Literacy Boost Afghanistan Year 1 October 2014

This report examines the results of a learner background survey and reading assessment conducted in Faryab and Saripul, Afghanistan, prior to beginning the Literacy Boost intervention and again after a year of implementation. This report explores: the comparability of the learners in Literacy Boost and comparison schools at endline, the skills profiles at endline and gains from the baseline, equity in learning by gender, poverty, home literacy and other characteristics.

At endline, learners in Literacy Boost schools had higher gains in reading comprehension, fluency and accuracy and lower gains in the rest subcomponents of the test. However, the difference in gains between comparison and Literacy Boost schools is not statistically significant for any of the subtests. One factor that can be influencing this result is the fact that some of the components of the program (classroom readjustment in Faryab and teacher training in Saripul) were conducted just a few months before the endline assessment. Therefore, the endline assessment could not be capturing the effect of these components.