The Achievement of Learners in Early Grade Reading in Selected Districts of Uganda

Abstract

The Ministry of Education and Sports in Uganda is pre-occupied with improving the quality of education in the country through improving the quality of learning obtaining in the schools. One of the aspects in the learning process that has greatly attracted the attention of key education stakeholders in this endeavour is the level of learners' reading skills. The Ministry of Education and Sports has, of recent, adopted the Early Grade Reading (EGR) model which focuses on exposure of learners to basic reading skills. Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) helps to monitor the progress of learners in the acquisition of reading skills during the early years of schooling. This midline UNEB-EGRA was conducted in 11 local languages in September-October 2017. It is a follow up of the baseline assessment in October 2016. The same study design was implemented as at the baseline level. At baseline, a stratified two-stage cluster sampling design was used. Data from Education Management Information System (EMIS) 2015 provided the list of public primary schools and their respective pupil enrolment figures for each class. A proportional number of schools was randomly selected from each TDMS Coordinating Centre within selected districts (Table 1.01, Page 7). These same schools were visited during the midline survey. A simple random sample of 20, 20 and 10 learners present on the day of the survey, were selected from pupils of each of P1, P2 and P3, respectively. Survey weights for sampled learners were accounted for in the analysis in order to obtain unbiased estimates of the desired benchmarks (proportions and means). A total of 189 Assessors and 12 Data Quality Assurance (DQA) officers were recruited for the exercise. They underwent rigorous training to ensure that they were familiar with the administration of an oral interview, as well as the specific implementation and coding practices associated with EGRA. The assessment tools were uploaded on Tangerine software. Since EGRA is individually administered by assessors, an Inter-rater Reliability (IRR) was computed out twice to ensure consistency of assessors with the gold standard in the administration of the EGRA tool. The Piloting of EGRA instruments was also done before scale-up to full data collection. This was done to ensure that: the instruments perform as expected, the assessors gain valuable hands-on experience and trainers identify the gaps in assessors' understanding and adaptability skills. Each sampled learner in P1, P2 and P3 classes from 405 public primary schools was orally assessed individually both in the local language that is used as a medium of instruction and in English. In addition, there were three (3) contextual instruments administered, namely: Lesson observation, Pupil interview schedule and Headteacher interview schedule. All these instruments were intended to establish the context in which learners learn to read at school and at home.