the targeted beneficiaries, and instructional materials will be distributed to the children to use alongside the messages that will be sent to their caregivers. This approach ensures that the learning is comprehensive and that the children are provided with all the tools they need to build foundational literacy and numeracy skills.

Finally, the programme recognizes the importance of parental and caregiver engagement in improving learning outcomes. Parents and caregivers of selected beneficiaries are trained on how to facilitate learning with the children, as well as how to use their basic feature phones to receive tailored learning content for their wards. This approach empowers parents and caregivers to take an active role in their children's education and recognizes that learning is a collaborative effort.

Overall, the Zo Mu KoYa Tare programme will make a real difference in the lives of children and families. The innovative approaches adopted by the programme embraces the children's learning variabilities, ensuring that learning is relevant, effective, and accessible, even in challenging circumstances. 

TEP Centre has conducted all the research studies mentioned below.

Foundational research (literature reviews, desktop research)

Formative research (e.g. usability studies; feasibility studies; case studies; user interviews; implementation studies; pre-post or multi-measure research; correlational studies)

Summative research (e.g. correlational studies; quasi-experimental studies; randomized control studies)

The Koya action research and learning intervention programme was the first digital/virtual programme implemented by TEP Center. It proved to be a valuable initiative, especially in its capacity to reach more children at home. Some of the lessons we learned are;

• Learning deficiency of young learners can be helped with the right support and instructions.

• Parents or caregivers are willing to support their children and community, if they are granted access to the right learning resources like the KOYA SMSs and instructional materials.

• Children are able to absorb learning instructions in a short-period of time, if given the right guidance, materials, and exercises to explore their own understanding of the subject being taught.

• It is important to include community volunteers who reside in or around the location for intervention. These volunteers are familiar with the community members, they speak the same language, they have relationships or know the children, and they are committed to seeing the children and their caregivers improve their learning outcome. 

• It is critical to involve community stakeholders -leaders, youth groups, security officials, parents, through advocacy visits. This helps with communication and seamless engagement with the grassroot members within the community and the intended beneficiaries. 

These lessons learned have contributed to the evaluation of the programme, the need to improve the quality and frequency of the exercises in literacy and numeracy, and it has also proven to  be an effective intervention for improving foundational  learning outcomes. With the information, and the resumption of schools, we intend to include an in-school model in the scale up of Koya, where teachers or teaching assistants will be supported to improve their capacity and pedagogical skills to teach foundational literacy and numeracy subjects in the classroom. 

Moving forward, we aim to increase the scope of the programme to reach more children, more caregivers and more states. This digital learning solution has the potential to create lasting impact in the delivery of quality education.

As we now live in a world where the use of technology is largely required, it has become critical for TEP Centre to ensure that low income communities are not left behind. EdTech solutions need to be wholesome and inclusive such that it is accessible and affordable for marginalized groups and communities. Other critical needs to strengthen the evidence Koya provides include;

• The data generated from the programme will provide strong evidence for better advocacy and rallying support from policy makers, education stakeholders, funders, and organisations alike to redirect focus on a safe, low-cost, and sustainable method for delivering quality education content.

• The programme not only improves the learning levels of children, it also improves the capacity of caregivers to deliver lesson instructions to their children at home. It builds parent-child communication and a wholesome involvement of parents in their child’s performance.

• It encourages home-based learning and strengthens intervention to reach out-of-school children who do not have the opportunity to be in any formal learning institution. 

• It promotes community engagement. This is critical in moving the needle for a better education system. The more parents, caregivers and community leaders are involved in the learning process and progress of their children, the more they are encouraged and demand accountability for systems of learning that will support the children in their community.

1. What is the effect of using SMS as a learning support tool on FLN learning outcomes?

2. Does the employment of SMS as a learning support tool have any significant effects on learners' autonomy?

Expected Outputs 

SMS Learning activities

Curriculum Development: The KOYA curriculum design for this project will be  adapted from TEP Centre’s LEARNigeria remedial programme. It will cover a period of twelve weeks of instruction, with content on four basic literacy skills and four basic numeracy skills. This curriculum will be translated into short instructional messages.

During the programme, at least three SMSs of learning activities will be scheduled for the identified skill/level; the curriculum will indicate the specific lesson objective for each week. The first SMS will introduce the concept to be taught, whilst SMS two and three will cover progressive learning activities. These three SMSs will be sent to the caregiver each week. The table below shows the learning domains per subject

Literacy Skills

Numeracy Skills

Letter Level: Letter Identification and Syllables

NUMBER identification and PLACE VALUE: 1-digit through to 3-digit numbers

Word Level: Word and Sentence building

Basic operation: Addition

Paragraph Level: Making and Simple paragraph reading

Basic operation: Subtraction

Story Level: Picture reading/Story making and Comprehension (passage reading and questions)

Basic operation: Multiplication

During the assessment, caregivers will be asked their preferred language to receive text messages. Caregivers will be  provided the option of receiving SMS learning activities in Hausa or English. All SMS content will be provided in both languages with careful attention to cultural context in the learning exercises; we will also factor in dialect differences for the language spoken in the project state.

1. Assessment, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting

Volunteer enumerators will be recruited to carry out the assessment in the selected local governments for the programme. The assessment is benchmarked at primary two curriculum and will be carried out digitally, using the SurveyCTO application. A desired number of households and children will be selected to participate in the intervention, based on their eligibility. In addition, a number of caregivers will be selected as home tutors whom will receive the SMS learning instructions

Periodic monitoring activities will be scheduled to critically evaluate the response and activities of the programme. These monitoring exercises will include focus group discussions, observation of the SMS application and key informant interviews with some of the beneficiaries and community members.

On achieving the outputs outlined above, TEP Centre will 

1. Develop and share knowledge pieces and results with all stakeholders in the education sector

2. Continue to advocate for inclusive learning solutions and delivery systems in education

Short-term expectations

1. Improved learning in foundational literacy and numeracy skills of children

2. Improved capacity of caregivers and instructors in delivering instructional content.

Long-term expectations

1. Improved delivery of quality education content through systems that are inclusive and affordable to marginalized groups