Increasing Trust and Improving School Grades

The West African state of Ghana is a melting pot of more than 70 different ethnic groups and about 80 different languages. This is more the rule than the exception in Africa. Many African states, like Ghana, have very diverse populations. And for many states, this is a huge challenge, socially and economically. This is because the different groups often distrust each other. “Those in power now look for themselves,” says David Yanagizawa-Drott. The development economist has already conducted several research projects in Africa that examine the negative consequences of ethnic diversity, such as the role of the mass media in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. He traced how a popular radio station incited people to commit mass killings.

“Ethnic diversity, as in the case of Rwanda, can lead to violent conflicts,” explains the economist, “But even if such an extreme scenario does not occur, mutual distrust often makes it difficult for the state to fulfill its responsibilities, and corruption flourishes.” Group thinking is an obstacle when it comes to establishing well-functioning state structures. The Lead for Ghana (LFG), a Ghanaian non-governmental organization (NGO), has an ambitious program to bridge or at least narrow ethnic divides: it aims to strengthen national identity and improve schools by sending high-performing graduates to the countryside for two years to teach children of another ethnic group in primary schools. The project brings together two key LFG objectives: to provide schoolchildren across the country with opportunities for a good education, while at the same time fostering a sense of national identity among young leaders. Students need excellent grades to be selected for the project.

What motivates young people to spend two years teaching at a school somewhere in the countryside for a low salary instead of taking a more lucrative job in the private sector? “They want to do something good for society,” says David Yanagizawa-Drott, “and taking part in the project is something of a badge of honor. LFG has a reputation for selecting only the best.” Being part of this group of the “selected,” this exclusive network, can be very interesting and important for future careers. Each year, more than 1,000 graduates apply to LFG, and 450 students are accepted to the program, and they are sent to around 100 schools. It’s a highly competitive process. David Yanagizawa-Drott has been monitoring and conducting research on this project for four years. “We are evaluating whether this type of intervention works,” explains the economist. Two variables are measured: children’s school performance and trust between ethnic groups.

School performance should improve because graduates are highly qualified and highly motivated. This is in stark contrast to a large proportion of regular teachers; two-thirds of teaching hours in Ghana are missed today because teachers fail to show up for class. As a result, the pupils’ learning progress suffers – four out of five cannot read after second grade, i.e., they cannot recognize a single word in a short text.

The aim of the project is that better-trained, motivated and, above all, teachers who actually show up can encourage the pupils to perform better. “This should be possible, as evidenced by comparable studies, the main aim of which was to reduce teacher absenteeism,” says Yanagizawa-Drott. Initial results of the LFG program are promising: the rate of students reaching the next level of schooling is higher for pupils taught by LFG teachers.

An important question that the study seeks to clarify is whether performance improves even when someone from a different ethnic background teaches. Research to date shows that teaching well-qualified people of the same ethnicity led to better results. “But being taught by a teacher of a different ethnicity may also motivate students,” Yanagizawa-Drott hopes. If things turn out differently, assigning graduates to schools of other ethnicities would be one of the project’s trade-offs. This contact with another ethnic group is at the heart of the second part of the project, which aims to strengthen national identity by enabling the selected graduates to get to know another ethnic group whose children they are teaching. This should strengthen the trust between this group and the teachers and their own ethnic group. In research, this is called the contact hypothesis. “We often have prejudices against people from another group because we don’t know them. If we interact with them, these can be overcome,” explains David Yanagizawa-Drott.

Here, too, the experiment has an optimal outcome: “Ideally, after these two years, we not only trust the group we have gotten to know better, but we also strengthen trust in other groups in general,” says Yanagizawa-Drott. Tried-and-tested game theory experiments, which involve sharing a sum of money with unknown people, will test whether this is the case.

If everything turns out as the LFG project managers hope, the highly qualified teachers will help improve their students’ grades and promotion rates to higher school levels. This would be a strong argument for investing more in teacher training and salaries. Moreover, the teachers sent to the countryside will have more trust in other ethnic groups after their two years of teaching. This could help strengthen the national identity of Ghana’s elite, to which many of the graduates will belong. “They would no longer see themselves primarily as members of an ethnic group, but as Ghanaians,” explains Yanagizawa-Drott. And he adds: “If these programs could indeed strengthen national identity, it would be a possible solution to one of the major problems facing many African states.”

And if not? “Then we know that we should use the money for something else,” says the development economist. “One of the fundamental challenges NGOs like The Lead for Ghana face is the effective use of limited resources. LFG founder Daniel Dotse believes in his project and wants to know if it really works.”