Can informed citizens act to improve formal education? The Uwezo Experience Presented at the 26th ICSEI Conference, Santiago, Chile 2013

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THE BEGINNINGS…

5 years ago, a visit to Pratham’s India…

• The appeal

– Scale (against our many small sometimes good efforts benefiting two or three schools)

– Simple (yet robust, easy to understand)

– Invested in citizens (seeking to achieve a movement, drawing inspiration from Gandhi)

The impossible

• Use of volunteers

– Surely volunteerism is virtually non existent in East Africa

• Interesting approach

– but it can never work in our context.

The Challenge

• Obstacles are set by our own presumptions

• Need to be more generous in our belief of possibilities

• There is a power of people to act.

Sub Sahara Africa-South Asia Efforts

Since 2009 in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Kiswahili for ‘CAPABILITY’

Since 2005 in India & 2009 in Pakistan. Means ‘IMPACT’ Since 2011 in Mali. Means

‘WE ARE IN IT TOGETHER’

Since 2011 in Senegal. Means ‘LEARN TOGERTHER’

CITIZEN ASSESSMENTS OF BASIC LEARNING IN SOUTH ASIA, EAST AFRICA

& WEST AFRICA

ASER 2011 ASER 2011 Uwezo 2011 Uwezo 2011 Uwezo 2011 Beekungo

2012 Jangandoo 2012 (Pilot)

INDIA PAKISTAN KENYA TANZANIA UGANDA MALI SENEGAL SA

MP

LE D

ESC

RIP

TIO

N Age range of children assessed 5-16 years 5-16 years 6-16 years 7-16 years 6-16 years 6-14 years 6 to 18 years

Sample size of children tested 633,465 105,860 131,971 114,761 101,652 23,149 1,605

Languages in which children were tested

20 languages

Urdu, Sindhi and English

Kiswahili & English

Kiswahili & English

English

French, Bamanankan,

Bomu, Fulfulde

French, Wolof, Pulaar

National assessment or state/provincial

National 85 Districts

out of a total of 145 districts

National National National Regional (75

out of 703 communes)

4 regions

READING CAN CHILDREN READ? LANGUAGE IN WHICH CHILDREN WERE

ASKED TO READ 20 regional languages

Urdu/Sindi English Kiswahili English 3 regional languages

French

EVID

ENC

E

Grade 2 : % Children who cannot read letters

16.6 10.9 5.2 27.9 38.3 47.1 31.3

Grade 3 : % Children who cannot read simple words

31.4 22.7 18.5 19.5 58.4 61.2 45.4

Grade 3 : % Children who cannot read a simple 4 line paragraph

59.8 58.8 47 41.3 83.7 90.8 57.8

Grade 3 : % Children who cannot read a simple "story" (Grade 2 text)

81.3 83 72.6 58.1 91.7 95.9 73.5

Grade 4 : % Children who cannot read a simple 4 line paragraph

40.3 40.7 21.2 40.4 62.5 83.8 36.6

Grade 4 : % Children who cannot read a simple "story" (Grade 2 text)

66 69.2 48.8 55.6 79 90.8 53

Grade 5 : % Children who cannot read a simple "story" (Grade 2 text)

51.9 52.6 28.2 41 57.3 89.3 44.1

ARITHMETIC CAN CHILDREN RECOGNIZE NUMBERS ?

EVID

ENC

E

Grade 2 : % Children who cannot recognize numbers to 100

53.5 37.7 17.6 19.8 61.8 65.2 26.1

THE NATIONAL CONTEXT

Progress?

• Significant increase in number of schools and in school enrolment

• Significant increase in the numbers of trained teachers

• General consistency in Government funding to schools

Contradiction • Why the growing exodus from

public school and simultaneous growth of private ‘academies’?

• Two ‘systems of education’ oft dictated by economic abilities

• Has ‘success’ in formal education been delimited to ensuring access ?

Has the all the investment led to increased learning?

Has the right to education been construed as a “right to schooling?”

How do we focus attention to core competencies and learning outcomes?

• How can accountability on public schools be increased?

• How can attitudes of oft disillusioned or disempowered parents be changed?

• How can we get an agreed ‘minimum of quality’ for all our children?

THE UWEZO APPROACH

Uwezo’s Central Question

Children are in school… …but are they learning?

Three pillars….

• Assessment

• Communication

• Action

Evidence is the pivot, the springboard

• Use annual national assessments

– Traditional audience of national assessment results has been governments, policy makers

• Undertaken by citizens and citizen groups

– Uwezo believes that citizens are important audience because they too are actors in education, and can exert pressure on policy makers to act.

• Critical functions undertaken by experts from MoE, Bureau of statistics

Annual Assessment -Started in 2009/10:

-Conducted 3 cycles of assessment -Focus areas have been constant Literacy and Numeracy -Languages of focus have increased (in Uganda) -Testing of children, analysis and release of evidence all planned to occur within one cycle.

Tests: Simple and Clear

• Pegged on Class Two curriculum expectations of each country • Tests are made by a panel of members drawn from the MoE, Curriculum Institutes, Exams/Assessment centres, practicing teachers, book authors

Household Based

Local Ownership Implemented by partners organizations and

volunteers

•Partners In Arts And Contemporary Development

•Youth Action For Rural Development

•Young Women Christian Association

•Foundation For Kenya Pastoralists Women

•Dream Achievers Youth Organization

Kenya: 158 District Partners

•Youth and Persons with Disability

•AIDS Education Group for the Youth

•Bugiri Ngo Forum Network

•Campaign Against Domestic Violence In The Community

•Community Integrated Development Initiatives

Uganda: 80 District Partners

Tanzania: 133 District Partners

•Coastal Youth Vision Agency •Mogabiri Farm Extension Centre •Rukwa Press Club •Forum for African Women Educationalists‘ Pwani Promotion and Development agency

National Scale Country Round Districts % Schools Villages Households Children

1 70 (44) 2.029 2.029 33.760 79.693

2 122 (77) 3.474 3.628 55.843 131.971

1 38 (32) 1.010 1.077 18.952 37.683

2 119 (100) 3.709 3.825 59.992 114.761

1 27 (34) 748 792 12.412 32.882

2 79 (99) 2.115 2.360 35.481 101.652

1 135 (38) 3.787 3.898 65.124 150.258

2 320 (90) 9.298 9.813 151.316 348.384Total

Kenya

Tanzania

Notes: all cells (excluding Country, Round, '%') refer to the number of units sampled and retained in the

dataset after cleaning; the '%' column refers to the proportion of districts in the sample frame out of

all districts in the country; the number of schools sampled is often slightly smaller than the number of

enumeration areas (vil lages) as not all enumeration areas contained a school.

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

Uganda

COMMUNICATING THE FINDINGS

Communication Tenets

• Every citizen has the right to know.

– understandable, simple, attractive and have reach.

• All contact is communication.

• Communication must be of scale.

– ‘spray and pray’ effect?

• Communication is interactive.

– 2-way via telephone or SMS.

• Repetition is used for effect.

Simple Message that is repeated annually

Are our Children Learning?

2012

Articulated in the Annual Publications

Using easy to understand diagrams

…accompanied with descriptions that can be ‘visualized’ 4 out of 100 children in Std. 8 cannot

read a class 2 level story (Kenya).

91% 96% 96%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

% of Standard 8 children who can read a Standard 2 story

English

Kiswahili

Maths

Presenting key information simply

Read the Kiswahili Story

Read the English Story

Do Basic Multiplication

Standard 3

33%

8%

19%

Standard 7

81%

51%

69%

TANZANIA: Comparing Children in Std 3 and Std 7:

How many children can:

Comparing Tanzania against the others

Read the Kiswahili Story

Read the English Story

Do Basic Multiplication

Tanzania

33% 8% 19%

Kenya

36% 28% 51%

Uganda

N/A 3% 30%

In Standard 3, how many children can:

Through East African Comparison

Children from wealthier households have better (English) reading competencies.

19 21

25

34

47

5 3 4

9

16

1 2 3 5

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Using Stories

• Giving a face to the statistic

• Maria in Kenya, Kyosigga in Uganda

Through Info-graphics

In Simple and Understandable Formats

Through a broad based Partnerships

2012

Through the Media

CAN SUCH AN APPROACH LEND TO

IMPROVEMENTS?

Non Conventional approach

• Efforts to re-invigorate learning can come from non-traditional areas

• Logical approach – focus on the teacher and improve capacities

• Uwezo added value – Localized Radio program with citizens as Judge and Jury, and Radio presenter recognizing Teachers

• Citizen agency – pressure from the ground.

Stories of Action • Household level

– Actions to re-enrol or Withdrawal of children from poor performing schools

• School Level

– Allocating good teachers to early grades

• Policy

– Education reform process in Kenya

• Growing citizen agency

The POWER of the parent • The power of the parent

to motivate a child to reach their highest potential, as Ngugu wa Thiongo narrates

• But it needs to be met with positive action from the professionals, from policy makers, from MoEs, from YOU.

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