Inclusive, supportive classroom environments can help students from disadvantaged backgrounds. USAID has been supporting the Government of Tajikistan (GOT) to improve learning outcomes in primary education for over a decade. USAID’s programs have contributed to some improvement in oral reading proficiency in the early grades. As can be seen in the chart on the right, from 2014 to 2022 average oral reading fluency increased for grade 2 and grade 4 students. These average improvements are equivalent to roughly a half year of schooling for grade 2 and a full year for grade 4. However, the education system’s ability to improve learning is not evenly distributed among the diversity of settings and learners across schools and communities in Tajikistan. Schooling in Tajikistan produces inequities in the development of early literacy based on geography, gender, the language learners use in the home, as well as their parents’ levels of education. Differences in classroom environments play a role in how well students learn to read, and importantly, how schools are run and how teachers teach can help overcome some of the disparities associated with non-school factors.

Community-based methodological support, more accessible information on teacher professional development, and an app that builds students’ reading skills are helping improve learning outcomes in Tajikistan. Over the last 10 years, USAID has supported the Government of Tajikistan to improve the teaching of reading and math in the early grades of primary school. USAID has helped reinforce key features of how the education system supports classroom instruction. Three initiatives described below are particularly notable as lasting contributions to Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) capacity to continue to improve how teachers teach and how students learn to read.

Over the last decade, USAID has been supporting the Government of Tajikistan (GOT) to improve learning outcomes in primary education. The GOT has not previously used a national objective assessment to measure those learning outcomes. USAID introduced the Early Grade Reading Assessment to measure the impact of its investments. An EGRA has been implemented about every two years since 2013.

Aligning donor investment with country priorities and effective approaches of engagement are essential for long-term impact. Over the last decade, USAID has been supporting the Government of Tajikistan (GOT) to improve literacy and numeracy skills of all primary education students. Numerous other development agencies also fund projects in the education sector, with an average total annual contribution to education of roughly (based on OECD data). The impact of these investments is less than it could be, in part because there needs to be greater alignment between the government’s priorities and development partner activities.

RAMP Field Directorates Indicators Guide Community Mobilization Tool.

Independent classroom observation- updated electronic system manual (2022).

The LQAS methodology has a number of objectives in the education sector, including: Holding schools greater accountability; Increasing implementation fidelity and credibility; Identifying schools or regions (field directorates) that needs extra support to assist them; Identifying areas for improvement to conduct reforms contributing to increase the effectiveness of the initiative; Providing an assessment methodology that enables the ministry to assess the students’ outcomes with high credibility and is used at all administrative levels in the ministry; and Providing relevant, reliable, and timely data.

Étude sur les habitudes de consommation de livres pour enfants au Sénégal : Rapport des résultats. The Survey on Children's Books Consumer Habits in Senegal seeks to provide detailed information on the behaviors and preferences of potential consumers of these books. The results will allow book publishers to draw useful lessons to better guide their offerings of supplementary reading materials. L'Étude sur le pouvoir d’achat en livres pour enfants cherche à renseigner de manière détaillée sur les comportements et les préférences des consommateurs potentiels de ces livres. Les résultats permettront aux éditeurs de livres de tirer les leçons utiles pour mieux orienter leurs offres en ouvrages complémentaires. Cette étude a été menée dans la dernière semaine de juillet 2023 par une équipe qui a mis en oeuvre une méthodologie articulée autour d’entretiens à l’aide de questionnaires détaillés avec les cibles suivantes : parents ou tuteurs, responsables d’écoles privées, libraires (détaillants et distributeurs de livres), gestionnaires de bibliothèques municipales, ONG, centres communautaires, collectivités territoriales et autres secteurs.

This early grade reading material is made possible through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Nigeria Reading and Access Research Activity (EdData Task Order Number 26, EHC-E-00-04-00004-00) implemented by RTI International. It was tested in a controlled experiment that demonstrated effectiveness of the approach on improving reading skills.There is a corresponding pupil book and a collection of read alouds with related activities.

This publication covers topic such as reading and arts.