Facts & Figures

REGIONS IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE

Rural areas in the departments of Duékoué, Guiglo, and Bangolo.

TIMELINE

2016–2021

TARGETED POPULATION

Out-of-school children aged 9–13

FACILITATORS/ENABLERS/TRAINERS

  • Facilitators of bridging classes
  • National trainers from the Ministry of Education

KEY OBJECTIVES

  • 5,510 out-of-school children transitioned to formal schooling
  • 161 facilitators trained

PARTNERS

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About the project

Bridging classes offer out-of-school children aged 9 to 13, including those involved in child labor, a second chance to reintegrate or integrate into formal schooling.

Challenge

Significant progress has been made in Côte d’Ivoire regarding basic education since the implementation of the compulsory schooling policy. However, there are significant regional disparities, leaving 1.6 million children aged 6 to 16 outside the school system, including more than 430,000 for primary school alone. While some are enrolled in Islamic non-formal education structures or in informal community schools, many others are simply deprived of their right to education.

Poverty, distance to schools, poor quality of education, and low parental awareness of the importance of education are some of the underlying causes of this situation. Out-of-school children are often exposed to child labor and deprived of their right to education. This leaves them few opportunities to develop their full potential and break the cycle of poverty.

Solution

Bridging classes have been developed in the sub-region and in Côte d’Ivoire as a solution to bring out-of-school children up to grade level through accelerated learning programs, and enroll, or re-enroll them, in the government school system. Target beneficiaries participate in a nine-month accelerated learning program, during which they are taught reading, math, and other relevant topics to bring them up to grade level. At the end of the program, children can enter third, fourth, or fifth grade in the government primary school system, depending on their test scores.

To further enhance the learning experience, the Ministry of Education together with TaRL Africa has begun to explore how to support facilitators of bridging classes teaching more effectively through child-centered approaches.

Results to date

3,968 out-of-school children have been enrolled in bridging classes and attend regularly. They were integrated into the formal public primary schools in October 2019.

Scientific evidence

A randomized evaluation of the Speed School program implemented by the Strømme Foundation in Mali found that a large majority (89%) of out-of-school children completed the nine-month program. On average, the Speed School graduates saw significant gains in math and language skills, putting them on track with their peers, and most of the graduates entered back into the school system.

Pioneered by Pratham, one of the largest NGOs in India, the Teaching at the Right Level approach has generated some of the largest effect sizes ever rigorously measured in the education literature (Banerjee et al., 2017). Its adaptation to bridging classes is an innovation piloted in the context of the TRECC program.

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