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It didn’t take long to locate our first sampled household. As the scorching morning sun rose higher in the sky, Nathepo’s village elder – Sr. Vahocha – led us away from the empty school building, down one of many sandy pathways towards the scattered collection of mud brick houses with neatly thatched roofs of dried grass. Upon reaching the first house, we were greeted by 12-year old Miguel Ussene who informed us that both of his parents were attending a burial for one of the local villagers. His grandmother, however, was nearby and he offered to call her. Before running off, Miguel and his friends disappeared into the house to produce two large Esteiras de palhas (dried grass mats) and a couple of small wooden stools for us to wait in the shade.
More schools do not equal more learning
Joaquina Momola looked surprised to see the party of people waiting as she returned with her grandson. Sr. Vahocha greeted her, explaining that we were here to do a very important study to find out what children were learning. Joaquina introduced herself with a smile, asking us if we had seen the smart new school on the other side of the trees. We smiled and nodded, asking if Miguel was enrolled in this school. She explained that Miguel was in his final year of Primary School, but he had been at home for several weeks as the teachers waited to be paid.
As the team explained that they work for a local NGO called ‘Facilidade’ who were concerned about children’s learning, Joaquina sat on the Esteiras with her back against the mud brick house and listened carefully. Lots of new schools have been built, the team explained, but were children learning? ‘‘TPC Mozambique” wanted to find out.
Demystifying learning progress at home
Joaquina gave her permission for her grandson to be assessed. She encouraged him to come and sit next to her, as Miguel was given a test booklet. Miguel was asked to look at the first section and read the letters aloud. Using his finger as a guide, Joaquina’s eyes followed her grandsons’ finger attentively from one letter to another, intuitively understanding that the quiet voice and frequent hesitation signalled that Miguel was struggling. Slowly, he sounded out most of the letters on the page, taking a big intake of breath as he finished. “Good effort” our team encouraged Miguel, “would you like to try one more time?”. Miguel’s shoulders relaxed a little once he realised that he had another chance. This time, he read all ten letters on the page.
As Miguel traced his fingers to the next section, he stared blankly at the page. “You can choose any of these words to read” explained the TPC team, “you don’t have to read them in order”. He started to sound out ‘lua’ (moon). Persevering with determination, Miguel also managed ‘sol’ (sun), comer (eat) and beber (drink). After he was sure he was unable to read any more words on the page, he looked up at his grandmother, who gave him an encouraging smile. “Shall we try some maths exercises?” suggested our team as they smiled and flipped through a few pages of the test booklet.
Thousands of children left behind
Miguel was graded at ‘letter’ level in the reading tests, and at ‘addition’ level in mathematics. As TPC Mozambique’s assessments are created based on the national curricula standards for Grade 2, Miguel should have been able to complete the highest level of both tests. However, TPC Mozambique’s 2016 pilot results demonstrate that Miguel is one of thousands of children living in northern Mozambique who has failed to acquire basic skills in reading and maths, despite now being enrolled in Grade 7.
Across the province of Nampula, just under half (45%) of all 9,901 assessed children between 7 and 16 were unable to recognize letters. Only 1 in every 10 children were able to read a simple Grade 2 story of approximately six sentences. Only 6 in every 100 children between 7 and 16 were able to answer the simple comprehension questions about the story, thereby completing the reading test.
In mathematics, the results were equally as worrying. Only 3 out of every 10 children between 7 and 16 were able to complete basic addition sums. 92 out of 100 children were unable to do a division sum. The majority of children entering Secondary School (in Grade 8) are doing so without having acquired the basic reading and maths competencies of grade 2 level. Only 4 out of every 10 children in Grade 8 were able to pass the highest level of a Grade 2 maths test.
Assessment to Action
The assessment results are being launched today in the city of Nampula. The launch will explore the main findings from the 2016 pilot, initiate a plan for the progressive expansion of the initiative to national scale, and announce plans for the second phase of TPC Mozambique: Community Action Plans. “We know that assessment alone will not change the reading and arithmetic skills of children” says Facilidade’s Executive Director, Matilde de Melo. “Assessment is the first step towards taking appropriate action to improve learning levels. We are excited to work with local leaders to see what can be done to ensure that no child gets left behind”.
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To access a summary infographic of TPC Mozambique’s results, please click here
To read the full report in Portuguese, please click here