Assessment data from secondary schools shows gains concentrated in schools that trained teachers before distributing equipment.
Two schools can receive identical equipment and produce entirely different results. The difference, according to assessment data across three states, is whether teachers were trained and whether the power stayed on.
Schools that ran teacher training for a full term before handing out devices recorded measurable improvements in mathematics and reading. Schools that distributed first saw equipment sit unused or break without replacement.
The unglamorous requirements
Reliable electricity, a locked storeroom, a maintenance budget and one designated staff member responsible for the equipment predicted success better than the specification of the devices themselves.
Head teachers reported that the single most useful intervention was a small recurring repair budget, because a cracked screen otherwise removes a device permanently.
“The technology was never the intervention. The training and the repair budget were.”Chinelo Obi, principal, Government Secondary School, Nsukka
What to watch
The next assessment cycle will test whether the gains hold into the following academic year, when the novelty has passed.
Sources and documents
- State education ministry assessment results
- Interviews with teachers and school administrators
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