Multigrade Teaching in Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons from Uganda, Senegal, and The Gambia (World Bank Working Papers)

In Africa, with the expansion of coverage of primary education in recent decades, many of the remaining out-of-school children are in hard to reach areas, with low population density and poor transport. Providing access to education is challenging in such contexts, as the population in any village is often too small to support a conventional primary school. One of the answers is the use of multigrade teaching, where one teacher works with students of two or more grades. This paper examines the practice of multigrade teaching in three African countries, Uganda, Senegal, and The Gambia. Although these three cases had very different approaches to multigrade, their experiences suggest that multigrade teaching is a promising and cost-effective option, but that successful implementation requires sustained support from policymakers, adequate training of teachers, and careful explanation of the approach to parents and the communities. Multigrade teaching is an increasingly important policy option for African countries as they seek to provide schooling for out-of-school children in areas of low population density. In multigrade teaching, a teacher works with students from two or more grade levels at the same time, in a single classroom. This study examines the challenges of implementing and supporting multigrade teaching through case studies of multigrade schooling in Uganda, Senegal, and The Gambia. These three countries offered different perspectives. In Uganda the schools observed mainly used one teacher to teach two grades, and had benefitted from a pilot project that had provided specialist training for teachers and additional learning materials. In Senegal, there were different models of multigrade schooling, including some experimental one-teacher schools. In The Gambia, multigrade teaching was being used largely by default, as shortages of teachers left some schools with more classes than teachers. From these three very varied cases, some general patterns emerged. Multigrade teaching was widely used in all three countries. It was estimated that 20 percent of primary schools in Uganda and 18 percent in Senegal had some multigrade classes. In most cases this use of multigrade teaching was not part of a planned initiative, but a practical response to teacher shortages. Multigrade teaching is a promising option for provision of education services in small schools. In Uganda the quality of the pilot multigrade schools was perceived to be comparable to monograde schools in the same area, attendance and retention were higher, and examination results were similar Contents......Page 4 Foreword......Page 6 Acknowledgments......Page 7 Abbreviations and Acronyms......Page 8 Executive Summary......Page 9 1. Introduction......Page 12 Education for All......Page 13 Table 1: Calculation of Population Required to Support a Full Primary School......Page 14 Table 3: Estimates of the Proportion of Multigrade Classes or Schools in Developing Countries......Page 16 Associated Benefits of Multigrade Teaching......Page 17 Alternatives to Multigrade Strategies......Page 20 Organization of Multigrade Teaching......Page 22 Table 4: Primary Schools in Uganda with Less than Seven Teachers......Page 24 Senegal......Page 27 Box 1: Reflections of a Teacher in a One-Teacher School (ECU)......Page 29 Curriculum Flexibility......Page 32 School Management......Page 34 Teaching and Learning Resources......Page 35 Box 2: Resource Materials—Escuela Nueva......Page 36 Box 3: Parents’ Comments about Multigrade Schooling in Uganda......Page 37 Box 4: Senegalese Teachers' Comments about Multigrade Teaching......Page 39 Professional Support......Page 40 Box 5: A Multigrade Teacher’s View......Page 41 Table 7: Uganda: Results for the 2005 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE)......Page 43 References......Page 47 Table 6: Comparison of Teacher Costs in Multigrade and Monograde Schools (based on seven grades in primary education)......Page 38 Figure 1: GER and Distance to School, Rural Access Initiative......Page 15 Box 6: Multigrade Teaching—An Experience in Lesotho......Page 42