Research Consultant for Hazard Impacts on Access to Quality Education and Educational Continuity in Lao PDR

Title

Access to Quality Education and Educational Continuity in Lao PDR

Background

Access to Education:

In the reach to achieve Millennium Development Goals for education for all, major strides were made in primary school enrollment rates around the world. Yet, commensurate improvements in literacy and numeracy were not achieved, leading to the observation of a “global learning crisis”, and renewed commitment to assuring a free, quality, basic education for all. Lao PDR has made remarkable strides in increasing enrollment, and important advances in equity, since 1990. Yet, between 30-90,000 children of primary school age are not enrolled. Reading fluency and comprehension levels in early grades are lower than expected for a large portion of students.

A recent LEARN project study (LEARN, 2016), carried out by World Bank researchers, compared the available Education Management Information Systems data to national census and other data pools and found that the number of out-of-school students is far higher than thought, and most are concentrated within students who live in villages without road access. EMIS data suggests that early grade drop-out rates in 2010-11 were nearly 12% in grade 1, and approximately 6% each in grades 2, 3, 4. This represents a 28% by grade 4. However, rather than permanent drop-out, this represents a phenomenon of repetition, which is about 20% in grade 1, almost 10% in grade 2, and more than 5% in grade 3. Repeaters tend to perform worse and have higher drop-out rates. The study found significant differences in non-enrollment between 6-9 year olds and 10-14 year olds, with most out-of-school children come from the poorest 40% of the population, from non Lao-Thai ethnic groups, and live in rural areas without a road. Provinces with the highest numbers of out-of-school-children were: Savannaket, Champasack, Saravan, and Oudomxay. Those with the lowest were in Vientiane and Bolikhamxay. Late enrollment is common for both boys and girls and by age eight, ten percent of children have not yet enrolled. Educational attainment is reduced in proportion to age of entry. “Push” and “pull” factors may both be at work, impinging on school attendance.

In the Learn study, the primary reasons pull factors reported by parents, for not enrolling in school are too young (esp. 6-9 year olds), and not interested. A smaller report: no school/teacher, school not safe, have to work, disabled, cannot afford, or family won’t allow. There are significant differences in reasons between both language/ethnic groups as well as between males and females in each group. The primary push factors report were: too expensive, had to work, and not interested. The opportunity costs of staying in school are high, as out-of-school children are heavily involved in agricultural production, even at age 10. Girls are involved in household chores, esp. care of younger siblings. The higher share of girls supporting household economically starts at age 11. Other factors that did not show strong evidence were migration, income shocks, access to credit, and agricultural cycle.

Overall, this study concluded that whilst Lao has made great progress in enrollment in primary school, it faces persistent problems of children out-of-school or leaving primary school early. The major reasons for dropping out are apparently due to “low demand” (low perceived value, indirect costs), and that children who remain in school show low levels of reading and learning, and indications are that low quality and drop-out are related. The three pillars for action recommended are to:

1. Focus on learning outcomes;
2. Increase demand for schooling; and
3. Continue to increase and improve supply.

The project also undertook “Consultations on Education with Children and Adults in Ethnic Minority Communities in Oudomxay Provinces, Lao PDR”. In more than 45 focus group discussions 334 people were consulted, including 212 boys and girls (ages 4-10 and 11-13) and 122 men and women. Unfortunately, the subjects were not those in the more remote schools, but rather those schools which provided pre-primary through lower-secondary education. Key findings were that both children and adults value education, in particular, primary school. Nevertheless, children report missing school out of choice, preferring to play, and avoiding rules or degrading and physical punishments. Parents’ and caregivers’ beliefs and attitudes regarding the value of education are critical factors. Poverty; socio-cultural attitudes towards children; gender; sibling order; children’s interests and experiences in school; disability; ill health or death of family members; seasonal labour; limited educational budget, school infrastructure and teachers’ behavior all create barriers to enrolment, attendance and good learning outcomes. The cost of school for larger families is also a barrier.

Three findings in particular suggest additional avenues of inquiry, and new solutions:

1. Distance and quality of school commute:

“If the pre-school and primary school are in the village, a short walk from their homes, mothers and fathers are more likely to be inclined to send their sons and daughters to pre-school, particularly at the start of the school year and during seasons when the weather is warm. However, if pre-school and primary school are more than 2 km from children’s homes and/or if the weather is very cold or wet, young children age 5-7 years may not be regularly sent to school. Such irregular attendance contributes to poor learning outcomes in the early grades, and to class repetition.” (Learn Project, 2016. p.25).

Similarly, school directors and teachers mentioned the challenges that children with mobility impairments face in reaching school.

2. Seasonal impacts on school participation:

During winter (November to February) children, especially younger children from poor families, may not go to school if they don’t have umbrellas, coats, warm clothes:

“Furthermore, during the rainy season some girls, boys, mothers, fathers and a village head described how children, particularly young children may find it hard to reach school if the pathways are too muddy, or if they have to cross a river to reach school. During rainy season there are increased risks of ill-health including malaria.” (Ibid. p.42).

3. The schools visited in the study had insufficiencies in

“Classrooms, tables and benches for the students; textbooks and learning materials (including games for pre-school age children); water and sanitation systems; fences surrounding the school” (Ibid. p.46).

Missing Pieces:

1. Unfortunately, enrollment rates are notoriously easy to inflate and are very poorly correlated with actual daily attendance and regular participation in school. The factors that inhibit children’s consistent attendance (and therefore lead to lack of success, repetition and drop-out), and the inequities in the national context are not well understood.
2. We know that boys and girls in remote rural areas are suffering from limited accessibility due to rugged mountain territory. The impact of distance and safety of access to school is not understood. Studies have so far not reached the most remote children, whose daily commute may be in excess of 3km and for whom the route itself may be unsafe on many days of the year. The impact of distance and quality of commute, for pre-primary and early primary children, and regular practice of sending children home for lunch, have not been examined. Are children deemed “too young” to attend school because of these conditions?
3. The absence of appropriate water and sanitation facilities at school – a known deterrent to school participation has not been asked in these recent studies.
4. Potential measures to address the length and safety of the home-to-school commute have not been addressed.
5. Potential measures (e.g. make-up programs, peer support, flexible schedules) to compensate for unavoidable absences (e.g. due to illness or inaccessibility) have not been consistently documented.
6. Limited child participation in the Lao context both in schools than communities as part of increased risk factor.

Hazard Impacts on Education

What we know about hazards and risks suggests further questions to be able to understand issues of both late enrollment, and lack of progress in school. Whilst children in general, are a group most vulnerable group to hazard impacts, those in remote rural areas are even more vulnerable when it comes to safe access to school and educational continuity.

Lao PDR, with a population nearing 7 million, is a mountainous country, located in the ‘most disaster-prone’ Asia-Pacific region, sharing borders with Thailand, Myanmar, China, Cambodia, and Vietnam. It is not is generally not considered a highly disaster prone country. Nonetheless, The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) reported that flooding is one of the most common disasters in Lao PDR which results in significant damage to the national socio economic development. During the past decade, twenty-seven floods have occurred in Lao PDR with an average reoccurrence of every 1.5 years, as per official statistics recorded for annual events during 1966-1999.[1]

In addition to these floods, windstorms, droughts, urban and forest fires, landslides, agricultural pests and epidemics pose threats to educational access and attainment. Other chronic and intermittent conditions include frequent rain and common flood conditions, poor and closed roads, lack of water and sanitation facilities, and remote locations of schools and children combine to create heightened vulnerabilities and reduced capacities, with smaller hazard events regularly impacting education. Changing climatic conditions and environmental degradation exacerbate these conditions. Wet season (May-September/October), Monsoon season (August to November), and cool season (December/January), all heighten the challenges to school attendance.

As important part of the development of the country, risk reduction measures in the education sector is emerging as an important priority, to safeguard education sector investments. In 2008, ADPC released a report on Impacts of Disasters on the Education Sector in Lao PDR aimed at building an evidence-based rationale to raise awareness on integrating DRR concerns into education policies and to advocate for changing practices in school construction especially in incorporating disaster risk resilient features in new school construction. The Ministry of Education and Sports has worked to implement many of the 2008 report recommendations.

The report relies on secondary data to document the impacts of structural damage to schools from 2002-2005, finding 103 schools damaged by floods and 53 damaged by windstorms in this short period. Data was not being systematically being collected on hazard impacts on schools. Indeed, it found that in many areas flooding of schools is a regular occurrence, and education simply ceases for 2-3 weeks, until inundation subsides.

Save the Children and global and regional partners in school safety, have commonly agreed on a Comprehensive Framework for School Safety designed to take a holistic approach to addressing two basic children’s rights: the right to safety and survival in (and on the way to) school, and the right to educational continuity, in other words to a full and continuous, basic quality education. The Comprehensive School Safety framework provides a solid foundation for safeguarding education sector investment through DRR measures. The framework seeks to engage a wide range of stakeholders with very different roles in the three overlapping pillars of work needed on:

1. Safer School Facilities;
2. School Disaster Management; and
3. Risk Reduction and Resilience Education.

This framework has been adopted by the Lao PDR Ministry of Education and Sports, as the foundation for reducing risks in the education sector. The starting point for all of us is referred to as a “child-centered, all-hazards, risk assessment”. We endeavor to therefore take a child’s point of view to ask open-ended questions about what the impediments are to fulfillment of these basic rights. These risks are by no means limited to natural hazards, and is by no means limited to large-scale humanitarian disasters. The hazards may be natural, technological, and social. The impacts may be ‘extensive’, often hidden risks, which can have equal and greater impact compared to intensive hazard impacts.

These anecdotes gathered from Save the Children’s work in Luang Prabang and Bolikhamxay suggest a variety of factors that contribute to poor attendance.

• Poor quality of facilities: damaged/leaking roof chairs crowded into half of classroom
• Poor quality water and sanitation facilities: most common reason for both teacher and student absences is gastrointestinal illness, due to lack of access to clean water
• Poor quality of road access: children stay home when it rains, due to slippery and dangerous road conditions, inadequate footwear, and no way to get into school classroom without being soaked and muddy.

In and of themselves these certainly do not rise to the classic level of ‘disaster’. Instead they are more hidden and pervasive risks that increase every time it rains. Cumulatively, over the school career of a child, these may add up to substantial impediments, causing extremely serious inequities in the realization of children’s right to education.

Purpose

Aim: This study aims to complement other recent studies on the barriers to achieving children’s right to a free basic quality education, and to identify significant sources of inequities in educational participation, particularly as the result of hazards, disasters, and climate-change impacts.

The study will generate evidence-based documentation which can be used to support MoES in its efforts to address educational inequities with thoughtful, evidence-based planning and decision-making, and to guide education sector partners, development partners, donors, and other stakeholders in reducing hazard and disaster impacts on the education sector.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the specific effect and comparative impacts of daily and recurrent hazards, on girls and boys in rural and remote districts in Laos in accessing a quality education (formal and informal), especially in relation to other known barriers such as: parents perceptions of what age is too young to go to school, distance and safety of access routes to schools; economic barriers due to declining agricultural yields esp. as these may relate to climate change, drought and flood.

The research will provide specific recommendations for the education sector that improve the disaster resilience of schools, minimizing the impact of disaster on education.

Objectives & Research Questions

The overall objective of this research is to assess the extent and nature of barriers and inequities in access to quality formal education, for the most marginalized children in remote rural areas in Lao PDR

The research will respond to the following questions:

1. Are there inequities in children’s participation in school based on degree of remoteness and access to local schools? (This calls for a study of attendance).
2. What are the barriers and enablers for boys and girls in remote locations to access and regularly participate in formal education?
3. What remedies and innovations might be used to mitigate these barriers?
4. How do daily and recurrent hazards figure into the push/pull factors impacting school attendance? (See World Bank Group, 2016).
5. What is the current capacity for ongoing documentation of hazard impacts on schools?

Methods

The research will focus on pre-primary and primary school populations (ages 5-6, and 7-11) in a selection of villages/schools representing each of the following 3 groups, in two districts: Saysathane and Nonghet and/o Khoun district in case we will do more than one district. For comparison purposes three groups of schools are to be selected in consultation with the MoES.

• Group 1: Urban/peri-urban schools with road access where majority of students live within 1 km radius (urban and peri-urban areas) (for most children, approximately 15 minute walk each way, depending on terrain)
• Group 2: Rural schools with road access where majority of students live within 3 km radius (for most children, approximately 45 minute walk each way, depending on terrain)
• Group 3: Rural schools without road access and/or where majority of students live outside 3km radius.

Recent learning in Lao finds that baseline data on attendance via interviews and focus groups was not successful (BEQUAL NGO Consortia). Embedded ethnographic work, whilst time consuming, has been more successful (Save the Children, 2015). Therefore, a mixture of qualitative, ethnographic field work and a system is recommended, with time spent embedded each of the three types of communities. Individual and group interviews, appreciative inquiry, focus groups, and other child participatory methods are recommended to be used with children, teachers, parents, district education officer, village and school disaster management focal points, village health workers, and community members. Field observations, transect walks with the district education and school head teachers to assess the nature and level of damage caused by hazards, and accompanying children on their school-to-home journey. In addition, key education and disaster management staff at provincial level should also be interviewed. Current capacity for ongoing documentation of hazard impacts on education.

Researchers will be provided with digital tablet, and are requested to complete the School Safety Self-Assessment Survey with schools visited, to obtain baseline data on Comprehensive School Safety, for these schools.

In addition photographic documentation, especially of adverse conditions impacting home-to-school access and quality learning environments is required.

Researchers are asked to propose:

• Qualitative and ethnographic research methods
• Sampling methodology to obtain independently verified counts of school attendance from selected schools on selected days in order to obtain estimated rates of attendance (in relation to enrollment), for each grade level.
• Variables and parameters to investigate reasons for specific absences.
• Photographic documentation of school commutes
• Child-participatory and adult-participatory methods to obtain inputs from: students, parents, school administrators and teachers regarding the various barriers and enablers of school attendance and attainment, with particular focus on the role played by:
  • Rain, flood, storm, temperature
  • Protective clothing
  • Distance and nature of the school commute, lighting
  • Health
  • Water and sanitation
  • Other parameters identified in previous studies, e.g.: personal preference, caring for siblings, too young, concerned about being ridiculed or humiliated, etc.

Scope of Work and Deliverables

Applicants please note: The full Scope of Work may be revised with researcher selected, prior to contracting.

Scope of Work and Deliverables:

The key deliverables for this study are as follows:

1. Inception report outlining the work plan for conducting the study, a time frame for completion of each step, agreements from major stakeholders on the scope, methodology and their participation in the review, a list of resources to be reviewed and analysed, and an outline of the methodology to be used.
2. Desk review of literature and relevant recent studies. This should include links between background theory and research, and translation/utilization goals.
3. Final report that concisely presents the main findings and recommendations with regards to the overall objective and key questions outlined in this terms of reference, incorporating feedback from Save the Children and other relevant stakeholders. Based on the evidence gathered, the researcher will make recommendations complement recent recommendations to strengthen access to basic quality education, to reduce inequities, and to track and mitigate hazard impacts on education of children in the most marginalized and remote conditions.
4. PowerPoint presentation of findings for stakeholder workshop

The report should be approximately 15 pages, and cover the following content and annexes:

• Acknowledgements
• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary
• Introduction and Background
• Purpose and Research Questions
• Research Design and Methodology (sample, data collection, data analysis, limitations)
• Research Findings
• Discussion (including link to other research, the guiding research narrative and translation/utilization goals).
• Recommendations (must include: research dissemination and utilization goals and actionable utilization plans)
• References
• Appendices:
  • Review of Literature
  • Research Instruments (survey, focus group discussion questions, etc.)
  • Detailed findings, tables etc.

The Research Team

The primary investigator will be lead (external) consultant engaged by Save the Children to lead the team. A number of enumerators fluent in English/ Lao language will be provided by Save the Children and ChildFund to support field data collection at district level for a period of days.

Field work will be facilitated by Save the Children and ChildFund team in Sayabouri province and, Nonghet and/o Khoun districts.

The Research Project Support Team will guide and review the research methodology and outputs: Save the Children Lao, DRR Advisor, Christelle Marguerite; Save the Children ESD Knowledge Management Advisor, Xiaowen Fan; Save the Children Senior Advisor for Education and Disaster Risk Reduction; Marla Petal. Representative from Plan International Laos; Mona Girgis; ChildFund Laos Keoamphone Souvannaphoum ; Ministry of Education and Sports Disaster Risk Management division, Daravone Kittiphanh.

Qualifications

The lead consultant is expected to have the following skills:

• Over 10 years of progressively responsible professional work experience in applied social science research, with a focus on education and/or disaster management;

• Excellent writing, conceptual and analytical skills including the ability to present complex processes and issues clearly to a heterogeneous audience and in an actionable manner;

• Demonstrated professional research and writing experience, including through publications;

• Advanced university degree in Social Sciences; Education, Disaster Risk Management or a related technical field; and

• Knowledge of the Comprehensive Safe School Framework.

Researcher may be an individual or a team.

In accordance with Save the Children's child safeguarding policies, all team members selected will be requested to submit SC's Working with Children check, and sign SC's Child Safeguarding Policies. Child Safeguarding orientation will be provided.

Timelines & Milestones

Indicative Date Event/Activity

• September 16th Terms of Reference finalised
• October 15th Inception report finalised (Methodology, Tools)
• October - November 18th Field work, Data collection
• December 9th Submission of draft report to Save the Children for review and feedback
• January 2017 Presentation of findings to Sector Working Group including MoES
• Submission of final report to Save the Children

Budget

Budget range: $16 000

• Payment will be made in 3 tranches: 40% upon receipt of approved inception report and 40% upon receipt of approved draft reports; 20% presentation of key finding and final report
• The researcher is responsible for all of own travel arrangements, travel, accommodation, per diem and incidental expenses, and related health insurance coverage.
• The researcher is also responsible for payment of all of local transportation costs, materials, refreshments, supplies and translation services that may be required.
• Save the Children and Childfund will facilitate field transport and translation if required.
• Research proposal should include all anticipated costs.

Oversight & Accountability

• The advisory group will function as resource persons, to support the primary researcher (and team, where applicable), to produce quality outputs and guide effective research dissemination and next steps in implementation.
• Contractor will report to the Save the Children Laos.
• Save the Children will arrange for professional layout of Research Summary Report.

Publication & Dissemination of Results

This research is a 'work for hire', and as such, Save the Children reserves the right to retain the data collected and to publish research report. Primary Investigator and Research Project Support Team are encouraged to consider submission of appropriate publications to both peer-reviewed journal, and relevant and national regional publications. Any such submission requires prior approval from Save the Children.