Presentation by Mary Goretti of Uwezo Uganda, to CIES Conference Scaling-up Panel, Toronto, March 13, 2014

1. Civil Society Organisations:
Achieving and Maintaining
Scale
www.uwezo.net
Mary Goretti Nakabugo, Country Coordinator Uganda, Uwezo at
Twaweza mnakabugo@uwezo.net
CIES Conference , Scaling-up Panel
Toronto, March 13, 2014
www.twaweza.org
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2. So we all want our children to be able to read by
2015 and beyond!
How do we measure reading competencies on
scale to gauge progress made and improve
continuously?
What is the role of civil society in taking reading
assessment to scale?
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3. Uwezo at Twaweza Citizen-led Household-
based model of assessing basic literacy:
Potential to provide large-scale, annual, easily
understandable indicators of children’s ability to
read
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4. The Uwezo reading assessment approach:
• Adapted from ASER India in 2009
• Household-based rather than school-based
• Uses simple tools based on a Primary 2 curriculum: ordinary
people can understand the findings and conduct the
assessment themselves
• Annual and conducted at scale: all children aged 6/7-16 across
Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda are assessed on basic literacy [and
numeracy]
• Citizen-led: coordinated by 362 district-based CSOs and done
by over 20,000 citizen volunteers in 362 districts across EA
• Feedback is instant
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5. Uwezo reading assessment scale to-date:
• Four assessments of children’s reading
competencies conducted since 2009
• Each year assessment is conducted in over
100,000 households
• Each year close to 350,000 children aged 6/7-
16 are assessed in reading across East Africa
• In total, close to a million children have been
assessed since 2009.
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6. The Numbers
Uwezo: 2009-2012
Notes: % indicates the percentage of all districts covered; the district list is based on the administrative divisions in the latest release of population
and housing census data at the time of the survey design; all other columns give the number of units sampled and included in the cleaned data.
Source: calculated from the Uwezo 1, 2 and 3 data.
Country Year Districts % Schools Villages Households Children
Kenya 2009 70 (44) 2,160 2,160 19,755 74,781
2011 123 (78) 3,474 3,608 41,425 125,661
2012 156 (99) 4,539 4,559 52,441 145,564
Tanzania 2010 42 (32) 1,010 1,062 7,847 35,540
2011 132 (99) 3,733 3,841 51,829 110,435
2012 126 (95) 3,624 3,752 37,866 105,352
Uganda 2010 27 (34) 748 786 12,377 32,768
2011 79 (99) 2,115 2,329 35,359 100,715
2012 80 (100) 2,279 2,378 34,320 92,188
Total 2009/10 139 (37) 3,918 4,008 39,979 143,089
2011 334 (90) 9,322 9,778 128,613 336,811
2012 362 (98) 10,442 10,689 124,627 343,104

7. Test Design
• Tests developed by a panel of experts
• Tests are incremental
• Tests have distinct levels
• Tests have local independence.
• Level of difficulty increases in each
subsequent level
• Easy to define the specific competency level
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8. Literacy Test
•Letter/Sound
•Word
•Paragraph
•Story
•Comprehension
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9. What we have achieved from the
assessments to-date
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10. • Provided evidence that a huge number of
children are not acquiring basic reading skills
while in school
– Across East Africa, less than 3 out of 10 children in
Primary 3 can read and comprehend an English or
local language story of Primary 2 level
• The evidence has promoted debate, shifted
focus to learning outcomes, and sparked
action at various levels to improve learning
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11. Debate and action sparked
Positive or negative: the conversation continues!
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12. Every child counts
“Even if only one
child is not
learning, let us be
told about her…”
Mutula Kilonzo, former
Minister of Education - Kenya
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13. “Uwezo findings
have provided a
wake up call”
Hon. Dr. Shukuru Kawambwa,
Minister of Education and Vocational
Training, Tanzania. Remarks at the
recent Annual Education Sector
Review
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14. “We are calling upon all stakeholders to do
their part. And those who may not be happy
with the findings to use them as launch pad
for solutions instead of going on the
defensive. We need to ask the question;
where are we getting it wrong? How can we
learn from the findings? This is not the time to
give excuses and blame, but cooperate and
improve learning.” Mr. Nsumba-Lyazi,
Commissioner representing the Permanent
Secretary Ministry of Education and sports at
the launch of Uwezo Uganda 2012 ALA report
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15. Collective action sparked: Early
Grade Reading Interventions
USAID/Uganda School Health
and Reading Program
Northern Uganda Literacy
Program
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In Tanzania, basic
literacy/numeracy is a key part of
the Big Results Now run out of the
President's Delivery Bureau
Kenya: Focus on Early
Grade in school projects,
eg Opportunity Schools
in Kajiado

16. The Struggle continues
LPT Evaluation:
“Overall, our findings
resonate with other
research carried out by
the LPT team, which
finds little impact of
the Uwezo intervention
on citizen action in the
education realm”.
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17. • Strengthening the
capacity of volunteers
to give quality instant
feedback
• Partnering with local
councillors to activate
action from the ground
up
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Plans for the Future

18. Uwezo Uganda at Twaweza,
Naguru Go down, Suwara Road, Plot 77
P.O Box 40163, Kampala-Uganda
Tel: +256-312112815
Email: Uganda@uwezo.net
www.uwezo.net
www.twaweza.org
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