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Civil Society Organisations: Achieving and Maintaining Scale

www.uwezo.net

Mary Goretti Nakabugo, Country Coordinator Uganda, Uwezo at Twaweza mnakabugo@uwezo.netCIES Conference , Scaling-up Panel

Toronto, March 13, 2014

www.twaweza.org

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So we all want our children to be able to read by 2015 and beyond!

How do we measure reading competencies on scale to gauge progress made and improve continuously?

What is the role of civil society in taking reading assessment to scale?

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Uwezo at Twaweza Citizen-led Household-

based model of assessing basic literacy:

Potential to provide large-scale, annual, easily understandable indicators of children’s ability to read

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The Uwezo reading assessment approach:

• Adapted from ASER India in 2009• Household-based rather than school-based• Uses simple tools based on a Primary 2 curriculum: ordinary

people can understand the findings and conduct the assessment themselves

• Annual and conducted at scale: all children aged 6/7-16 across Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda are assessed on basic literacy [and numeracy]

• Citizen-led: coordinated by 362 district-based CSOs and done by over 20,000 citizen volunteers in 362 districts across EA

• Feedback is instant

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Uwezo reading assessment scale to-date:

• Four assessments of children’s reading competencies conducted since 2009

• Each year assessment is conducted in over 100,000 households

• Each year close to 350,000 children aged 6/7-16 are assessed in reading across East Africa

• In total, close to a million children have been assessed since 2009.

The Numbers

Uwezo: 2009-2012

Notes: % indicates the percentage of all districts covered; the district list is based on the administrative divisions in the latest release of population and housing census data at the time of the survey design; all other columns give the number of units sampled and included in the cleaned data.

Source: calculated from the Uwezo 1, 2 and 3 data.

Country Year Districts % Schools Villages Households ChildrenKenya 2009 70 (44) 2,160 2,160 19,755 74,781

2011 123 (78) 3,474 3,608 41,425 125,6612012 156 (99) 4,539 4,559 52,441 145,564

Tanzania 2010 42 (32) 1,010 1,062 7,847 35,5402011 132 (99) 3,733 3,841 51,829 110,4352012 126 (95) 3,624 3,752 37,866 105,352

Uganda 2010 27 (34) 748 786 12,377 32,7682011 79 (99) 2,115 2,329 35,359 100,7152012 80 (100) 2,279 2,378 34,320 92,188

Total 2009/10 139 (37) 3,918 4,008 39,979 143,0892011 334 (90) 9,322 9,778 128,613 336,8112012 362 (98) 10,442 10,689 124,627 343,104

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Test Design

• Tests developed by a panel of experts• Tests are incremental• Tests have distinct levels • Tests have local independence.• Level of difficulty increases in each

subsequent level• Easy to define the specific competency level

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Literacy Test•Letter/Sound

•Word

•Paragraph

•Story

•Comprehension

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What we have achieved from the assessments to-date

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• Provided evidence that a huge number of children are not acquiring basic reading skills while in school – Across East Africa, less than 3 out of 10 children in

Primary 3 can read and comprehend an English or local language story of Primary 2 level

• The evidence has promoted debate, shifted focus to learning outcomes, and sparked action at various levels to improve learning

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Debate and action sparked

Positive or negative: the conversation continues!

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Every child counts

“Even if only one child is not learning, let us be told about her…”Mutula Kilonzo, former Minister of Education - Kenya

“Uwezo findings have provided a wake up call”

Hon. Dr. Shukuru Kawambwa, Minister of Education and Vocational Training, Tanzania. Remarks at the recent Annual Education Sector Review

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“We are calling upon all stakeholders to do their part. And those who may not be happy with the findings to use them as launch pad for solutions instead of going on the defensive. We need to ask the question; where are we getting it wrong? How can we learn from the findings? This is not the time to give excuses and blame, but cooperate and improve learning.” Mr. Nsumba-Lyazi, Commissioner representing the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education and sports at the launch of Uwezo Uganda 2012 ALA report

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Collective action sparked: Early Grade Reading Interventions

USAID/Uganda School Health and Reading Program

Northern Uganda Literacy Program

In Tanzania, basic literacy/numeracy is a key part of the Big Results Now run out of the President's Delivery Bureau

Kenya: Focus on Early Grade in school projects, eg Opportunity Schools in Kajiado

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The Struggle continuesLPT Evaluation:“Overall, our findings resonate with other research carried out by the LPT team, which finds little impact of the Uwezo intervention on citizen action in the education realm”.

• Strengthening the capacity of volunteers to give quality instant feedback

• Partnering with local councillors to activate action from the ground up

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Plans for the Future

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Uwezo Uganda at Twaweza, Naguru Go down, Suwara Road, Plot 77P.O Box 40163, Kampala-UgandaTel: +256-312112815 Email: Uganda@uwezo.net

www.uwezo.net www.twaweza.org