Improving Enrollment and Learning through Videos and Mobiles : Experimental Evidence from Northern Nigeria

In northern Nigeria, half of primary school-age children attend school, half of girls are married before turning 15, and one in five people can read a whole sentence. Conducted in rural, low literate communities governed by traditional norms, this paper presents the results of a cluster randomized controlled trial that tested community screenings to reshape parental aspirations and attitudes toward education, and as a reinforcing arm, the distribution of mobiles with engaging apps to teach 6-9-year-old children to read. Twelve months after the screenings, children were 42 percent less likely to be out of school, but as expected, their learning levels did not improve. In the communities that were provided the mobile reinforcer, literacy and numeracy skills increased by 0.46 and 0.63 standard deviation, respectively. The impacts of the combined intervention on school attendance and learning gains were similar for boys and girls. For non-targeted older siblings, the intervention increased learning by 0.34 and 0.47 standard deviation and reduced the likelihood of teenage pregnancy and early entrance into the labor market by 13 and 14 percent, respectively. The mechanisms behind these effects include improved parental aspirations and expectations, improved attitudes and social norms, higher self-efficacy beliefs of parents, and increased time for home learning activities. Relative to other educational investments that have been evaluated in developing countries, the combined intervention is highly effective and cost-effective