DO OUR CHILDREN LEARN?
Uwezo Tanzania Learning progress report 2019
This report is based on the 2017 Uwezo assessment in Tanzania, which took place two years after the previous assessment. The general pattern of results is consistent with the findings from previous evaluation rounds. A continued trend of improving literacy skills in Kiswahili was observed among the children in Standard 3, reflecting the learning that took place in Standards 1 and 2. In other respects, however, the results show no overall improvement on 2015 and highlight the country’s ongoing challenges in providing quality education for all children.
Reading and writing skills in Kiswahili have improved
The proportion of children in Standard 3 who can read a short story in Kiswahili more than doubled between 2011 and 2017. The improvement in the children in standard 7 is less pronounced. Data from 2017 shows that 14% of children in Year 7 leave elementary school unable to read at a Standard 2 level.
English skills are poor and declining
Few students were able to read a story at Standard 2 level in English. The results of the last three Uwezo examinations show that the pass rate in English for Standard 7 pupils has declined and the relative gap between reading and writing skills for Kiswahili and English has widened over the same period.
Calculation skills have fluctuated over time and show little improvement
This report compares the highest level of numeracy attainment with benchmarking based on the current national curriculum for numeracy in Standard 2. Pass rates for the numeracy test among Grade 7 pupils have decreased from 88% in 2014 to 80% in 2017. A more encouraging result was recorded for children in Standard 3 with an increase in pass rates.
Overall, children’s literacy and numeracy skills improved slightly between 2011 and 2017
Children aged 9-13 (including out-of-school children) who have passed the three Uwezo tests in reading, writing and arithmetic.
Large differences in learning outcomes were found between the districts
Children aged 9-13 (including out-of-school children) who have passed the three Uwezo tests in reading, writing and arithmetic.
Significantly more children aged 6 now attend pre-school or elementary school
The number of school inspections for quality assurance varies greatly depending on the district
More children drop out of school in early primary than in higher grades
Half of all parents visited their children’s teachers in 2017
Less than 1 in 4 schools on the Tanzanian mainland have meal programs for children
About Uwezo
Uwezo is one of Twaweza’s flagship programs(www.twaweza.org). It conducts the largest citizen-led assessments of children’s learning outcomes in three countries in East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The aim of the Uwezo learning assessment is to monitor and establish the actual level of learning outcomes in literacy and mathematics among children aged 6-16 years in East Africa. Tanzania is among the African countries committed to achieving quality education for all in line with the Education For All goals, focusing on improving the quality of education and ensuring excellence in literacy, mathematics and basic skills (EFA 1990, UNESCO 2000, UNESCO 2009), which was also emphasized in the Sustainable Development Goal on Education (SDG4). The Uwezo learning assessment allows us all to know whether the investments (funds, manpower) in providing quality education services to children are yielding the desired results. By generating robust evidence on reading and math rates among school-aged children, Uwezo assessments provide invaluable data for public and policy discussions on education.
Citizen volunteers are at the heart of the Uwezo learning assessments. Citizens are not only seen as consumers but also as knowledge generators. Uwezo engages partner organizations in the districts to coordinate assessment activities in selected districts in all regions of mainland Tanzania. In return, the partner organizations recruit 60 volunteers per district to collect data from 30 villages. In each village, 20 households are visited and, with parental consent, all children aged 6 to 16 in these households are assessed. Data is also collected on school performance indicators from an elementary school attended by most children in each area. In this way, Uwezo generates locally relevant data through individuals and organizations in the community, leading to local ownership and engagement with the results.
In 2017, Uwezo Tanzania conducted the sixth learning assessment in 56 districts of mainland Tanzania. The assessment was conducted in 1,677 enumeration areas selected by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and reached 25,532 households. About 48,530 children aged 6 to 16 years were assessed in literacy and numeracy skills.
The core objective of the Uwezo assessment remains the collection of independent data on actual proficiency levels in literacy and numeracy among school-age children. Given the rapid pace of policy reform, the need for rigorous data to monitor the impact of education programs, policies and budgets on learning outcomes, particularly in light of the renewed global and national focus on the quality of education, is evident. The assessment also captures a range of indicators of learning environments and factors that may be associated with learning outcomes, such as the socio-economic status of households, the educational attainment of parents, parental involvement in their children’s education and the rate of school inspections for quality assurance.
This year’s results must be interpreted in the context of the changes resulting from the implementation of Tanzania’s new education and training policy of 2014. The policy stipulates that children enrolled in the first year of elementary school from 2016 will receive ten years of free, compulsory basic education: six years of primary education and four years of secondary education. The policy also includes the gradual rollout of one year of compulsory pre-school, lowering the age of entry into primary education from seven to six years, shifting the teaching of English from Grade 1 to Grade 3, and moving to a more intensive focus on Kiswahili in Grades 1 and 2 through the teaching of the 3Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic). (Human Rights Watch report 2017)
Download the entire study:
Uwezo-Tanzania-Learning-Assessment-Report-2019
