These materials were originally developed by Room to Read. Under Creative Commons Attribution, Room to Read ceded copyright for these materials to the government of Nepal. The GON adapted these materials with the help of RTI International. These materials were delivered to Nepali school children in grades 1-3 in 6 districts in Nepal.

These materials were originally developed by Room to Read. Under Creative Commons Attribution, Room to Read ceded copyright for these materials to the government of Nepal. The GON adapted these materials with the help of RTI International. These materials were delivered to Nepali school children in grades 1-3 in 6 districts in Nepal.

These materials were originally developed by Room to Read. Under Creative Commons Attribution, Room to Read ceded copyright for these materials to the government of Nepal. The GON adapted these materials with the help of RTI International. These materials were delivered to Nepali school children in grades 1-3 in 6 districts in Nepal.

These materials were originally developed by Room to Read. Under Creative Commons Attribution, Room to Read ceded copyright for these materials to the government of Nepal. The GON adapted these materials with the help of RTI International. These materials were delivered to Nepali school children in grades 1-3 in 6 districts in Nepal.

In response to the growing need to improve learning outcomes, USAID's 2011 Education Strategy focused on improving the teaching and learning of reading in early grades. Its goal of 100 million children showing improved reading skills testified to USAID’s commitment to investing in and measuring improvements in learning outcomes. As a result, USAID education programs with a focus on early grade reading have become the norm, with such programs implemented in approximately 20 countries during the five years since the adoption of the education strategy. In the last couple of years, the lessons of successful pilots are being applied on increasing scale in numerous countries. Taking successful pilot projects to scale and helping education systems implement their national reading strategies at scale have therefore become the primary challenges faced by USAID and other supporters of educational improvement in the developing world. The challenges of realizing large-scale impact, and of seeing that impact sustained, are not new to development. However, they are being approached with renewed interest and attention in the education sector. This paper examines seven countries where interventions to improve early grade reading are being taken to scale - some with project support, some through government initiative. Management Systems International's framework for taking projects to scale, and the framework defined in the Brookings Institute's Millions Learning report are used to examine how scale has been and is occurring in these selected countries.

USAID/Nepal is interested in developing a program to help improve reading outcomes in the early grades of basic education. To inform the program design, a rapid education sector assessment was conducted to better understand past, current, and planned policies, practices, programs, innovations, and initiatives targeted towards early grade reading. This assessment aimed to identify strengths, weaknesses, and key leverage points to improve children’s reading outcomes within the institutional context of Nepal’s education system. The assessment was conducted over a two-month period by a team of researchers and staff from RTI International, including Mr. Joseph DeStefano, Senior Researcher; Dr. Frank Healey, Senior Researcher; Ms. Sharon Loza, Project Management Specialist; and Dr. Wendi Ralaingita, Education Researcher. Significant support was also provided by Dr. Vishnu Karki, Consultant; Dr. Yogendra Yadava, Local Language Expert; Jayanti Subba, Education Specialist, USAID/Nepal; and Mitch Kirby, USAID, Senior Education Advisor. The assessment was carried out by desk study and a two-week field visit from May 7 to May 19, 2012. This report reflects findings from the assessment.

Nepal Early Grade Reading Assessment, Education Management Efficiency Study, and Teacher Observation Study This is the final report for the Nepal Early Grade Reading Assessment, Education Management Efficiency Study, and Teacher Observation Study in 2014. The report provides findings related to the research questions of the study regarding the following topics: Education Leadership, Management, Practices, and Attitudes; Knowledge and Practices Related to the Teaching of Reading; Availability of Teaching and Learning Materials; Opportunities for Mother-Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Education; Capacity and Readiness of Existing Teacher Professional Development System; and Teacher Motivation and Participation. The activity takes place under the EdData Task Order 15: Data for Education Programming in Asia and Middle East (DEP/AME)

The purpose of this report is to provide data on children’s early grade reading skills as measured by the EGRA. In addition, we report information from an accompanying interview with children, the teacher passage, and select data from the EMES-TOS. The report focuses on these key research questions (RQs): 1. To what extent are students in Grades 2 and 3 learning to read in Nepali? 2. What reading-related skills are students in Grades 2 and 3 acquiring? 3. What factors—both in-school and out-of-school—help explain student performance on the EGRA? 4. How well do teachers understand a written explanation of a proposed Early Grade Reading Program? This analysis is guided through the prism of the core research questions that were developed and agreed upon in consultation with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and its stakeholders. This report presents data that address each of the research questions and draws conclusions based on those data. The report also identifies additional areas for further research or exploration that could be useful for decision makers. To get started, results from the first research questions are presented, providing an overview of the core findings from the EGRA. A brief description of the EGRA and the survey administration follows, as well as some descriptive characteristics of the study. After this, an in-depth analysis for each of the remaining three key research questions is presented. The report finishes with conclusions and recommendations.

With the aim of providing developing member countries (DMCs) with better guidance for using information and communication technology (ICT) effectively in education, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded a 21-month Regional Technical Assistance (RETA) in Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, and Samoa. The RETA researched approaches to using ICT in education that succeed in improving teaching and learning and also are sustainable given the region’s development challenges. The study in Nepal focused on the use of digital video recording and laptops as tools in remote teacher training settings. Although VHS video has been around for many years, and has been common in teacher training in some countries since the 1970s, the advent of digital recording offers many new possibilities for using video in the classroom, as well as in developing-country contexts, because of the compact and easily distributed nature of this technology. This makes video a particularly suitable tool for remote areas with poor communications infrastructure, such as the mountainous regions of Nepal.