Home to 40 indigenous languages and hosting the largest number of refugees in Africa, Uganda is challenged to meet the needs of all primary school learners - a situation further exacerbated by school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic. A recent assessment found that learning outcomes in northern Uganda reveal low learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy. However, holistic education interventions propose a solution.
In the northern district of Adjumani, in the West Nile region, a survey conducted by teachers of the 28 TaRL+ @ Play project pilot schools revealed that 96% of over-age learners in primary school grades 3-5 are not able to read Madi ti – the dominant local language of the district.
The survey, part of a baseline assessment for VVOB’s TaRL+ @Play project assessed overage-for-grade primary level learners (P3-P5) in literacy and numeracy to gauge their learning levels and to group them accordingly for Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) lessons. TaRL is an accelerated literacy and numeracy intervention designed as a holistic approach to improving foundational skills.
The state of education
The results revealed that the educational outcomes of overage learners in P3-P5 are far lower than the national figures from 2021. Presented and discussed by elected leaders at Adjumani District Council in a meeting in January 2023, the results revealed:
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Only 4% of their children are able to read Madi ti which is the dominant local language of the district.
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Only 88% of learners were not able to read in English - one of the two official languages of Uganda – far exceeding the national average of 13.7% of P3-P5 children reported as “nonreaders” in Uwezo’s 2021 National Assessment Report
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73% percent were not able to do subtraction – far exceeding the national average of 51.2% of P3-7 children reported in Uwezo’s 2021 National Assessment Report
Educational challenges
What surprised those reading the results the most was that local Ugandan learners were falling behind in English compared to their refugee peers. The baseline study revealed that 28% of refugee learners could read sentences in English compared to 22% of Ugandan learners.
Uganda is one of the largest refugee-hosting nations in the world, hosting 1.55 million refugees and asylum seekers. Of all Ugandas’s districts, Adjumani hosts the most. The country’s refugee policy is justifiably regarded as one of the world’s most generous and progressive, providing refugees with free access to the national education system. This model of integrated education provision has fostered amicable relations between refugee learners and their peers from the host population. However, its delivery also poses important challenges for educators at the frontline of implementation.
Playful solutions
During the discussion on the survey findings, the question at the forefront among the attendees was “What language were Adjumani children literate in?” Many hypotheses were put forward ranging from the influence of refugee languages, the influence of urbanisation, and the influence of languages spoken in the neighboring community such as Leb Acoli and Lugbariti.
However, the nature of instruction given to learners, the limited instructional materials, and inadequate support supervision provided to teachers all contribute to the low performance of learners. The TaRL+ @ Play project is addressing this gap and supporting the Ministry of Education and Sports and the district local government to improve learning outcomes.
The project, characterised by playful learning and funded by The LEGO Foundation, began in 2022 but is already yielding results, according to teacher feedback. The project:
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Applies the Teaching at the Right Level Methodology
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Offers subject-oriented professional development of instructors and mentors
14 of the 28 pilot schools apply contextualised Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Kernels, developed by the Harvard EASEL Lab. SEL Kernels are age-appropriate games, activities, and other instructional methods that cultivate SEL skills. In Adjumani, these are known as SEL Boosters.
The TaRL sessions usually take place before or after regular school hours and teacher Anzo Maurice of Nyumazi PS indicated that these sessions have improved his interactions with learners: “I feel less stress controlling my class owing to the good relationship cultivated outside the classroom,” he explains.
The path forward
Home to 40 indigenous languages, multilingual education can present a challenge in Uganda but by the end of the meeting, a strategic position was agreed upon to combine resources from the three Madi-ti-speaking districts of Adjumani, Obongi and Moyo to form a competent language board to increase the volume of literature available in Madi-ti, and to advocate for literacy in Madi ti.
The councilors also resolved to form an education steering community with the mandates to synthesize context-specific approach to improve education in Adjumani, integrating thoroughly researched and workable remedial teaching methods for learners such as TaRL, and ensuring effective support supervision by the district inspectors and Coordinating Centre Tutors.
TaRL methodologies may be just the ticket to address some of the educational challenges in Uganda. In Zambia, TaRL has dramatically improved learning outcomes since being piloted in 2016 to address a learning crisis. In addition to the TaRL+ @Play in Adjumani district, VVOB is also supporting the adoption of TaRL by teachers and school leaders in Kasese district in Rwenzori.
