Background

In northern Nigeria, adverse social norms and lack of information about the benefits of education greatly explain why more than 50% of children do not attend primary school, and when they do, they do not learn as much as they should. Fewer than 3% of children can read at their corresponding level.

To help educational systems leapfrog and improve learning outcomes, government and development partners need to test innovations and disruptive technologies.

A partnership between the Nigerian government, the Nigeria Partnership for Education Project (NIPEP), the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and the WB Development Impact Evaluation (DIME), this study tests two innovative interventions in northern Nigeria. The first intervention is a social norms campaign based on Discovery Learning Alliance (DLA) videos that consists of community screenings, the provision of information about the benefits of education, and post-screening discussions led by female facilitators structured around the aspirational and social norms messages of the edutainment screenings. The social norms campaign aims to increase school enrollment, attendance and retention rates, especially among girls. The second intervention, which takes place in half of the communities of the social norms campaign, is a mobile-based edutainment intervention that consists of educational games designed to teach how to read and digital books designed for early-grade readers. Consistent with recent experimental studies which have demonstrated high impact and community engagement, both interventions involve teachers and community leaders to strengthen links with school and community activities.