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

Abstract

Quality education is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are to be achieved around the world and by all UN member states by the year 2030. All states are expected to play their part in finding solutions to the world's urgent challenges. One of the solutions lies in improving the quality of classroom instruction especially in the area of 'reading' which is the foundation of learning. It is from this background that the Ministry of Education and Sports adopted the Early Grade Reading model which focuses on exposure of learners to basic reading skills. Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) helps to monitor the progress of learners in reading skills acquisition in the early years of schooling. The endline UNEB-EGRA was conducted in 11 local languages in September-October 2018. This was a follow up on the baseline and midline assessments which were conducted around the same time in 2016 and 2017, respectively. At endline, like at midline and baseline, a stratified two-stage cluster sampling design was used. At baseline, data from Education Management Information System (EMIS) 2015 provided the list of public primary schools and their respective pupil enrolment figures for each class, and the 27 districts were the strata. A proportional number of schools were randomly selected from each Teacher Development Management System Coordinating Centre cluster within selected districts (Table 1.01, Page 8). The same schools were visited during the midline and endline surveys. At endline, a simple random sample of 20 learners present on the day of the survey, were selected from each of the three classes (P 1, P 2 and P 3). Survey weights for sampled learners were computed to account for non-response and sample selection 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 four times 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 P 1, P 2 and P 3 classes from the 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 Headteachers' interview schedule. All these instruments were intended to establish the context in which learners learn to read at school and at home.