Promoting Family and Teacher’s Engagement Through Nudges

Eduq+’s nudges motivate families and teachers to take small steps toward adopting behaviors with the potential to enhance learning. Eduq+ sends 2 SMS or IVR messages per week to parents and teachers in Côte d’Ivoire to make the importance of education top-of-mind, encourage parents to be more involved in their children’s school life, and motivate and support teachers to show up in class and put best practices to use. Eduq+ also allows schools to communicate directly with parents through a tablet-based platform that enables effortless broadcasting of school memos and systematic communication with parents about children’s attendance and school performance. The Ministry of Education has access to dashboards that aggregate and visualize data and can predict in real-time which schools are more likely to experience dropouts or absenteeism.

In the short run, Eduq+’s nudges should make parents more involved in their children’s school life and more engaged in their development, as well as make teachers more motivated and able to improve their teaching practices. If these changes take place, in the medium run, children should feel supported by their parents and teachers, improve socio-emotional skills, and become more engaged in school activities, have higher attendance, and improve their performance. Finally, in the long run, Ivorian youth should have higher educational attainment, access better job opportunities, and act as responsible citizens in their communities, with a higher quality of life.