RTI Uganda Early Grade Reading Interventions

• In Event: Multiple paths toward sustainable policymaking: strategies for creating and implementing early grade reading policies in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, and Uganda

Proposal

Beginning in 2012 the Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), with initial support from the USAID Uganda School Health and Reading Program (SHRP), has gradually scaled up its EGR interventions through the introduction of two additional large projects, the USAID Learning Achievement and Retention Activity (LARA) and the GPE funded Uganda Teacher and School Effectiveness Project (UTSEP), These projects now reach over 80% of Uganda’s districts and schools. Essential to this process has been the need to work through government structures at the national and district levels to implement key EGR activities, including materials development and book distribution for 12 local languages and English, in-service training to all teachers in program districts, follow-up support and professional development for teachers at the school and district levels, incorporating EGR pedagogy into the pre-service curriculum, and regular assessment of reading outcomes across districts and languages. As the intervention has been rolled out by MoES through three different projects, it has required continuous collaboration, learning, and adapting (CLA) throughout the process.

This presentation discusses how MoES has worked collaboratively with its partners to not only work through government systems to implement its current EGR activities but also adjust and make necessary changes to existing policies and systems in order to ensure the activities will be sustained after technical support from projects ends. Through leveraging project-based support to EGR, the MoES has been able to identify gaps in its existing policies and systems and build up evidence for needed institutional changes by piloting and trying out alternative, evidence-based approaches through the projects. Evidence gained through project-led initiatives are then institutionalized through policy and systems changes and reforms. Through this collaborative learning and adapting, the government is able to strategically address institutional weaknesses that aim to improve the quality of instruction and learning in schools in a sustainable manner.

Author

• Stephen Backman, RTI International