Numeracy at Scale: Introducing a New Study on Successful, Large-Scale Numeracy Interventions

A few reflections

Undertaking this selection process for numeracy programs has led to some reflections (several of which build from our program selection under Learning at Scale): 

1. Numeracy programs remain limited

Because numeracy-focused implementation in LMICs is more nascent than that of literacy, it was difficult to find large-scale programs (at all—let alone those with evidence of impact on student outcomes). As argued in a recent piece in the Financial Times, unless numeracy receives the same level of focus as literacy in low-income countries, we are destined to continue to see numeracy programs and outcomes lagging behind.

2. Unique donor focus on numeracy

Under the first phase of Learning at Scale, we found that the landscape of large-scale literacy programs with evidence of effectiveness was dominated by USAID. As seen in the table above, however, the majority of selected numeracy programs were funded by ‘smaller’ international donors (such as JICA) or local foundations. [Note: Prior to being taken up by the government, ESMATE and R Maths were funded by JICA and local foundations, respectively.] It’s exciting to see this focus on numeracy from these donors but it once again points to numeracy’s backseat position in the early grade development space.

3. Data availability impacted by COVID

Over the past two and a half years, school closures led to changes in program implementation, as well as limited data collection opportunities to measure program impact. Therefore, nearly all of the programs selected for this study were chosen based on evidence generated prior to the pandemic. While rigorous evaluation data has always been important to understand what works, a renewed focus on measuring impacts is essential for the sector to move forward with evidence-based approaches.

4. Government-led programming is on the rise

It’s no secret that transfer of responsibility from external implementers to government actors remains an elusive prospect in most LMICs. When Learning at Scale began, there was little to no evidence of government-sustained programming in these contexts. However, we are now able to identify two effective programs that were initiated by implementing partners, which have been fully taken-up by governments (in South Africa and El Salvador). This is an incredibly promising trend for the development community, which has the goal of ultimately working itself out of a job.

The next step in the Numeracy at Scale study is for us to conduct primary data collection activities (at the school, program and system level) to better understand the essential components of the successful, large-scale numeracy interventions selected for this activity. That effort is currently underway and will continue for the next several months. We are very interested in finding out more about what these programs do in classrooms, how they support teachers, and how they interact with government systems in order to ensure large-scale impact on learning.

We will continue to provide updates to the broader education community through blogs, briefs and dissemination events, as we move forward with this research.

Improving learning at scale is very hard, but we are excited to discover how these six programs did it and to help others learn from them.