Improving Student Learning in Remote Areas with Digital Tools, A Randomized Experiment in Rural Senegal

In Senegal, as in many low-income countries, the national school enrollment rate has significantly increased over the last two decades (Glewwe et al., 2013). Despite this notable progress, Senegal faces important challenges regarding the quality of its education system, and learning remains low in the country, a phenomenon widely observed across the world and often referred to as the “global learning crisis” (UNESCO, 2013). Many factors can be at play: teacher quality, instructional support, heterogeneous class levels, or Internet access. These factors are particularly salient in the most deprived and remote areas, resulting in large regional disparities.

We are evaluating the impact of delivering a digital kit to primary schools in the Kedougou region in Senegal. A kit comprises a computer, several tablets, a video projector, and an offline library containing many different text, video, and audio files available to teachers and students on various digital devices. A trainer is assigned to each school and assists the teachers twice a month to help them use the devices, advise them on the documents they can use for their lessons, or solve any technical issues. In addition, a monthly session gathers all the equipped schools from a province to favor discussions between teachers on their experiences.

We are conducting a large-scale Randomized Control Trial (RCT) on a sample of 140 primary schools in the region. Out of this sample, 70 schools have been randomly assigned to benefit from this digital kit. We conducted a baseline data collection in October 2023 and an endline data collection in May 2024 on the 140 schools to evaluate the effects of this intervention on grade 3 and grade 5 teachers and students. On the one hand, we are considering the impact on teachers’ knowledge and pedagogical practices using a self-declared questionnaire, a knowledge test in Mathematics and French, and an evaluation of their pedagogical skills using the TEACH evaluation tool developed by the World Bank. On the other hand, we evaluate the effects on student learning in Mathematics and French using a test answered by grade 3 and grade 5 students in class. We will also use administrative data from the Ministry of Education to evaluate the effects on the end-of-primary school national test and their access to middle school.