READ FOUNDATION - Baseline Assessment Study USAID-funded Pakistan Reading Project 1 READ FOUNDATION - Baseline Assessment Study READ FOUNDATION Baseline Assessment Study (Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan) July, 2018 This report was made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Pakistan Reading Project. The contents are the sole responsibility of International Rescue Committee (IRC) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. USAID-funded Pakistan Reading Project 2 READ FOUNDATION - Baseline Assessment Study Table of Contents Glossary ....................................................................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgement ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Background .................................................................................................................................................. 7 Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 8 Major Findings ......................................................................................................................................... 9 Study Methodology ................................................................................................................................... 12 Baseline Questions ................................................................................................................................ 12 Method ...................................................................................................................................................... 13 Participants ............................................................................................................................................ 13 Languages Spoken by Children Tested in Urdu ...................................................................................... 14 Instruments ............................................................................................................................................... 15 1. EGRA .............................................................................................................................................. 15 2. Teacher Interview .......................................................................................................................... 17 3. Teacher Classroom Observation .................................................................................................... 17 4. Student Interview .......................................................................................................................... 19 Process ....................................................................................................................................................... 19 Results ....................................................................................................................................................... 22 What are the levels of literacy skills among grade 1 and 2 children in READ Foundations schools at baseline? .................................................................................................................................................... 22 Summary of EGRA Scores ...................................................................................................................... 22 Zero Scorers of EGRA subtasks: ............................................................................................................. 24 EGRA Subtasks Scores Compared with National Performance Standards: ............................................ 25 Subtasks by Region .................................................................................................................................... 28 Comparison of Regional Results with Drafted National Reading Standards ............................................. 29 National Reading Standards .................................................................................................................. 29 What are the current demographics and perceptions of teachers regarding teaching in early grades? .. 34 Like reading Urdu book: ......................................................................................................................... 35 What teacher does when student made mistake: ................................................................................. 35 Provision of Library at School ................................................................................................................ 36 Limitations ............................................................................................................................................. 36 USAID-funded Pakistan Reading Project 3 READ FOUNDATION - Baseline Assessment Study List of Table Table 1.READ Foundation Sample Schools by district proportion ............................................................. 13 Table 2 Number of assessed Students and observed Teachers by grade and region ................................ 14 Table 3 EGRA Tool task wise and overall Reliability .................................................................................. 16 Table 4 Teacher competencies wise Mean Score and internal reliability statistics ................................... 19 Table 5 Both grades students average Percentage scores for different subtasks ..................................... 22 Table 6 Grade wise % zero scorers for reading subtasks ........................................................................... 24 Table 7: Zero Scorer by grades for subtasks .............................................................................................. 24 Table 8.EGRA Subtasks percentage mean scores and National Performance Standards .......................... 25 Table 9: EGRA Untimed Tasks Result by Region ........................................................................................ 28 Table 10: EGRA timed tasks scores ............................................................................................................ 28 Table 11: Student percentage meeting reading standards ....................................................................... 30 Table 12:Task wise students average percentage scores for both regions ............................................... 31 Table 13: Teacher academic qualification by region ................................................................................. 34 Table 14: Teacher professional qualification by region ............................................................................. 34 List of Figure Figure 1: Percentage of language spoken by Students at home ............................................................... 14 Figure 2: Grade 1 students reading skills results by gender ...................................................................... 23 Figure 3: Grade 2 students reading skills results by gender ...................................................................... 23 Figure 4: Un-Timed Tasks Mean Score by grade ........................................................................................ 26 Figure 5: Timed Task Mean Scoresby grades ............................................................................................. 26 Figure 6: Readers’ categorization by grades .............................................................................................. 27 Figure 8: Grade wise average mean score and percentage of students meeting reading standards for different tasks ............................................................................................................................................ 31 Figure 9: Student average mean score for passage reading with national standards and percentage of students meeting standards ...................................................................................................................... 33 Figure 10: Student average mean score and percentage of student meeting RC standard ...................... 33 Figure 11: Teacher average competency score by region ......................................................................... 34 Figure 12: Student who like and dislike reading Urdu books Figure 13: Comparison between students like & dislike reading book ............................................................................................................................... 35 Figure 14: Teachers actions towards students' mistake ............................................................................ 35 Figure 15: Students response on School Library ........................................................................................ 36 USAID-funded Pakistan Reading Project 4 READ FOUNDATION - Baseline Assessment Study Glossary ACRONYMS AJ&K Azad Jammu and Kashmir BHS Boys High School BPS Boys Primary School CRO Classroom Observer DDE Deputy Director Education DOE Department of Education DPM District Program Manager EGRA Early Grade Reading Assessment GB Gilgit Baltistan HT Head Teacher PRP Pakistan Reading Project RF READ Foundation WL World Learning USAID-funded Pakistan Reading Project 5 READ FOUNDATION - Baseline Assessment Study Acknowledgement We would like to