Literacy and gender-focused school management in Northern Tanzania and Northern Nigeria

The TEGINT project is an initiative implemented by Maarifa ni Ufunguo in Tanzania and CAPP in Nigeria, with the support of ActionAid and funded by Comic Relief. The overall goal of the project is to achieve a transformation in the education of girls in Tanzania and Nigeria, enabling them to enrol and succeed in school by addressing key challenges and obstacles that hinder their participation in education and increase their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. The project works with girls, boys, teachers, parents and communities, school management committees and policymakers. To facilitate the analysis of data collected for the project baseline, information was gathered into two composite indicators to help increase our understanding of the impact of different variables on girls’ enrolment and retention. Our analysis showed that there was likely to be a positive impact on girls’ education if there was a high level of women’s literacy in the community, school managers and teachers were trained on and taking actions on issues related to gender and HIV/AIDS. While these factors may not seem surprising, the paper supports TEGINT’s assertion that what will make a difference in girls’ education is understanding how these factors interact and creating opportunities to evaluate process and change. The paper concludes that the impact of women’s literacy on girls’ education cannot be understated and challenges policymakers to go beyond conventional programming and examine opportunities for working on adult literacy as part of interventions on girls’ education. 1. Background: The Transforming Education for Girls in Nigeria and Tanzania Project The Transforming Education for Girls in Nigerian and Tanzania (TEGINT) project is working with 132 schools across Northern Nigeria and Northern Tanzania. The project is implemented by Community Action for Popular Participation (CAPP) in Nigeria and Maarifa ni Ufunguo in Tanzania, with support from ActionAid in both countries and at the international level. The project began with an inception phase in 2007, and formally began implementation in 2008. The project aims to build evidence-based practice in tackling some of the gendered barriers that prevent girls from enrolling in and succeeding in school and protecting themselves from HIV/AIDS. The project works with three interlocking and mutually reinforcing strands: community intervention (working with girls, boys, parents, teachers and school management), evidence-based advocacy and research. 2. Methodology At the start of the project, a baseline study collected data from project schools in Northern Nigeria and Northern Tanzania. The research was guided by Professor Elaine Unterhalter and Jo Heslop at the Institute of Education, London, working in partnership with BERE at the University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and IDR at Amadhu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. The baseline aimed to uncover the reasons for the current gendered patterns in enrolment, attendance and progression, deepen understanding of the quality of provision and map out forms of mobilisation by communities.