Literacy Boost Somali Region, Ethiopia: Baseline Report 2012

This report examines the results of a learner background survey and reading assessment conducted in October-November 2012 with 309 grade 2 learners throughout 20 schools in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. The 20 schools are split into 10 Meiso district primary schools designated to receive Save the Children’s (SC) Literacy Boost program in 2013 and 10 Afdem district comparison primary schools receiving no intervention. The data gathered from these schools is analyzed to present a snapshot of the emergent literacy skills of grade 2 learners in these schools investigate the comparability of the learners in the two groups, and to inform the adaptation of SC’s Literacy Boost program to this context based on skill levels as well as factors that currently influence reading skills development.

Somali Regional State is the second largest in Ethiopia after Oromia and is located in the east and south-east of the country bordering Somalia to the east and southeast, Kenya to the south and Djibouti to the north. The population is 85% pastoralist/agro-pastoralist dependent on livestock and farming for their survival in a region that faces frequent droughts that cause food and water shortages for human and livestock populations alike. The intervention sites are from Meiso district and comparison schools are in the neighboring communities of Afdem.literacy boost, education, emergent literacy skills, letter awareness, adaptable assessment tools, reading comprehension, literacy monitoring tool.