Learning

USAID continues to prioritize foundational reading skills and currently funds 19 early grade reading projects across sub-Saharan Africa.

In the DRC, ACCELERE!1 (A!1), a USAID and UKAID funded project implemented by Chemonics, has launched “Lecture pour la vie,” a local language interactive audio instruction radio pilot program in response to COVID-19 school closures.

USAID and its partners recently experimented with cash benchmarking to better understand the cost-effectiveness of its investments. There are currently five cash benchmarking studies underway, each with a different research design.

Classroom teachers, principals, and specialists are embracing an understanding that they do not need to wait for diagnosis or identification of a child’s disability to teach responsively. And, they are putting that understanding to work.

Kenya implemented the Tusome Early Grade Reading Activity in 2014. It introduced interventions at the grade 1 level beginning in 2015. Taking its name from the Kiswahili word for “let’s read,” the Tusome program was a five-year, nationwide effort.

In 2010, less than ten percent of Kenya’s primary school-aged children were reading at the national level benchmarks. Ten years later, largely due to the success of the Tusome program, nearly 66 percent of grade two students now read at grade level.

USAID’s engagement in ICT4E dates back to the use of radio in the 1970s. The Agency’s commitment to ICT4E has only grown stronger with time and investments in the Internet, wireless networks, television, and mobile technologies.

USAID and its partners have used different methods to set performance benchmarks for primary school students over the years, with the vast majority of benchmarking exercises relying on student reading assessment data to identify proficiency levels.