--- title: "AI Tutoring in Nigeria: World Bank RCT Summary (2025)" description: "World Bank RCT in Nigeria: 12 teacher-guided sessions with Microsoft Copilot raised English scores by about 0.24 SD and a term exam by 0.21 SD." canonical: https://research.askpoppy.ai/papers/de-simone-2025-chalkboards-to-chatbots-nigeria/ last_updated: 2026-10-21 --- [AI tutors and learning outcomes](/topics/ai-tutors/) # Six weeks of teacher-guided AI tutoring improved English results in Nigeria **In short:** Senior secondary students in Benin City, Nigeria, who attended twelve after-school English sessions using Microsoft Copilot, with teachers guiding and suggesting prompts, scored about 0.3 standard deviations higher on a final assessment than students who did not. They also did better on the regular end-of-term English exam, which covered more than the programme did. | | | | --- | --- | | Paper | [From Chalkboards to Chatbots: Evaluating the Impact of Generative AI on Learning Outcomes in Nigeria](https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-11125) | | Authors | Martin De Simone, Federico Tiberti, Maria Barron Rodriguez, Federico Manolio, Wuraola Mosuro, Eliot Jolomi Dikoru | | Published | 20 May 2025 · World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 11125 | | Study type | Randomized controlled trial · Working paper | | What we read | Abstract and parts of the full text read. We read the abstract, the working paper's introduction and results sections, and the World Bank's summary of the programme. | | Summarized | 21 October 2026 | ## What they did Students who signed up were randomly selected to take part or not. Over six weeks in June–July 2024, participants attended twelve 90-minute after-school sessions in school computer labs, usually in pairs. Teachers introduced a topic, students worked with Copilot (GPT-4 at the time) using suggested prompts designed to make it act as a tutor rather than an answer machine, and sessions ended with reflection. ## Who took part First-year senior secondary students (around age 15) in nine public schools in Benin City, Edo State. 657 were assigned to the programme and 671 to control; 759 sat the final assessment. ## What they found - Final assessment: +0.31 SD overall (English, digital skills and AI knowledge combined). - English skills, the main outcome: about +0.24 SD (the abstract reports 0.23). - Regular third-term English exam, covering the whole year: +0.21 SD. - Benefits appeared across ability levels and were largest for girls and for students with higher prior results. **Effect size:** +0.31 SD overall; about +0.24 SD on English; +0.21 SD on the term exam (intention-to-treat). ## Limitations - The control group had no alternative programme, so extra structured study time with teachers is part of the effect. - Only about 57% of randomized students sat the final assessment. - Six weeks, with early sessions partly spent setting up accounts and learning to use computers. - Power and internet cuts disrupted sessions. - A working paper at the time of summary. ## What this means for learners and parents - AI tutoring worked here as part of a structured programme with teachers and well-designed prompts, not as a standalone app. - Prompts that make the AI act as a tutor matter; the same tool can also just produce answers. - Results from low-resource settings with no alternative tutoring may be larger than in homes that already have plenty of support. ## Put it into practice (free tools) - [Turn "give me the answer" prompts into tutor prompts](https://learn.askpoppy.ai/prompt-check/) - [Free AI tutors compared](https://learn.askpoppy.ai/best-ai/free-ai-tutor/) ## Citation Martin De Simone, Federico Tiberti, Maria Barron Rodriguez, Federico Manolio, Wuraola Mosuro, Eliot Jolomi Dikoru (2025). From Chalkboards to Chatbots: Evaluating the Impact of Generative AI on Learning Outcomes in Nigeria. *World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 11125*. ## Related summaries - [Unrestricted ChatGPT help raised practice scores but lowered exam scores](/papers/bastani-2025-generative-ai-without-guardrails-harms-learning/) · Hamsa Bastani et al., 2025 · Preregistered randomized controlled trial - [A carefully designed AI tutor beat an active-learning physics class on a short-term test](/papers/kestin-2025-ai-tutoring-outperforms-active-learning/) · Greg Kestin et al., 2025 · Randomized controlled trial with a crossover design - [Supervised AI tutoring matched human tutors in UK maths classrooms](/papers/learnlm-eedi-2025-ai-tutoring-uk-classrooms-rct/) · LearnLM Team (Google) et al., 2025 · Exploratory randomized controlled trial - [An AI coach for human tutors raised topic mastery, most for weaker tutors](/papers/wang-2024-tutor-copilot-human-ai-tutoring/) · Rose Wang et al., 2024 · Preregistered randomized controlled trial Summary by the Ask Poppy team, AI-assisted and checked against the paper. Summarized 21 October 2026. Spotted an error? 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