Mass Communication for Education

In specific contexts, highlighting the importance of education and providing relevant information can improve learning and attendance outcomes.
This intervention has mostly been deployed in study or pilot settings, but few organizations implement it at scale.
A new non-profit focused on cost-effectiveness could pilot and rapidly scale messaging-based interventions to improve education outcomes.
Thus, we recommend an organisation leveraging SMS or mobile messaging solutions to improve education outcomes and choices.

What’s the problem?

While substantial progress has been made in expanding access to education globally, learning quality lags behind and requires significant improvements in many countries.

Why does it matter?

Quality education is transformative, improving children’s life prospects and providing a safe environment for development.

Neglectedness:

Certain aspects of the education sector in developing countries remain underserved, with some interventions receiving more attention than others.
Low-cost, low-touch information dissemination has been well studied in certain contexts, but very few organizations focus on scaling these interventions.

What’s the proposed solution?

The theory of change (ToC) behind this intervention is that providing persuasive and informative messaging on education can lead to increased parental and student engagement, resulting in higher attendance and improved learning outcomes.
The specific design of a new non-profit’s intervention will depend on contextual factors such as the suitability of different delivery mechanisms, and the availability of key information, such as test scores and data on school quality.

Why do we trust this solution?

The intervention has been evaluated multiple times, with generally positive findings.
It is endorsed by the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel’s (GEEAP) 2023 report on cost-effective approaches to improving learning (GEEAP, 2023).
A recent meta-analysis from the Center for Global Development found that providing information on the returns to education to parents and students positively impacts school participation and student learning (Evans & Acosta, 2024).

How robust is the evidence?

This intervention design has been tested in numerous settings. However, its effectiveness has not been as thoroughly studied as a mobile intervention and has not been evaluated in radio-based formats.

Estimated cost-effectiveness:

We modeled an SMS-based intervention targeting grades five and six in South Africa and estimated its reach required to meet AIM’s cost-effectiveness bar of USD 30 per income doubling.
In our conservative model (assuming a 10% income increase from a 1 standard deviation improvement in test scores), the intervention would need to reach approximately 58,000 students per year at scale.
In an optimistic model (assuming a 40% income increase), it would need to reach approximately 8,700 students per year at scale.
For context, this represents 2.0% (conservative) or 0.3% (optimistic) of South Africa’s 10–12-year-old students, our assumed target population.

Strong generalists could successfully deploy this intervention—specialist skills are not necessarily required.
Certain backgrounds and skill sets would be valuable for the co-founding team or early hires, including: experience working with government stakeholders (e.g., Ministries of Education); expertise in marketing, communications strategies, or creative industries; background in education delivery and/or policy; experience in monitoring and evaluation, particularly in large-scale data monitoring.