Beeline Reader
Executive Summary
Project Host
Aid for Rural Education Access Initiative
Fellows
Kaja Jasińska, Research Fellow
Similoluwa Lawoyin, Social Entrepreneur Fellow
Swetha Prakash, Social Entrepreneur Fellow
Introduction
244 million children are currently out of school worldwide. These children are at high risk of never obtaining functional literacy and numeracy, significantly jeopardizing their futures. AREAi has developed a model to teach out-of-school children in IDP camps in Nigeria functional literacy and numeracy skills, and are planning to scale their model to reach 10,000 children in 2023 and 100,000 children over the next 5 years. This report summarizes the learner journey of children in AREAi's program, outlines alternative approaches to scale-up, and develops a template and comprehensive assessment guide for evaluating the program's impacts in the short- and long-term. The report provides a useful template for other programs aiming to support vulnerable children’s academic development, as well as any organization planning to scale-up their model.
Organization’s role & strength
Established in 2014 and registered in 2017, Aid for Rural Education Access Initiative (AREAi) is a for-purpose nonprofit grassroots initiative that works with and in under-resourced schools and marginalized communities, providing technical and infrastructural support to scale learning outcomes and drive tangible academic achievement for vulnerable children and youth from low-income families. Its mission is to organize, mobilize, and channel human, material, physical, and financial resources towards creating multiple alternative and informal learning opportunities for marginalized populations to attain self-reliance. Through its programmatic interventions focused on foundational skills development, digital equity, girls' education, and school-to-work transitions, the organization has supported over 45,000 beneficiaries from 23 communities in 18 states across Nigeria. AREAi has worked with and received financial support from organizations such as the United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, the Malala Fund, the Coca-Cola Foundation, Global Changemakers, One Young World, and the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, among others.
Need summary
Having recently been assessed for scale-readiness by an independent body and placed at Level 2 on the widely-accepted Nesta Standards of Evidence framework, AREAi highlighted, among others, three key objectives:
Objective 1: Identify key questions to position for scale
Objective 2: Gain insights to increase impact return on investment
Objective 3: Strengthen the evidence base for FastTrack
Solution summary & next steps
We were pleased to come alongside AREAi to offer support in two overarching areas, with accompanying deliverables:
Overview of Program Design
Deliverable #1: End-to-end conceptual overview of the learner journey within the context of the program
Deliverable #2: Understanding the facilitator role in order to develop a framework for a scale-ready facilitator development program
Recommendations for Program Evaluation
Deliverable #3: A template to conduct a RCT to assess the impacts of the FastTrack program on children’s functional literacy and numeracy
Deliverable #4: Recommendations for appropriate assessments to measure learning and other relevant outcomes
We hope that our documentation of the FastTrack model, along with a framework for assessing its impact, spark scholarly interest and innovation / entrepreneurship so that more children, particularly in marginalized communities, have the opportunity to gain functional literacy and numeracy skills and achieve their life goals.