Advancing the Right to Read in Rwanda: Programme baselines and studies – Summary Report

In 2013, Save the Children launched an education signature programme, Advancing the Right to Read (ARR), which is now operational in five districts in Rwanda. The programme aims to contribute to addressing the global crisis in learning by providing a continuum of services for children aged up to nine years, focused on supporting emergent and early-grade literacy to ensure all children leave school able to read.

Between April 2013 and April 2014, Save the Children in Rwanda, in partnership with Stanford University, Save the Children member organisations, the Rwanda Education Board (REB), local NGO Umuhuza and external consultants, carried out nine baselines and studies supporting different aspects of the programme. The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the main findings from these baselines and studies, and document the status quo, before implementation of programme activities.

The findings provide clear evidence of the urgent need for the ARR programme. As anticipated, students at the end of Primary 1 are struggling, both with the high order skills of fluency, accuracy and comprehension, but also with the more basic skills of simple letter identification. It is also evident that students with lower socio-economic status and with a weak home literacy environment struggle more.