Description

In more than 100 primary schools in 20 Districts across Uganda, World Vision has facilitated community dialogue, advocacy and monitoring of standards to improve access, quality and accountability of education services. World Vision’s social accountability approach, known as Citizen Voice and Action (CVA), has resulted in statistically significant reductions in student and teacher absenteeism and improvements in student test scores.

The CVA approach has also made important contributions to increased enrolment of students – including cases where the number of students has doubled, tripled and more than quadrupled in only two years. Improved student teacher ratios and increased access to student nutrition have had significant impact on academic performance. In several cases, the academic results have been the best in the school’s history.

What is CVA?
CVA combines several elements of social accountability. These include civic education, a community score card, a social audit, monitoring of government standards, an interface meeting which brings together all stakeholders, and, finally, community-driven advocacy based on the evidence gathered from the other activities.

Results
In 2011, Oxford University and Makerere University researchers tested the impact of the CVA “community score card” methodology in 100 schools through a random control trial, which found:

o A .19 standard deviation increase in test scores in the treatment communities using the CVA scorecard. This increase would move the average student from the 50th to the 58th percentile.
o An 8-10 percent increase in pupil attendance in the treatment communities using the CVA scorecard.
o A 13 percent reduction in teacher absenteeism

Independent data collection by World Vision shows additional impact. After the introduction of the CVA approach, 51percent of schools received additional teachers. In 25 percent of cases there was an increase of two or more staff, and in eight percent of cases there were four new teachers recruited. In 74 percent of the schools, enrolment of students increased. In 25 percent of schools where enrolment increased, the increase was between 32 and 400 percent in just two years.

In 60 percent of the schools the overall academic performance improved including increased numbers of students passing exams and higher test scores. In 14 percent of these cases Grade 3 and Grade 2 (one grade below a distinction) was achieved for the first time in the school’s history. In eight percent of cases, children achieved distinctions. In 11percent of these schools, there was a 100 percent pass rate for the primary school leaving exam.

Three schools had either none or one student pass their primary leaving exam. In the following year, 17, 23 and 27 students passed respectively. The grades achieved were also historic achievements for the schools.

How does CVA work?
Citizen Voice and Action works by equipping communities with a simple set of tools to monitor and improve the delivery of basic services in the places they live. For example, school communities in Uganda, including parents, teachers and students, used the CVA tools to document how the lack of a mid-day meal was causing absenteeism and poor performance in schools. Parents began to provide meals, which increased enrolment. When enrolment increased, communities were better able to mount a case to the District for more teachers, which ultimately contributed to improved academic performance.

Communities also attribute the changes to the much improved relationship between teachers and parents, supported by the “community gathering” meetings convened during the CVA process. They cited greater understanding of staff resource constraints and community experiences. These findings are corroborated in the Oxford and Makerere research mentioned above, which found that communities using the CVA tools were 16 percent more likely to invest in the common good.

Another critical success factor is the collective action that CVA encourages. When politicians support their local communities and teachers, the effect of the united pressure on sub-national government has played a crucial role. Many District officials have conceded the collective pressure has influenced their decisions to recruit more staff and monitor the school management and performance. This collective pressure or group action, even the perception of it, has been identified by the World Bank in recent country research as the strongest determinant of service delivery.