Baana Programme: Numeracy and Literacy Assessment Report

The Baana programme fits within and continues to contribute to Save the Children Uganda Country thematic Program Areas with an overarching goal of ensuring that all children in the impact area are healthy and educated and become nurturing caregivers and positive contributors to society. The Baana programme is implementing the Numeracy and Literacy boost common approaches in 82 primary schools in the Wakiso impact area. Literacy Boost is a program designed to guide schools, parents, and communities to better support the literacy development of their children. On the other hand, Numeracy Boost targets three core domains of mathematics, numbers and operations, geometry and measurements, aiming to shift teachers away from the traditional: (or theoretical teaching methods. In November 2023, the Baana program MEAL department conducted Numeracy and literacy assessments in 79 supported schools in the Wakiso impact area. The purpose of the study was to determine the current status of reading and numeracy achievement of learners enrolled in the 82 Baana programme schools and the school level inputs related to the teaching and learning of numeracy and literacy. The study employed a mixed methods research design comprising both qualitative and quantitative approaches of data collection. Quantitative methods focused on the assessment of numeracy and literacy learning outcomes while Qualitative methods delved into the depth of understanding of the associated factors that influence the teaching and learning of both numeracy and literacy in early grades in supported schools. A 3-day rigorous training of 19 research assistants was done followed by 5 days of actual data collection. The study population included primary three learners and head teachers of the 82 Baana program schools in Wakiso impact area. Learning outcome assessments were administered to pupils in primary three class at each school who were randomly selected from each class. The assessment tools comprising of subtasks that measure foundational reading and numeracy skills were administered to each selected learner through one-on-one assessment. Additional data on the factors that influence the teaching and learning of numeracy and literacy in schools was collected. This report therefore summarises the findings from the numeracy and literacy assessments conducted in 79 Baana program schools in Wakiso impact area.

Key Study findings

The assessment results reflected significant improvements in learners’ achievement in both English literacy and numeracy with 23% and 48% of the assessed learners demonstrating the highest level of proficiency in both English literacy and numeracy respectively as compared to 19% and 35% in 2022. However, for literacy in Luganda, there has been a notable drop in the proportion of learners who attained full competence from 16% in 2022 to 14% in 2023. In both numeracy and literacy, girls performed better than boys. At full competence of both English there were more girls of the assessed girls represented by 30% as compared to 16% of the assessed boys. Similarly, in Luganda literacy more girls (14%) achieved full competence than the assessed boys (9%). The same trend was registered in the numeracy assessment with 50% of the assessed girls demonstrating the highest level of proficiency in numeracy compared to 46% of the assessed boys.

The study findings indicated that there were no significant associations between learning outcomes and the quality of the learning environment. However, results from cross tabulations indicated that more of the best performing learners (64%) in numeracy were from schools that had achieved all the four guiding principles of the QLE.

The study further revealed that there are several supportive actions undertaken by the schools and communities to supplement the efforts of the Baana programme in the teaching and learning of numeracy and literacy in supported schools. Some of these included parental support at home, and teacher support by both internal and external supervisors.

Recommendations

• Teachers need more support for teaching reading and numeracy in the classrooms. Besides being trained regularly, they need continued follow-up support. This support includes observation of classroom teaching and giving feedback to help them improve their instructional practices. This can be done in conjunction with the key district technical staff in education and the catchment core primary teachers’ college (CPTC).
• Remedial learning initiatives are proven mechanisms that enable learners catch-up on their learning and supplement efforts of the teachers in teaching numeracy and literacy. The programme needs to scale up the implementation of catch-up clubs for both numeracy and literacy remedial lessons involving the P.3 class to ensure that all learners acquire the foundational skills in early grades.
• Literacy and math skills acquisition begins in the earliest stages of children’s lives. Therefore, Emergent literacy and math knowledge is greater predictor of learning outcomes in primary early grades (P.1 to P.3). There is an urgent need to conduct awareness campaigns and sensitization meetings on Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) targeting parents and caregivers to understand it’s importance and the importance of the early start to learning.
• Head teachers are the curriculum/pedagogical leaders in the schools and have a role in supporting teachers to teacher numeracy and literacy. It is vital to empower them with the necessary skills and understanding of the numeracy and literacy boost approaches to enhance their capacity to effectively support teachers. The program should therefore conduct head teacher differentiated trainings on both the numeracy and literacy boost common approaches and on how they can effectively support teachers.