KENYA PROGRAMMES OR INTERVENTIONS IN

EARLY GRADE READING

A PAPER PRESENTED BY ENOS O. OYAYA, OGW

DIRECTOR QUALITY ASSURANCE AND STANDARDS - KENYA

DURING THE WORKSHOP ON “ALL CHILDREN READING BY 2015: FROM ASSESSMENT TO ACTION”

HELD IN WASHINGTON D.C. ON 12TH TO 14TH APRIL, 2010

1

2

Where is Kenya?

East Africa

Kenya

AFRICA

3

National ParksAnd GameReserves

Malindi

KENYA

KisumuNairobi

Mombasa

INTRODUCTION Kenya being a signatory to the Jomtien and the

Dakar Protocols has put in place programmes/ interventions in place to mitigate issues of literacy and numeracy with a view to achieving Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)and EFA.

Kenya Language Policy at lower grades (i.e. Grade 1-3) is the language commonly used in the catchment

e.g. mother tongue(rural-rural), Kiswahili (urban and areas of mixed communities), English (urban pockets with an affluent and foreign communities.

English is the medium of instruction throughout the education system at all levels with the Kiswahili as a national language. 4

The current literacy level is 61.5% (Kenya National Literacy Survey report, 2007). However, more than a half of the literate do not possess the requisite (functional) literacy levels needed for making meaningful contribution to Kenya’s Vision 2030.

Current parameters which define pathway to English Literacy in Kenya today include the language in education policy and practice and the child’s access to English outside the school (Grace W. Bunyi – 2001 Kenyatta University).

5

THE PROGRAMMES/INTERVENTIONS

1. The English Radio Project in 1970s where English-as-a-second language, experts prepared English language lessons at Kenya Education Institute (KIE) Kenya education Media Section. The lessons were broadcast nationally through the Kenya Broadcasting

Co-orporation (KBC) radio.6

2. In 2001 the School Based Teacher Development (SbTD) course was initiated with an aim of improving the quality of primary education in every primary school in the country. Modules were prepared for the three key subjects (English, Science and Maths) and the fourth one as a core module for General Methods.

Manual on pupils and teachers competencies in Mathematics and English for primary schools has also been produced to guide the teachers on learning achievements from Grade 1-8.

7

3. SOUTHERN AFRICA CONSORTIUM FOR MONITORING EDUCATIONAL QUALITY (SACMEQ)

A regional research project involving 14 countries in sub-saharan Africa

The main objective of the consortium is to monitor learning achievement at primary school level.

It started in 1998 and so far it has produced three reports. (SACMEQ 1 – 1998, SACMEQ 2 – 2000 and SACMEQ 3 – 2007).

8

The findings of these three research initiatives have been extensively utilized in Kenya and have been incorporated in Kenya Education Sector Support Programme (KESSP-1) and research strategy in NASMLA.

Key among these was the findings of SACMEQ 3 which issues of gender and school location in influencing performance.

9

Comparison of boys and girls in achievement; Reading and Math tests. (SACMEQ 3)

Boys performed better than girls in BOTH reading and mathematics tests. In the reading test results, girls tend to generally perform better than boys.

10

A Gender Analysis of SACMEQ3 Reading Competency levels.

• Lowest levels has equal representation thereafter wide fluctuations where girls slightly score more in midlevel but boys demonstrating higher reading facility.

11

A Gender Analysis of SACMEQ3 Mathematics Competency levels.

• More girls achieved lower competencies in mathematics than boys’ facility grew with increasing complexity.

• In seeking to raise girls’ performance in mathematics, there is need to focus on the promotion of higher mathematical thinking skills.

12

School location and SACMEQ3 Reading and Math Performance.

• In rural areas reading scores are lower than Mathematics scores. This may be expected considering that use of mother tongue is more common in these places. The opposite is true in large cities where reading scores are higher. 13

4. THE NATIONAL BOOK DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL OF KENYA (NBDCK)

Started 2008 with a vision of Reading for Life, NBDCK works in partnership with stakeholders from the book and education sectors with a goal of creating a literate, reading and thereby informed society, with expected positive impact on peoples socio-economic status.

The implementation of this goal is through stakeholder implementation of the project-based cross-cutting interventions which include:-

14

Capacity building workshops for members, teachers and communities.

Children’s and community Reading Tents (CRTs)

Library development including book donation.

Book Week events where the book is promoted and celebrated through activities like literacy awards to upcoming writers, recognition awards to media houses that propagate the cause of strong reading culture and book talks. 15

5. KENYA EARLY GRADE READING ASSESSMENT (EGRA)

EGRA activity in Kenya is a USAID funded programme in partnership with Education for marginalized Children in Kenya (EMACK) project.

Its activities started in 2007 through workshops, baseline research/survey, etc.

The first workshops were meant to assist the Kenyan education experts in the development of EGRA tools (English and Kiswahili Grades 1-3.

USAID and its partner RTI International collaboration with MoE Kenya Directorate of Quality Assurance and Standards piloted the EGRA in malindi (Coast Province) in 2008 and

16

Central and Nyanza Provinces in September and October, 2009.

The languages of study were English, Kiswahili, Dholuo and Gikuyu.

The study findings in Nyanza and Central Provinces indicate that the following are the factors in predicting achievement:-

The Education of a child’s parents has effect on child’s oral reading fluency.

School attendance also affects child’s performance

Children who have reading textbook outscore those who do not have. 17

Additional reading materials in the classroom (like wall charts) improve the quality of reading achievement.

In Schools where headteachers had inservice training on how to manage mother tongue pedagogy the children outscored those where the headteachers had not been trained.

Children in schools with electricity outscored those in schools without.

Schools where teachers absenteeism was high scored poorly.

These factors in addition to recommendations contained in therein have far reaching effect on the education management and programmes in the Ministry. 18

The Table below shows the school absenteeism scenario in three schools in a study carried out by the Directorate of Quality Assurance and Japanese Volunteers.

ABSENCE OF TEACHERSTable 1: Absence of Teachers in three schools in Nyamira/Kisii Districts in Nyanza Province. Sec. School A

A-1(2%) N-0(22%)

NB: A–Assignment only N-No class 19

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Mon N N

Tue N N

Wed

Thu A N N

Fri N N N N

Sec. School B

A-0(0%)

N-7(16%)

Sec. School C

A-0(0%) N-14(31%)

A-Assignment only N-No class 20

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Mon N N

Tue

Wed

N N

Thu N N N

Fri

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Mon N N N N

Tue N N N

Wed N N N N Ball Game

Thu Ball Game

Fri N N

Source : JOCV and Directorate of Quality Assurance and Standards (2003)

The two types of absenteeism above have serious effect on the teaching of English Language and Mathematics. Most teachers tend to teach through assignments or latent absenteeism. Latent absenteeism is where a teacher is in class yet he does not teach instead he is more concerned with discipline rather delivering an inspiring lesson, or he teachers without preparing and therefore ineffective and wasting pupils time.

21

5. THE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT SYSTEM FOR MONITORING LEARNING ACHIEVEMENT (NASMLA) – see documentary

Arising from the introduction of FPE in2003 pupils enrolment has shot up from 5.9million(2003) to 8.5million(2010).

This geometrical increase in enrolment has made the government to re-echo its commitment to ensuring equity, access, relevance, quality and efficiency of primary education. 22

The MEO came up with a policy framework for the National Assessment System for Monitoring Learner Achievement (NASMLA) whose aims are:-

To assess the achievements in Basic education

To assess the effect of inputs into a school system on expected learning outcomes.

To provide a basis for curriculum review To periodically monitor the acquisition of

set competencies in basic education.

23

The core function of NASMLA is the co-ordination and dissemination of a all research initiatives especially in EGRA, among the key players from the public and private sectors.

Its secretariat is housed in the Kenya National Examinations Council.

To date NASMLA has conducted a research on Monitoring Learning Achievement for Grade 3 in Literacy and Numeracy. The report is in draft form. However, the preliminary findings are corroborating with other actors in EGRA.

NASMLA falls within KESSP I as an Investment Programme in Quality Assurance and Standards which I am the Investment Programme Team Leader (IPTL).

24

THANK YOU.

25