Conducting Early Grade Reading Assessments (EGRAs) in low resource and conflict areas

• In Event: Round-Table Session 1
  In Round-table Session: Conducting Early Grade Reading Assessments (EGRAs) in Low Resource and Conflict Areas

Proposal

The Syria Idarah project has conducted Syria’s first and only Early Grade Reading Assessment and Early Grade Math Assessment (EGRA/EGMA) in Syria in opposition-held areas of three governorates in April 2017 in order to answer the overarching question: What is the status of early grade primary education in schools located in opposition-held areas of Syria managed by the Syrian Interim Government’s (SIG) Education Directorates. This was further disseminated to: a) What proportion of children are acquiring literacy and numeracy skills at grade level? b) What trauma do children suffer and how does this affect their well-being? c) To what extent is the teaching environment conducive to learning? d) How can we use the results to improve learning and well-being? These questions were addressed through results from the conducted EGRA/EGMA, a war stressors, and school effectiveness surveys. Results from each will be discussed at length by the Syria team.

In a 90-day extension period during the 2017 fall semester, the Idarah project developed and rolled out remedial literacy materials, and developed remedial numeracy materials which will be rolled out by the donor, DFID, under its multi-year program that begins in January 2018. Idarah has also introduced other quality education activities including training of instructors as coaches for teachers, and guidance to both instructors and headmasters on working with teachers to improve lesson-planning and to tie lesson plans to lesson-specific learning outcomes. Taking into consideration the context in which it works, the project has introduced a number of psycho-social support activities including training of safeguarding officers assigned to schools to further disseminate training to teachers on non-violent classroom management, psychosocial first aid, a code of conduct launched by the SIG’s Ministry of Education; and training of headmasters on how to manage staff care. In this panel, the Idarah project will discuss the process by which they conducted EGRAs in opposition-held territories, the challenges that they ran into, impacts achieved in a 90-day fall semester based on the project’s detailed log frame, and what this means for children in opposition-held areas of Syria.

Author

• Shanna L. Todd, Chemonics International