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Call Me Educated: Evidence from a Mobile Monitoring Experiment in Niger - Working Paper 406

Author

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  • Jenny C. Aker and Christopher Ksoll
Abstract
In rural areas of developing countries, education programs are often implemented through community teachers. While teachers are a crucial part of the education production function, observing their effort remains a challenge for the public sector. This paper tests whether a simple monitoring system, implemented via the mobile phone, can improve student learning as part of an adult education program. Using a randomized control trial in 160 villages in Niger, we randomly assigned villages to a mobile phone monitoring component, whereby teachers, students and the village chief were called on a weekly basis. There was no incentive component to the program. The monitoring intervention dramatically affected student performance: During the first year of the program, reading and math test scores were .15-.30 s.d. higher in monitoring villages than in nonmonitoring villages, with relatively stronger effects in the region where monitoring was weakest and for teachers for whom the outside option was lowest. We provide more speculative evidence on the mechanisms behind these effects, namely, teacher and student effort and motivation.

Suggested Citation

  • Jenny C. Aker and Christopher Ksoll, 2015. "Call Me Educated: Evidence from a Mobile Monitoring Experiment in Niger - Working Paper 406," Working Papers 406, Center for Global Development.
    • Handle: RePEc:cgd:wpaper:406
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    File URL: http://www.cgdev.org/publication/call-me-educated-evidence-mobile-monitoring-experiment-niger-working-paper-406
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Cilliers, Jacobus & Kasirye, Ibrahim & Leaver, Clare & Serneels, Pieter & Zeitlin, Andrew, 2018. "Pay for locally monitored performance? A welfare analysis for teacher attendance in Ugandan primary schools," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 69-90.
    2. Thomas Eekhout & Jean‐Philippe Berrou & François Combarnous, 2023. "Entrepreneurs' mobile phone appropriation and technical efficiency of informal firms in Dakar (Senegal)," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(6), pages 1429-1455, August.
    3. Kaitlin Anderson & Gema Zamarro & Jennifer Steele & Trey Miller, 2021. "Comparing Performance of Methods to Deal With Differential Attrition in Randomized Experimental Evaluations," Evaluation Review, , vol. 45(1-2), pages 70-104, February.
    4. Kirui, O., 2018. "Skill Development, Human Capital and Economic Outcomes: Impact of Post-Secondary Education among Smallholder Farmers in Africa," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277068, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    adult education; mobile phones; Niger;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights

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