Evaluation of alternative school feeding models on childrens - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Evaluation of alternative school feeding models on children’s educational outcomes: preliminary findings from a cluster randomised control trial

GHANA EDUCATION EVIDENCE SUMMIT 2017 28 March 2017

• Dr. Clement Adamba

School of Education and Leadership, University of Ghana

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Other colleagues Felix Asante1, Elisabetta Aurino2, Irene Ayi1, Kwasebena Bosompem1, Gloria Folson1, Lesley Drake2, Aulo Gelli3, Meena Fernandes1, Edoardo Masset4, Isaac Osei-Akoto1 , Getrude Ananse-Baiden2

1University of Ghana, Ghana 2 Imperial College London, UK 3 IFPRI, US 4 3ie, UK

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School feeding Education Nutrition and health

School feeding as a policy linking education, health and agriculture

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Agriculture SME development

• Simple idea but programmes are complex!

– Managing complexity and trade-offs across objectives is not straightforward

Figure 1:

What we do know so far about school feeding and education is that …. Overall weighted average effect Number of studies

ACCESS TO SCHOOLING

Enrolment

0.14* 7

Attendance

0.09* 6

Dropout

–0.06* 3

Completion

2 LEARNING OUTCOMES

Language arts scores

0.09* 8

Math scores

0.10* 10

Composite test score

0.14 3

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Source: Snilstveit and others 2015.

The Ghana School Feeding Programme

• Launched in 2005
• Hot, cooked meal to children in public schools
• 2012: 1 in 3 children enrolled in public schools

were beneficiaries

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First rigorous evaluation of school feeding in Ghana

• Theory-based impact evaluation designed around scale-up of GSFP in order to

expand the linkages between the programme and local agriculture in high food insecurity areas

• 116 schools across all regions of Ghana
• Randomisation
• 58 school feeding schools

29 SF standard GSFP model 29 HGSF+ pilot (GSFP + agriculture/nutrition package)

• 58 no school feeding (pure controls, get SF after year 3)
• 3 year study in partnership with Government of Ghana, University of Ghana,

Partnership for Child Development at Imperial College and IFPRI

• Baseline in 2013 and endline in 2016

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58 districts (116 schools) 29 HGSF+ districts (58 schools) 29 GSFP districts (58 schools) 29 HGSF+ schools (725 HH) 29 control schools (580 HH) 29 control schools (580 HH) 29 GSFP schools (725 HH)

1st stage randomisation 2nd stage randomisation

Randomisation

Figure 2:

Main educational outcomes

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Indicator Metric Educational access Children’s enrolment, attendance, grade repetition and drop out Attention and cognition Digit span, Raven matrices: 12 questions Learning achievement Scores

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literacy and maths tests: 15 questions each

Descriptive statistics

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Arm School level 2013 2016 Control KG 78.2 51.4 Primary 97.6 101.0 JHS 46.5 71.4 GSFP KG 81.0 57.5 Primary 101.7 111.0 JHS 49.4 66.0 GHSF+ KG 81.8 62.1 Primary 98.6 102.4 JHS 50.2 71.1 Table 1: Gross enrolment

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Figure 4: Net Enrolment at the Primary School level

• 10.0

20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 Control GSFP GHSF+

Baseline Endline % Change

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0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 Control GSF HGSF Baseline Endline Change

Figure 5: Net Enrolment at the Junior High School level

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Figure 4: Percent that missed a school day

0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 2013 2016 2013 2016 Female Boys

Control GSFP

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• 2. Mixed effects models
• Mixed-effects models (multi-level regression models) account

for the hierarchical nature of the data.

Impact evaluation analytical approach

Two main approaches:

• 1. Difference-in-Differences (DD) estimator

Design group Baseline Follow-up Difference Treatment A B B - A Control C D D - C Difference A - D B - C DD = (B - A) - (D - C)

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• The school feeding increases the likelihood of

enrolment by about 2%**.

Impact on School enrolment

• Net enrolment at Kindergarten level increased

by nearly 13% and 11% in regular GSF & HGSF schools respectively

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Table 2: Impact results of GSF and HGSF on Schooling outcomes

Estimate Repeated grade Missed a day Dropped out GSF/HGSF (Control)

• 0.183

0.137

• 0.005

(0.126) (0.216) (0.453) HGSF (GSF) 0.017

• 0.781**
• 0.101

(0.190) (0.304) (0.652)

• Reduce the chance of missing a school day by 6.87%

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Impact on learning and cognition

Table 3: Impact results of GSF and HGSF on learning outcomes

Estimate Literacy Maths Raven test Digit span GSF+HGSF (Control) 0.040 0.051 0.039

• 0.030

(0.039) (0.041) (0.032) (0.029) HGSF (GSF)

• 0.010

0.054 0.076 0.035 (0.111) (0.103) (0.087) (0.068)

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Table 4: Impact results of GSF on learning outcomes, by sex Estimate Literacy Maths Raven test Digit span HGSF (GSF) Boys 0.013 0.064 0.113 0.066 (0.136) (0.105) (0.096) (0.083) Girls

• 0.037

0.042 0.033 0.001 (0.119) (0.127) (0.096) (0.070)

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• Girls (6-12 years) in Primary school that

received the GSF/HGSF performed significantly higher in Literacy and Maths test.

Table 5: Impact results of GSF and HGSF on learning outcomes by sex

• f child

Estimate Literacy Maths Raven test Digit span GSF+HGSF (Control) Boys

• 0.031
• 0.004

0.008

• 0.069*

(0.055) (0.056) (0.044) (0.040)

Girls

0.127** 0.120** 0.079* 0.017 (0.057) (0.059) (0.046) (0.043)

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This translates to:

• Language art -13.5%
• Mathematics - 12.7%
• Raven test - 8.2%
• Conversely, SF appears to have a negative impact on

boys’ reasoning ability. Reduced boys reasoning ability by about 7%.

• This requires further investigation to unravel the cause
• f this unintended negative outcome.

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Time-Use SF Control Diff Hours spent on care or chores 1.66 1.60 0.06 Hours spent at work in farm or for pay 0.62 0.69

• 0.07*

Hours spent in leisurely activities 2.10 2.11

• 0.01

Hours spent at school or studying 6.39 5.96 0.43*** Observations 5124

• One of the pathways to the improvement in learning
• utcomes, we think, is the changing time use by children

in school feeding schools Table 6: Children time use

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• This points to a somewhat protective role of school

feeding for children.

• Reduced time spent at work and 25.8 additional

minutes per day spent at school or studying.

• This was strong for girls in school feeding areas, who

spent 31.8 additional minutes per day at school or in study as compared to boys (19.8 additional minutes).

Concluding remarks

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• In-school meals have positive impact on enrolment and on girls learning and

reasoning outcomes.

• Reduces or eliminates delayed enrolment and encourages enrolment at the

appropriate age.

• There is need to take measures;

enhance the nutritional value of the meals provided sustain the gains made in increased enrolment by paying attention to retention

and completion.

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Thank you