Education Quality Improvement Programme Impact Evaluation Baseline Survey 2014-2015 (Tanzania)

Abstract

The Education Quality Improvement Programme in Tanzania (EQUIP-T) is a large, four-year Department for International Development (DFID) funded programme. It targets some of the most educationally disadvantaged regions in Tanzania to increase the quality of primary education and improve pupil learning outcomes, in particular for girls. EQUIP-T covers seven regions in Tanzania and has five components: 1) enhanced professional capacity and performance of teachers; 2) enhanced school leadership and management skills; 3) strengthened systems that support the district and regional management of education; 4) strengthened community participation and demand for accountability; and 5) strengthened learning and dissemination of results. Together, changes in these five outputs are intended to reduce constraints on pupil learning and thereby contribute to better-quality education (outcome) and ultimately improved pupil learning (impact).

The independent impact evaluation (IE) of EQUIP-T conducted by Oxford Policy Management Ltd (OPM) is a four-year study funded by DFID. It covers five of the seven programme regions (the two regions that will join EQUIP-T in a later phase are not included) and the first four EQUIP-T components (see above). The IE uses a mixed methods approach where qualitative and quantitative methods are integrated. The baseline approach consists of three main parts to allow the IE to: 1) capture the situation prior to the start of EQUIP-T so that changes can be measured during the follow-up data collection rounds; impact attributable to the programme assessed and mechanisms for programme impact explored; 2) develop an expanded programme theory of change to help inform possible programme adjustments; and 3) provide an assessment of the education situation in some of the most educationally disadvantaged regions in Tanzania to the Government and other education stakeholders.

This approach includes:

- Quantitative survey of 100 government primary schools in 17 programme treatment districts and 100 schools in eight control districts in 2014, 2016 and 2018 covering:
* Standard three pupils
* Teachers who teach standards 1-3 Kiswahili and/or mathematics;
* Teachers who teach standards 4-7 mathematics;
* Head teachers; and
* Standard two lesson observations in Kiswahili and mathematics.

- Qualitative fieldwork in nine research sites that overlap with a sub-set of the quantitative survey schools, in 2014, 2016 and 2018, consisting of key informant interviews (KIIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) with head teachers, teachers, pupils, parents, school committee (SC) members, region, district and ward education officials and EQUIP-T programme staff; and

- A mapping of causal mechanisms, and assessment of the strength of assumptions underpinning the programme theory of change using qualitative and quantitative IE baseline data as well as national and international evidence.

The data and documentation contained in the World Bank Microdata Catalog are those from the EQUIP-T IE quantitative baseline survey conducted in 2014. For information on the qualitative research findings see OPM. 2015b. EQUIP-Tanzania Impact Evaluation. Final Baseline Technical Report, Volume II: Methods and Technical Annexes.