Measuring What Matters in African Education
Access to education has expanded dramatically across Africa, but learning outcomes remain critically low. D4Act provides the evidence base to understand why - and what works to close the gap between enrollment and actual learning.
The Learning Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa
The World Bank estimates that 87% of children in Sub-Saharan Africa are in "learning poverty" - unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10. While gross enrollment in primary education has risen above 90% in most countries, the quality of learning has not kept pace. D4Act's education practice tackles this paradox head-on.
We evaluate interventions ranging from structured pedagogy programs and teacher professional development to technology-assisted learning and school governance reforms. Each evaluation is designed to generate evidence that is directly usable by education ministries and implementing partners.
"Expanding access to school buildings is not enough. Africa needs evidence on what happens inside classrooms - and how to make every minute of instruction count for actual learning."
- D4Act Education PracticeOur Education Focus Areas
Learning Outcomes Assessment
Designing and conducting standardized learning assessments, including early-grade reading and math evaluations (EGRA/EGMA) and national exam analysis. Our assessments measure not just what students know, but what instructional factors predict learning gains.
Teacher Effectiveness & Training
Evaluating teacher professional development programs, coaching interventions, and incentive systems. Research shows teacher quality is the single strongest in-school predictor of student learning - yet most African teacher training systems remain focused on credentials over competence.
EdTech & Digital Learning
Assessing the impact of tablets, e-learning platforms, and AI-powered tutoring in low-resource classrooms. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital learning adoption, but evidence on effectiveness in African contexts remains thin - D4Act is generating that evidence.
TVET & Skills Development
Evaluating technical and vocational education programs that prepare Africa's youth for the job market. With 12 million young Africans entering the workforce annually, evidence-based skills training is critical for economic transformation.
Our Education Approach
Our end-to-end methodology - from initial assessment to sustainable impact.
Frequently asked questions
What learning-assessment instruments do you use?
Validated tools standard across the field - EGRA (early grade reading), EGMA (early grade mathematics), MELQO for early childhood, GLAD / GLAD+ for upper-primary, ASER-style oral fluency tests, and item-banked assessments aligned to national curricula where available. For international benchmarking we cross-walk to PIRLS, TIMSS, SACMEQ and PASEC.
Can you evaluate edtech, structured pedagogy and teacher-training programmes?
Yes. Our methodological core is RCT or quasi-experimental design (difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, propensity-score matching), with effect sizes reported in standard deviations and grade-level equivalents. We follow the J-PAL and RISE evidence-base templates so findings are comparable to the cumulative literature, not just internal targets.
How do you support ministries on system-level reform?
We work alongside ministries of education on the underlying data architecture - EMIS modernisation, learning-assessment design, district-level dashboards, and cost-effectiveness analysis (cost per child reading, cost per standard deviation of learning gain). The aim is institutional ownership: a system the ministry can run and trust, not a black-box dashboard.
Do you handle gender, disability and equity dimensions?
By default. Sampling is designed for gender-disaggregated and disability-disaggregated analysis from inception. We use the Washington Group Short Set on Functioning for disability identification and apply equity-sensitive metrics (concentration index, Lorenz curves, learning poverty by quintile) so the report shows who is being left behind, and by how much.