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The 2024 Spotlight continental report is the second in the Spotlight series. It examines how countries align their national vision with curriculum development, textbook provision, teacher support, and assessment practices to advance foundational numeracy. The 2024 focus countries are Niger, Mauritania, , and Zambia. 

One of the core objectives of this Spotlight research cycle was to examine the extent to which students’ opportunities to develop foundational numeracy skills are shaped by the degree of alignment of core inputs in the five focus countries. In particular, the concept of alignment was explored in lower primary (grade 3 or 4) and upper primary (last grade, i.e. grade 6 or 7) through an analysis of the curriculum, textbooks, teacher guides and assessment items. These need to mutually support each other to provide learners with a comprehensive and systematic learning experience. Three aspects of alignment were examined:

• Content alignment between all pedagogical resources that determine pupils’ learning experience.
• Pedagogical and cognitive alignment between the curriculum and its application in the classroom, throughout pupils’ learning experience.
• Political alignment between a country’s regional and international commitment, such as improving the proportion of pupils who meet minimum proficiency levels, and its national policy.