Do remedial activities using math workbooks improve student learning? Empirical evidence from scaled-up interventions in Niger

Abstract

• A package of interventions including school management training and distribution of math workbooks improved math learning in Niger. • We investigated the impact of scaled-up interventions using data from a three-round survey. • The average impact for 4th grade students on math learning outcomes is estimated to be 0.36 to 0.38 standard deviations. • The impact on math learning is larger for students with lower baseline scores. Throughout the world approximately 380 million children of primary school age are not reaching the minimum proficiency levels in mathematics. This learning crisis is especially acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where many children are not mastering numbers and the four basic operations. In Niger, a package of interventions that included training for school management committees and the distribution of math workbooks was scaled up by the government. The interventions targeted approximately 310,000 students in the 1st to 4th grades in around 3,500 public primary schools. The scaled-up interventions aimed to help the students improve their math learning through extra-curricular remedial activities which they participated in over a three-month period. Due to budget constraints, the distribution of math workbooks was limited to those students from 1st to 4th grades among the six grades in primary education. Focusing on the difference in the intervention between the 4th and 5th grade students, this study investigated the impact of the package of interventions on student math learning using three-round survey data. Our study finds that the average impact of the interventions on math learning outcomes is estimated to be 0.36 to 0.38 standard deviations. The impact is larger for students with lower baseline scores. The case of Niger suggests that once children have a chance to learn in a manner that matches their learning levels, they can improve their math learning.