GIS
Using GIS to compare pupil to classroom ratios in Sierra Leone
Tuesday 15th June, 2021
On Monday 26 April, as part of the Global Action Week For Education (GAWE), the ONE Campaign, the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and Save the Children will launch the Lost Potential Tracker, an interactive tool that measures the shocking scale of the global learning crisis.
It reveals that more than 393 million children and counting have failed to gain the basic literacy skills at age 10 since world leaders adopted the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. By employing official World Bank and UNESCO ‘learning poverty’ figures, and UN population data of all 10-year-olds, education experts and the public can now track, in real-time, the increasing number of children who are unable to read and understand a simple story by age 10 since 2015. The Lost Potential Tracker also makes accessible the stories of children affected by the global learning crisis and allows users to step into the shoes of a policymaker and experience first-hand how effective financing can help turn the tide for children.
Without a commitment to effectively fund education for all, we will not only fail to deliver on education promises by 2030 but will also risk losing out on the next generation of doctors, teachers, and leaders.
Alasdair Mackintosh and Paul Atherton from Fab Inc. were hired as consultants and spearheaded the methodology, conducted all data analysis, and wrote the report.
Fab Inc host panel session at CIES 2021
Monday 26th April, 2021
Fab Inc will host a panel session at CIES 2021 on Optimizing Prediction to Strengthen Education Systems. The panel will feature three presentations:
- Using a Markov chain model to estimate the impact of COVID-19 on the Rwandan education system. Zia Khan, Laterite
- Using machine learning at a community-level to improve education intervention targeting by predicting non-enrolment of girls in India. Sid Ravinutala, IDinsight
- Using machine learning at a child-level to predict the children most at risk of not entering or dropping out of education in Sierra Leone. Kevin Pye, Fab Inc
Chair: María José Ogando Portela, Fab Inc, discussant: Dr Caine Rolleston, UCL Institute of Education
Majo Ogando's Young Lives Video Abstract
Wednesday 14th April, 2021
In this video abstract for Young Lives, María José Ogando Portela discusses her and Dr Paul Atherton’s paper on First Generation Learners and introduce a dynamic definition – using longitudinal data to identify where children become a first generation learner by reaching a grade not reached by their parents.
Fab Inc blog post for Teacher Taskforce
Monday 22nd March, 2021
Dr Paul Atherton and Alasdair Mackintosh have written a blog post on Enhancing teacher deployment in Sierra Leone: Using spatial analysis to address disparity for International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030.
Fab Inc and the Education Commission present work on workforce planning at the #EduWorkforceLebanon event
Friday 19th March, 2021
“GIS offers a visual and more nuanced understanding of teacher shortages, and it helps identify local solutions” says Ally Mackintosh.
UNICEF Education launch toolkit for Girl's Education in Emergencies
Monday 1st March, 2021
The writing team included Silvia Guglielmi, Nicola Jones, Susan Nicolai, Paola Pereznieto, Georgia Plank and Nhung Vu (ODI); Ingrid Sanchez-Tapia (UNICEF); and Alasdair Mackintosh (Fab Inc).
Education Commission publishes Fab Inc's background papers for the Education Workforce Initiative
Tuesday 15th December, 2020
The Education Workforce Initiative (EWI), funded by UK Aid, partnered with Fab Inc. and Sierra Leone’s Teaching Service Commission (TSC) to support strengthening the education workforce. The research and analysis applied a systemic lens across the workforce lifecycle, considering how to improve the supply and demand of teachers across Sierra Leone, but especially in the most disadvantaged areas.
The project worked adaptively and collaboratively with stakeholders across government, teacher unions, and development partners to produce a series of research and policy papers aimed at supporting both government policymaking and development partner activities. These five evidence papers covered key aspects of the education workforce: management; spatial analysis; supply and needs; recruitment and matching; and costed options.
- Education Workforce Management in Sierra Leone (PDF 2.1MB)
- Education Workforce Spatial Analysis in Sierra Leone (PDF 2.2MB
- Education Workforce Supply and Needs in Sierra Leone (PDF 1.8MB)
- Education Workforce Recruitment and Matching in Sierra Leone (PDF 1.7MB)
- Education Workforce Costed Options Paper (PDF 1.7MB)
Education Commission publishes Education Workforce Initiative Country Report
Monday 23rd November, 2020
Between February 2019 and September 2020, the Education Commission’s Education Workforce Initiative (EWI), funded by UK Aid, partnered with Fab Inc. and Sierra Leone’s Teaching Service Commission (TSC) to support their education workforce reform efforts. The aim of the project was to work with TSC to research, analyse, and propose solutions for improving the supply and demand of teachers in the most disadvantaged areas.
Dr Paul Atherton and María José Ogando Portela's article on first generation learners is published
Tuesday 17th November, 2020
Outsmarting your parents: Being a first-generation learner in developing countries
Abstract: We use data from the Young Lives surveys, in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam, to highlight an underappreciated phenomenon—that a substantial proportion of students in developing countries are the first in their families to go to school. We term these students first‐generation learners (FGLs). We both propose a simple “static” definition of FGL status—where a child’s parents have no education attainment—and utilise the panel dynamics of the Young Lives data set to look at a “dynamic” definition—where the child, in any given round of data collection, is enrolled at a level which his or her parents did not reach. We show descriptive statistics on the scale of this problem across the four countries. We find strong, consistent patterns of relative educational deprivation for FGLs. We tentatively explore the pathways through which FGL status may affect outcomes and find possible explanations through an inability to support with homework and lower aspirations. We look at how becoming an FGL affects the probability of being in school using child fixed‐effects estimations and find it increases the vulnerability of children to drop out.
Review of Development Economics, Vol. 24, Issue 4, November 2020
Education Commission publishes Education Workforce Initiative Flipbook
Friday 13th November, 2020
This flipbook was designed to showcase the discussion and policy papers developed by Fab Inc. (on behalf of the Education Commission), to help the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) strengthen further the education workforce. It is part of the wider Education Workforce Initiative (EWI) and builds on the Transforming the Education Workforce report. Sierra Leone has been a key partner in this initiative. This work builds on a phase one scoping study that focused on options to strengthen the workforce. The aim of the project was to work with the TSC to research, analyse, and propose solutions for increasing the number of qualified, specialised and effective teachers in disadvantaged schools.
Alasdair Mackintosh, Ana Ramírez, Paul Atherton, Victoria Collis, Miriam Mason-Sesay, and Claudius Bart-Williams. (2020)
