Literacy Boost Northern Province, Sri Lanka: Baseline Report 2013

This report examines the results of a learner background survey and reading assessment conducted from 16 May to 27 June 2013 as part of the Dubai Cares-funded Partnering to Improve Children’s Literacy in Sri Lanka project.

The survey and reading assessment covered 1286 grade 2 learners throughout 70 schools in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu Districts of the Northern Province. The 70 schools are split into 40 primary schools designated to receive Save the Children’s (SC) Literacy Boost program (20 with community activities rolling out in 2013 and 20 with community activities rolling out in early 2014), and 30 comparison primary schools receiving no intervention.

The Literacy Boost program includes teacher training, tools and resources for assisting LCAs, community reading activities, and age-appropriate local language material creation to support emergent literacy skills among early-grade children. These skills include concepts about print, letter awareness, single word reading of most used words, reading fluency, reading accuracy, and reading comprehension. As part of Literacy Boost, learners are periodically assessed in each of these skills through an adaptable assessment tool to inform programming and estimate program impact. The data gathered from these schools is analyzed to present a snapshot of the emergent literacy skills of grade 2 learners in these schools and to inform the adaptation of SC’s Literacy Boost program to this context.