Only one in four students attended pre-primary school before starting primary school, according to the National Early Grade Reading Assessment reportwhich was produced by the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE).
The assessment was conducted among 476 teachers, 244 head teachers and 4,729 students of which 50 percent were girls,from 260 schools from across all the 16 districts with the aim to understand the systemic issues that affects children’s’ learning at school at the district and national levels.
The National Early Grade Reading Assessment and Early Grade Mathematics Assessment report was supported by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and the United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
The report also highlighted that diminishing trend in enrollment between early grades and grade six which indicates high drop-out rate from lower to upper primary,and also high rate of students repeating grades throughout the primary cycle especially in grade one.
The report also indicated that improvement has been noted in student’s performance compared to results achieved during a similar assessment in 2014, which shows a reduction in non-readers between years.
Most schools were noted to have access basic materials available for teaching core subjects including mathematics book which accounted for 95 percent accessibility and English for specific purposes was at 84 percent. The Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Dr. David Sengeh said that his Ministry would seize the findings to better understand educational stresses in early grades with renewed determination to close the gaps and improve on shortfall.
By George M.O. Williams