- Poor school attendance more in public schools, affects outcome, says World Bank
- Continuous Assessment should be used to improve learning gaps… Udo-Umoren
- Target instructions should be introduced and implemented in public schools …expert says
By Juliet Jacobs Ochenje
Notwithstanding the implementation of Continuous Assessment by public schools in Nigeria, a World Bank, WB, report “Education and Health Services in Nigeria” (2008) says learning outcomes are better in private schools.
According to UNESCO in 2019, 22.7 million children were enrolled in public elementary schools. Another 5.4 million went to private schools. In 2018/2019, around 7.4 million students were enrolled in lower secondary education schools.
Though enrolment is higher in public schools, the WB report says, “private schools consistently performed better than public schools across all indicators. A notable distinction was in their management of human resources.”
School Attendance
A factor in the dichotomy as identified by the report is school attendance. “Absence from school in public schools was more than double the absence rate among private school teachers: 16 versus 6 percent,” the report said.
“On a typical day, pupils in private schools learned one hour 10 minutes more than pupils in public schools. Over a period of a school term, this translates to 22 additional days of learning in a private school compared to public schools,” the report says.
While noting these situations, Inyang Udo – Umoren, Country Director, teaching at the Right Level, TaRL, an international Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, working in seven states of the country, says the statistics may not change soon if improved resources are not available for learning especially at the foundational level.
“Private schools are performance-oriented (teachers are expected to do more to earn their salaries). Attendance of both teachers and pupils are often consistent” she told Africa Health Report in an exclusive interview recently.
In terms of resources, she said “private schools often have more resources – books, etc.” added “children in private schools mostly come from families with home resources (educated parents, wealthier parents; learning devices – radio, TV, books)”
The UNESCO survey confirms a disturbing fact. “Private school teachers were more likely to be in class and as a result, spent more time in class on instructional activities than public school teachers. Additionally, private schools have a longer scheduled teaching time per day than public schools.”
Asked to list the factors responsible for the disparity in pass grades between students of public and private schools, Umo- Umoren said: “It is more about the factors that contribute to learning that influence learning outcomes or grades which are better in private schools than in public.”
Continuous Assessment
So does the use of Continuous Assessment, CA, by teachers improve learning outcomes for students then?
Inyang said “The way in which CA can improve learning is if teachers use the results to identify the gaps in the pupils’ knowledge and then actively adjust teaching or instruction to address the gaps and ensure that the pupils achieve the learning goals.
She is convinced that “if private schools use CA more proactively to address learning gaps, then they are more likely to have their pupils perform better than those in public schools where teachers may not use the results proactively.”
Mrs. Peace Kanjo is a staff of the National Examinations Council, NECO. She agrees with Udo – Umoren that on its own CA is not a major factor in improving learning outcomes.
According to her, CA can only be a factor “if viewed from the perspective of differentiated instruction or learning.”
But she says CA “allows both the learner and their teacher to understand where they need to improve at an earlier stage. Any particular ‘problem areas can be addressed at a much earlier stage of the learning process” because “it helps students to learn as they go along, rather than cramming everything in at the end of the course in order to complete an examination.”
More than that, she says, “it enables students to demonstrate their ability to learn and understand on a regular basis” and “to build on the knowledge they already have or have acquired during learning which gives them better chance to pass with ease,” she added.
Adesunmi Funmilayo Felicia teaches biology and fisheries at Government Secondary School, Dutse Makaranta on the outskirts of the Abuja metropolis.
She says CA is a major part of teaching and learning in schools in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. She says, “In the FCT we do it bi-weekly to intermittently evaluate the pupils. That way, the topic taught within two weeks is assessed so that the teacher can get feedback on the teaching and learning activities.
“If at the end of marking, the students are not performing well, the teacher has to go back, and reteach that topic and look for another means or strategy in order to make sure that that topic is well treated and impacted,” she said.
Ezendu Blessing is the Principal, Government Secondary School, Dutse Makaranta. She says to make CA effective in the school, a committee was created to supervise its implementation. “We formed a monitoring team to go round, to check how they are using the Continuous Assessment on students, so the teachers go round, and they take their CA every two weeks. In addition, we have what is called the CA forms, in which a report of each assessment is entered, and then they submit it to me, at the end for proper checking.”
Target Instruction
While all these efforts are commendable and useful, Udo – Umoren says it was important to “ensure that all children gain foundational skills in all schools” She points out that “we would recommend that teachers use simple formative assessments to determine the learning levels of pupils and then group them according to their learning levels and target instructions (teaching) at their levels.” She called the approach “targeted instruction.”
To get the best out of the approach, she says “teachers would need to be trained on how to use formative assessment results for targeted instruction,” adding that the training would help teachers to also know how to track the progress of the pupils to ensure that they are gaining the basic reading and mathematical skills.”
