Evaluating ICT for Education in Africa - Royal Holloway, University of ...

Appendix N: Baseline test in EthiopiaExplanatory text for Baseline test – Grade 6The purpose of this baseline is to test the educational attainment of thechildren at two stages – before they start using the laptops (beginning ofSeptember 2008) and once they have been using the laptops for threemonths (December 2008). This is done in order to see what difference theintroduction of the laptops has had on the educational ability and attainmentof the children tested.The baseline test will be conducted in six schools:- 4 test schools (Menelik, Aste Noad, Rema, Oromea)- 1 control with XO and no Akili- 1 control with no XO and no Akili (conventional education)The reason for the first „control‟ school is because we want to know whatdifference it makes when the children have the XO laptops but do not haveAkili on them. The theory is that the children will be able to learn moreeffectively if they have both an XO and Akili rather than just an XO – this testwill enable us to see if the hypothesis is true. The reason for the second„control‟ school is so we can compare the change in education when using XOand Akili with a conventional education.The baseline test has been designed for use with children who are in Grade 6.We will test 50 children from Grade 6 in each school – giving a total of 300tests. We really need to test the same children both times (September andDecember) and so it is really important that at the top of the page the name,age and gender of each child is recorded. If there are approximately 50children in the class then please test them all – if there are more then pleaseselect 50 children through random sampling (please do not let the teachersselect the children as they will probably select those that are likely to get thehighest scores). If the school has more than one class of Grade 6 childrenthen please select at random the class to be tested.484