Ed
m
man well be
uc
at
Environm
Social development CFPR/TUP Gender Food and Nutrition
of the BRAC School Students
Samir R Nath Mirja M Shahjamal Rosie Nilufar Yasmin Tata Zafar Md. Mahbubul Kabir
July 2005
BRAC Research and Evaluation Division BRAC Centre, 75 Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh E-mail:
[email protected], Fax: 880-2-8823542, 8823614 Telephone: 9881265, 8824051, 8824180-87
io
n
Achievement of Competencies of the BRAC School Students
Samir R Nath, Mirja M Shahjamal, Rosie Nilufar Yasmin, Tata Zafar and Md. Mahbubul Kabir
July 2005
Research and Evaluation Division BRAC Centre, 75 Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh E-mail:
[email protected], Fax: 880-2-8823542, 8823614 Telephone: 9881265, 8824051, 8824180-87
For more details about the report please contact:
[email protected]
CONTENTS Abstract
1
Introduction
2
Study objective Methodology The instrument Sampling Administering the test Strengths and limitations Findings Background of the teachers Students’ performance Achievement in Bangla Achievement in English Achievement in mathematics Achievement in social studies Achievement in general science Achievement in religious studies Overall learning achievement Classification of the competencies Achievement of all competencies Mean number of competencies achieved Mean number of correctly answering items School level analysis Performance according to taxonomic class level of items Performance of disabled students Non-formal schools: over the period
3 4 4 4 5 5 6 6 6 6 8 9 11 13 14 15 15 16 17 18 19 19 20 21
Summary and endnotes
22
References Annexes
24 25
ABSTRACT Using the test instrument developed for the Education Watch this study aims to do a comparative analysis of the learning achievement of three different types of BRAC primary education initiatives viz., non-formal primary education, community school and formal school. A total of 1,594 students completing the full course of primary education in December 2004 from 100 schools were sampled for this assessment. Although the situation of the schools and learning environment were different by type, but they all ran with the similar aims of primary education of the country – this made the basis for comparison. The analysis revealed that in general the performances of the formal school students were better than those of other two groups, followed by community school and non-formal school. Performance of the non-formal schools reduced slightly than the previous year. The disabled students were less likely to do well like as their classmates. Finally, some weak areas were identified which needs effort for improvement.
1
INTRODUCTION On achieving the primary school enrolment at a certain level with gender equity in Bangladesh, emphasise is now given on completion of primary cycle for all children with good quality education. At present, 80% of the primary school aged children enrol in schools and about three quarters of them complete the full cycle of primary education (Chowdhury et al 2002). However, the average learning achievement of the students is not much satisfactory (Nath and Chowdhury 2001). Test based national literacy survey shows that a third of the primary school completers remain semi-literate or non-literate (Ahmed et al 2003). It is assumed that during the tenure of five years compulsory primary education the students will achieve the competencies and skills determined by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) under the Ministry of Education (NCTB and UNICEF 1988). The competencies were specified first in 1988 and incorporated in the textbooks and introduced in the schools by 1992. The number of terminal competencies was 53 at the beginning and after revision in 2000 it is now 50. According to Bloom’s taxonomy, the competencies can be classified in three domains. These are cognitive, psychomotor and affective. Of the competencies, 29 has cognitive component fully or partially, 19 has affective and 31 has psychomotor component. This means that a number of competencies fall in multiple domains. Although the competency-based education has been introduced over a decade ago, the first attempt to assess the students on the basis of the specified competencies was taken in 2000 by the Education Watch (Nath and Chowdhury 2001). This was a sample survey based national assessment considering three types of schools viz., government, non-government, and nonformal. A team of national experts developed the assessment instrument, which concentrated only on the cognitive domain. Competencies fall in other two domains were not considered due to difficulty in assessment. Thus, a paper pencil based test instrument containing 27 of the 29 cognitive competencies were developed. This assessment instrument has been used to assess the students of BRAC non-formal schools for the last four years (Nath 2002, 2003; Nath and Shahjamal 2004). As a continuation of this series, in 2004, along with non-formal schools the assessment was extended to other two types of BRAC operated primary schools. These are community schools and BRAC formal schools. The main features of these three types of schools are given below. BRAC non-formal school: These are single teacher school with one classroom popularly known as NFPE (non-formal primary education). A cohort of 33 students completes a full cycle of primary education of five academic years within four calendar years. BRAC prepared textbooks are used in the first three grades and NCTB prepared textbooks for the rest two years. Schools are arranged in rented houses. Education is totally free in these schools. BRAC provides free textbooks and stationeries to the students, monthly remuneration to the teachers and rent of schoolhouses. A total of 7,343 groups of students completed primary education from these schools in December 2004, 7,026 in rural areas. Community school: With financial assistance of the government the communities established these schools. In 1998, identifying them as non-functioning 44 such schools were handed over to BRAC. NCTB prepared textbooks are used in these schools and the students complete the full cycle of primary education within five calendar years. Each school has 3-4 teachers – salary paid by the government. These are mostly two shifts schools with three classrooms each. The average class size is below 40. BRAC formal school: These are non-registered primary schools established by BRAC. The schools are established in permanent structure. Each school has five classrooms and five 2
teachers. The students use NCTB produced textbooks for five calendar years to complete the full cycle of primary education. BRAC provides teachers salary. Girls receive free education, however the boys are to pay tuition fees. Number of schools of this type is only 11. The class size is 40 in these schools. It is to be noted that the non-formal schools are temporarily established. After completion of a cycle if adequate number of out of school children (at least 30) is not available in the school location, the school is moved to a new area, which is generally a remote location. This means that the programme is entering in the remote areas over time. On the other hand, the other two types of schools are established in permanent locations. Management and supervision of the schools are also designed according to their nature. Again, the class size of the permanent schools is higher than the temporarily established schools. As the number of teachers is more than one in these schools, the teachers can share and cooperate with each other as and when necessary, which is not the case in the one teacher non-formal schools. In order to complete the full cycle of primary education the non-formal schools take four calendar years, whereas it is five years in other two cases. STUDY OBJECTIVE This study aimed to assess competency based learning outcome of the students of three types of BRAC primary schools viz., non-formal, community and formal that completed full cycle of primary education in 2004. It also aimed to look at the gender difference in learning achievement.
3
METHODOLOGY THE INSTRUMENT The instrument used for this assessment was developed in 2000 for Education Watch study. It covers 27 of the 29 cognitive competencies, which are suitable to assess through paper pencil test. The subjects covered are Bangla, English, mathematics, social studies, general science and religious studies. The number of competencies covered under each subject is three each for Bangla and English, five for mathematics, six for social studies, nine for general science and one for religious studies. The test has 64 question items – 10 in Bangla, 7 in English, 15 in mathematics, 13 in social studies, 18 in general science and one in religious studies (Table 1). List of competencies covered in the test is provided in Annex 1. Table 1. Number of competencies and question items by subject Subject
Bangla English Mathematics Social studies General science Religious studies All
Number of competencies addressed 3 3 5 6 9 1 27
Number of question items in the test 10 7 15 13 18 1 64
SAMPLING All the schools of community and formal types are located in rural areas of the country. The study did not consider the urban non-formal schools. Thus, only the rural schools were taken for assessment. Selection of students was confined to those completed the full primary cycle in December 2004. Sampling strategy applied was similar to that of the previous studies of this kind (Nath 2002, 2003; Nath and Shahjamal 2004). For non-formal schools, 30 teams were selected randomly from 30 randomly selected areas. In each team two schools were selected randomly. Thus, a total of 60 schools were selected. Thirty schools were randomly selected from the community school category, however test was succeeded in 29 schools. As the number of formal schools was small, all 11 schools of this category were covered. In the non-formal and community school category, 14 students were selected from each school equally distributed by gender. Systematic sampling procedure with a random start was applied in selecting the students. On the other hand, all students of the formal schools present in the test day were attempted to cover. A total of 1,594 students were tested from 100 schools. Number of students tested by school type and gender is provided in Table 2.
4
Table 2. Sample size by school type and gender, 2004 School type
Number of schools
Non-formal school Community school Formal school Total
60 29 11 100
Gender Boys 417 205 129 751
Total Girls 428 201 214 843
845 406 343 1,594
ADMINISTERING THE TEST All students sampled in a school were tested at a time in their own classroom. A team of two trained test administrators conducted tests in each school. Fifteen teams worked in this assessment. Along with the research team five supervisors supervised the fieldwork. The test was divided into three parts. Tests for Bangla and English languages were offered in the first one-hour. Tests for mathematics, environmental studies (social studies and general science) and religious studies were given during the second hour. Listening test for Bnagla and English took ten minutes. There were ten minutes break between each part. Thus, the total test time was two hours and 30 minutes including 20 minutes break. At the beginning the test administrators took the opportunity of rapport building with the students under test. Attempts were made to make the students understand the rules and regulations of the test. All types of questions and the ways of writing the answers were demonstrated to the students. Flip charts and blackboards were used to do so. The test was administered in December 2004, just before the end of the academic year. STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS Like any other sample survey based research this study also bears some strengths and some limitations. Following are the strengths of this study: 1. The main strength of this study is that it used the competency based test instrument developed for a national sample survey. National terminal competencies are reflected in the instrument. 2. For the first time this study presents a comparative scenario of the level of learning achievement of three types of BRAC primary schools. 3. This study creates an opportunity to compare the learning achievement of the nonformal school graduates of a recent year with their fellows in the previous four years. Following are some of the limitations: 1. The students assessed in this study were drawn from the rural schools, because majority of the BRAC schools are in the rural areas. Thus, this study presents the situation of the BRAC schools in rural areas only. Urban non-formal schools were not considered in this study. 2. Again, only the cognitive competencies were assessed. However, objective of any education programme is to develop both cognitive and non-cognitive aspects of the students’ ability. 3. Only those students who were present in school on the day of the test were considered in sampling frame. Thus, a section of the students might be uncovered due to absenteeism. However, error due to this reason is limited because of high attendance rate in BRAC schools. 5
FINDINGS BACKGROUND OF THE TEACHERS In addition to students’ competencies assessment some information on teachers educational qualifications and teaching experience were collected. These are presented below. Non-formal school: Out of 60 non-formal schoolteachers, information of 59 could be collected. All of them were females. About a quarter of the teachers had nine years of schooling, 62% received secondary school certificate (SSC), and 13.7% had higher secondary school certificate (HSC) or a Bachelor degree. Average year of schooling was 10.1 years. The teachers had a wide range of teaching experience – newly recruited to 17 years. On average, they had 6.8 years of teaching experience. Community school: There were 129 teachers in 29 community schools – on average 4.5 teachers per school. Only 4% of them were males. Nearly 10% of the teachers were below SSC, 61% had completed SSC, and 31% with an HSC or a bachelor degree. On average, the teachers had 10.7 years of schooling. They were newly recruited to seven years of teaching experience. Eighty percent of the teachers had less than five years of teaching experience. Formal school: There were 48 teachers in 11 BRAC formal schools. All of them were females. None of them were below SSC. Of the teachers, 39.6% had SSC, 35.4% HSC and 16.7% had Bachelor or Masters degree. On average, these teachers had 11.6 years of schooling. The average teaching experience was 2.7 years per teacher. STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE Achievement in Bangla Of the four competencies in Bangla, three were considered for assessment. These are reading, writing and listening. No vocabulary test was taken. Ten questions were placed in this section of the test. Table 3 provides a summary of the competencies, test items and minimum level of qualifying each of the competencies in Bangla. Table 3. Competencies, test items, and minimum levels for Bangla Competency
Test items
Minimum level
Reading
• •
Answer two questions from a printed paragraph Answer two questions from a hand written paragraph
Writing
• • • •
Answer correctly any three Describe a given scenery in four sentences on the left Describe own home in four sentences Fill out a form with eight blanks (any six is acceptable) Write an application with date, salutation, and closing (message with any two acceptable)
Listening
•
Answer two questions based on a pre-recorded paragraph
Answer one correctly Answer one correctly
Answer one correctly
6
Over three quarters of the students of non-formal and community schools achieved the reading skills in Bangla, while it was nearly 83% among the students of formal schools. In case of writing skills, nearly three quarters of the students of non-formal and community schools satisfied the minimum level, which was 85.1% among the students of formal schools. The minimum requirement for the listening skills was fulfilled by over three quarters of the nonformal school students, 82.4% of the community school students and 91.8% of the formal school students (Table 4). Table 4. Percentage of students achieving Bangla competencies by school type Competencies
School type Community 77.0 73.8
Reading Writing
Non-formal 78.1 74.6
Formal 82.8 85.1
Listening
76.7
82.4
91.8
All three
50.2
52.6
67.3
Level of significance NF v C NF v F CvF ns p
