Uwezo Uganda

Our Story
Uwezo, a Swahili word which means ‘capability’, has been a programme of Twaweza East Africa since 2009. Twaweza’s mission over the last ten years has been to enable children to learn, citizens to exercise agency and  governments to be responsive to citizens’ demands in Kenya, Tanzania and  Uganda. Uwezo’s main function has been to generate and curate evidence on learning outcomes and use it to engage with policy actors and citizens to  address the learning crisis. Uwezo has used the approach and methodology pioneered by the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) in India, in which trained citizen volunteers carry out assessments and obtain other relevant data, in the household setting, from large, nation-wide samples of children. To mobilise volunteers, Uwezo has collaborated with hundreds of local  organisations that broadly represent civil society.

The Uwezo assessments have been carried out annually or biannually and reported systematically at regional, national and district/county levels, in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Over the last 10 years we have gone to all districts of the three countries, reached hundreds of thousands of households and assessed millions of children. To demonstrate that information collection is not an extractive process, we have embedded instant feedback to the households and communities that were selected for inclusion. The citizen volunteers have been encouraged to participate in measuring learning outcomes and become advocates for the improvement of basic education in their communities.

The Uwezo professionals have sought to communicate the findings to educational officials and other stakeholders at local, national, regional and global levels and to focus attention on the educational quality issues that have been raised, especially the fact that millions of children are leaving school without mastery of the very foundational skills needed to fulfil the promise of education. According to the theory of change adopted by Uwezo, the quality of a service is more likely to improve if demands are articulated simultaneously by civil society and by professional opinion and if these are directed at various levels of the chain of delivery – in this case policy-makers, educational administrators and teachers.

The skills regularly assessed by Uwezo are basic elements of reading and arithmetic that are supposed to have been mastered by the end of Primary Grade 2 and are a necessary foundation for subsequent learning. Children aged 6-16 years have been assessed, but special attention has been given, in analysis, to the performance of those attending Primary Grade 3 and above, as this provides evidence about the effectiveness of schools in achieving curricular goals. In the national and district reports, performance at easily understood levels of literacy and numeracy is reported. Variations in performance according to many different characteristics of individuals, households, schooling and geographical location are also considered. We recognise that equity has many dimensions that can only be explained if we expose these variations.

We also recognise that schools remain the formal pathway through which basic literacy and numeracy skills would be acquired and hence the need to examine the school contexts of learning. For this reason we have conducted some school surveys alongside our household-based assessments. It is for this same reason that in 2016 we sought to inquire on how children emerge from the foundational skills into deepened learning when the breadth and depth of learning demands become evident. We therefore conducted the Uwezo Beyond Basics Assessment in school settings, targeting more advanced literacy and numeracy skills that form part of the Primary Grade 4 curriculum and using samples of children attending Primary Grades 5 and 6. The ‘Beyond Basics’ assessments showed similar delays in the mastery of skills intended for Primary Grade 4, further highlighting the learning crisis.

We have recognised that the equity agenda includes interrogating learning levels for children in difficulties or in isolated localities. As a regular part of our work, we have utilised assessment evidence to engage communities and school systems to create awareness and trigger local actions for improved learning (Nakabugo and Savage 2018). In 2017 Uwezo also carried out a pilot study, applying its assessment of basic skills to children in Uganda’s refugee settlements and comparing their learning outcomes and learning conditions with those of children in host communities in the same districts (Uwezo 2018b). Through this work, we demonstrated the adaptability of Uwezo citizen-led learning assessment methodology and tools to crisis contexts. The work was referenced in the 2018 Global Education Monitoring Report (GEMR) on Migration, Displacement and Education (UNESCO 2018: 60).

Learning Assessment
Uwezo Uganda seeks to produce independent evidence on the learning levels of children, their distribution and factors associated with them. You can click here to view our Learning Assessment Reports.

Outcomes
1. Policy actors, practitioners and the public have increased knowledge, awareness and understanding of children’s learning outcomes and their distribution.
2. The evidence is used to improve resource allocation and the delivery of education.

This goal has been paramount in our previous work and continues to be necessary, as a large proportion of children are taking much too long to acquire the intended skills and knowledge from primary education while others are not acquiring them at all.

For this purpose, we shall continue conducting strategic citizen-led learning assessments to establish actual basic literacy and numeracy levels of children aged 4-16 in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, but with i) reduced scale that maintains a national and district representation, ii) reduced frequency, e.g., of two-year intervals, rather than annually, iii) coverage of a wider range of outcomes iv) improved methodology and v) attention to the pre-primary as well as the primary age groups. We shall also explore an approach to assessing the literacy and numeracy competences of young adults (14-20) who have left school, in order to understand better the long-term effects of school-based learning.

We believe that by using the principles of simple and citizen-led evidence generation, we can accelerate evidence generation while still achieving the added benefit of well-organised instant feedback. Uwezo data retains traction due to its simplicity and practicality. We shall engage in collaboration, involving communities, as well as public and private actors in the education space, to illustrate our twin problems of low learning outcomes and their inequitable distribution. The collaborative approach will enhance acceptability of the evidence and broaden its chances of being used both for intervention and policy formulation and implementation.

The age range for assessment will be adjusted to include children aged 4-5, so as to provide feedback for early childhood education. It is planned to include this age group in the main assessments from 2020. Assessment data will be analysed and findings published for comparison between districts/counties and across countries, and shared with citizens and policy-makers to trigger community and government action to improve learning outcomes.

In addition to learning assessments that are to be conducted under Goal I, we shall also carry out mini-research studies on various aspects of basic education delivery to unearth variations and advocate for equitable provision. Research under this goal will include, but not be limited to, teacher distribution and motivation, and pupil enrollment and attendance.

Research & Experimentation
We carry out research and promote innovations that have the potential to improve the level and distribution of learning outcomes in basic education.

Outcomes.
1. As a result of the research and experimental work of Uwezo, policy actors and practitioners have increased knowledge and awareness of interventions that could improve learning outcomes and make them more equitable.
2. The findings from the research and experimental work are used to improve educational policies and practices.

To make the best use of available resources, we plan to support research and innovations aimed at improving literacy and numeracy competencies. In some of these, our citizen volunteers and their local communities can play a significant part. But we shall also be open to support innovations initiated by schools or our partners which demonstrate best practice or have potential to improve children’s learning outcomes. The activities planned for this goal, as described below, will not necessarily be implemented in all three countries.

Engagement
We engage with policy actors and with the public to influence and promote policies and practices for improved and more equitable learning outcomes.

Outcomes
1. Policy actors and practitioners use the evidence from the assessments, research and innovations of Uwezo Uganda to inform decision making and educational practices.
2. Parents and communities become stronger partners of schools at the local level to improve learning.

Uwezo’s major assessment exercises and our engagement with various aspects of the educational process through research and innovation will lead to advocacy of two kinds at the national and grass roots level.

Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL)
Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) is at the heart of implementing the proposed Uwezo Uganda strategy. MEL  distinguishes between reporting for internal purposes – which is coordinated by the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Officers – and reporting that is part of the core activities and seeks to influence a range of stakeholders. A number of different processes and methods (qualitative and quantitative) and a variety of tools are put in place to facilitate effective MEL for organisational learning and measurement. Specific indicators are identified early at the planning stage and used during implementation to monitor progress in achieving the set goals and evaluate achievement of the expected outcomes and impact.

Monitoring
Monitoring is concerned mainly with the baseline (the initial situation), with the inputs and processes of the various activities (such as staff, volunteers, software, time spent and costs) and with the immediate outputs and feedback (such as data obtained, findings reported and interactions with stakeholders). The monitoring focuses on coverage, reach, quality of the product, users’ feedback, emerging effects, stories of change from the field as well as challenges. The monitoring records enable issues of cost-effectiveness to be considered.
Since we shall be working with a large number of volunteers and partners who are entrusted with additional responsibilities, a rigorous process of follow up, performance assessment, recording pro-gress, changes and lessons is put in place to manage their quality and results. We leverage technology to improve the quality of monitoring data collected and the turnaround time, as well as controlling the cost of the entire process.

Evaluation
Evaluation exercises focus on immediate and longer-term outcomes and also focus on whole areas of activity (e.g. the national assessments of learning). Such exercises are carried out mainly in the third and fourth years of the strategy period (2022-3). However, evaluators are well briefed on the baseline, inputs, processes and outputs in order to reach valid conclusions.In relation to evaluating the policy impact of Uwezo’s work, great caution is taken. In many situations the influence of educational research on national policy is neither direct nor immediately visible (Urwick 2013). In some cases, it may influence global understanding sooner than it influences policy.
As in the past, Uwezo  seeks to involve external researchers or consultants in evaluation exercises.There are two main evaluation exercises:
a) Midterm review: This  takes place after two years of implementation. The evaluation report is for internal use and is shared with the board and funders to understand and further support the progress towards achieving the strategy goals and outcomes; and
b) Final/ end line evaluation to be conducted in the final quarter of the fourth year of the strategy. Evaluators are provided with necessary information, documents and baseline reports for reference and other related support. The evaluation tracks outcomes and impact at the national, sub-national and global level. This evaluation report is shared with the board, funders, partners, and the wider public by posting on our website.