For
fifteen years, Uwezo Uganda has been at the forefront of conducting citizen-led
assessments of foundational learning, gathering critical data on children’s
learning outcomes in Uganda. To carry out these assessments, Uwezo partners
with grassroots civil society organisations (CSOs) in each district. Various
partner organisations at national and sub-national levels have utilised the Uwezo
assessment methodology, data and findings to develop programs that enhance learning
outcomes as well as evaluate interventions serving the same purpose.
From
7th to 14th April 2025, we were privileged to work with our
partner in Oyam district—Foundation for Inclusive
Community Help (FICH)—as they adapted Uwezo’s tools and
methodology to conduct a school-based baseline assessment of learning in four
districts: Oyam, Kole, Alebtong, and Arua. The baseline is part of FICH’s Equal
Foundations, Empowered Futures project, which aims to enhance
educational outcomes in rural communities, with a focus on gender-responsive
pedagogy in northern Uganda. Uwezo collaborated closely with FICH to tailor
its assessment tools to FICH’s needs, trained 115 assessors from the four
districts to use the adapted tool, and closely monitored the assessment process
to ensure the collection of high-quality data.
The
baseline sample targeted 7,428 children across three classes (Primary 3 to
Primary 5), assessing their basic literacy and numeracy skills using Uwezo
tools. FICH's overarching goal over the next three years is to:
1. Improve
foundational literacy and numeracy skills for 24,000 children in the four
districts
2. Increase girls’ enrollment and retention in Primary 3 to 5 by 20%
3. Train 288 teachers in gender-responsive pedagogy, and
4. Establish 10 girl-friendly spaces.
For more information about Uwezo assessments visit https://uwezouganda.org/publications/reports
to access our assessment reports and https://uwezouganda.org/publications/datasets
to access our datasets.
For the past 15 years,
Uwezo Uganda has been at the forefront of citizen-led assessments, gathering
essential data on children’s learning outcomes throughout Uganda—an approach
that has gained traction among similar organisations. In March 2025, we were thrilled
to join forces with Power Teachers Africa (PTA), who tapped into Uwezo’s
assessment tools to establish baseline data on children’s learning in Mbale.
Uwezo Uganda went out of its way to support this effort, training volunteers on
how to use these tools effectively and keeping a watchful eye on the assessment
process.
Power
Teachers Africa, a
Uganda-registered not-for-profit, is committed to delivering affordable,
teacher-focused motivation programs to government schools across Africa. Their
work tackles pressing issues like teacher absenteeism and turnover while
boosting learning outcomes. Beyond that, PTA strives to spotlight the value of
incentivising teachers, rallying stakeholders around this cause for better
education.
The
baseline study sample included 100 children, aged 6 to 16, across five classes
(Primary 2 to Primary 6) at Bumbobi Primary School. Using Uwezo’s tools, these children
were assessed on basic literacy and numeracy skills. PTA’s overarching goal is
to elevate learning outcomes, and to gauge the impact of their efforts, they’ll
conduct a follow-up assessment later this year, again with Uwezo’s backing.
Curious about Uwezo’s
assessment methods? Dive into our past reports here:
https://uwezouganda.org/publications/reports
By Judith Nyakaisiki
On 5th February 2025, Uwezo
Uganda participated in the Language Development and Advocacy Network (LDAN)
Workshop. The Workshop aimed to:
- Advance
ideas, connections and proposals highlighting the roles
of languages and communication in
development
- Ensure that issues of concern represent broad, diverse,
equitable and inclusive perspectives, and
- Engage
with organisations and communities from different world regions working
within this field to
collaborate, advise, learn from, shape and help steer this area of
interest, including developing policy,
research and practice priorities; informing researchers,
decision-makers and practitioners; all while
encouraging local perspectives, priorities and proposals.
Dr Mary
Goretti Nakabugo, Uwezo Uganda Executive Director, was one of the panelists at
the workshop. Her presentation centered on the relevance of LDAN to a
developing country context such as Uganda. She mainly focused on the issue of
using mother tongue / local language as a medium of instruction and how
this relates to learning outcomes. She shared that, in Uganda, there is an
existing language policy, which requires the use of pupils' mother tongues or a
common area language as a medium of instruction from Primary 1 to Primary 3.
She argued that while the policy is well-intentioned, it is faced with a
number of challenges in practice and has not yet translated into desirable
learning outcomes. For example, due to the linguistic diversity of Uganda even
within smaller geographical areas, choosing to use one local language as a
medium of instruction in one given village may exclude some learners who do not
speak the language, thus, affecting their learning.
In all this, she noted teachers
to be a key factor, yet they have hardly been well-supported to implement the
language policy. A recent spotlight study report on basic education completion
and foundational learning in Uganda highlighted a scarcity of curriculum
documents and teacher guides. Where these existed, they were all in English,
inserting more pressure on the teachers to be language interpreters while
delivering the curriculum (Nakabugo et al 2024)[1].
In her final submission, Dr
Nakabugo argued that, improving children’s learning outcomes requires much more
than simply having in place a language in education policy that requires the
use of local language as a medium of instruction. Other factors, such as
support to teachers, availability of resources, the support to learners and
parental and community awareness of the value of the policy need to be
considered.
The full presentation can be accessed here
Uwezo Uganda is gearing up for the assessment of basic
numeracy and literacy skills to be conducted in 29 districts previously
assessed in 2021 per the link- https://uwezouganda.org/district-partners.
Assessment in the same districts will enable us undertake a comparative
analysis and deeper understanding of the post COVID changes in learning
outcomes. The assessment planned for July-August 2024, will obtain data at
school and household level as well as involve generation of child (4-16)
assessment data.
The 2024 Uwezo Assessment report can be accessed here: https://uwezouganda.org/download/Uwezo_Uganda_2024_Assessment%20Report_Launch%20Version.pdf
Our previous learning assessment reports can be accessed here: https://uwezouganda.org/publications/reports/
Uwezo Uganda is partnering with Luigi Giussani Foundation to pilot ALiVE assessment tools in three districts of Jinja, Kasese and Oyam. The household assessment has just been concluded 03rd - 05th May 2024, targeting adolescents 13 -17 years, in 25 Enumeration Areas / villages in each district and 15 households in each enumeration area. Overall, a total of 1,125 adolescents have been assessed in the 3 districts. The ALiVE pilot assessment focused on three Life Skills (Problem-Solving, Collaboration, and Self-awareness) and one Value (Respect). The pilot will not only enable further generation of data on these competencies but will also be used to yield a repository of tools for ALiVE's open-source platform as well as those that can be used by partners to evaluate programs that focus on life skills and values integration and nurturing.
Uwezo assessments have been conducted within the last ten years and have specifically highlighted low learning outcomes as well as bringing to the fore inequalities in learning. Through conducting these assessments and sharing findings globally, Citizen Led Assessments (CLAs) have been referenced as credible sources of assessment data and nationally Uwezo findings have triggered educational evaluations and programs for improving learning.
In its strategy (2020-2023), the assessment of basic numeracy and literacy skills is underscored as a core activity that will lead Uwezo to meeting its goals and mission. The last Uwezo Assessment was conducted three years ago in 2018, necessitating the generation of up to date data on the status of children’s learning in Uganda. The assessment to be conducted in 29 districts is planned for June 2021 and will additionally focus on obtaining data on children’s experiences of out-of-school learning during the pandemic as well as other aspects of their social economic background and education. As previously done, the school survey will be conducted alongside the household survey in order to generate data on schools in relation to learning outcomes. This would enrich the school based data through monitoring of the responses of schools to the current circumstances of restricted attendance and the needs of children not in school. The household survey will also include, among others, a question about whether children have been re-enrolled in school and, if not, the reasons given. Further to this, the importance of generating data on WASH and other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators both at home and at school will be an add on to the assessment.
Our previous learning assessment reports can be accessed here: https://uwezouganda.org/publications/reports/
