Principal Secretary for the State Department for Basic Education Dr. Belio Kipsang has thanked the Reading Remediation project the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is piloting in selected schools in select Counties.
The programme dubbed USAID Tusome Early Grade Reading is an after-school program in partnership with the Kenyan Government to provide extra lessons to struggling readers in grades one to three.
Belio made the remarks when he received a photocopier from USAID-Kenya Officer in charge of Education and Youth Affairs Ms Amy Pekol in his office yesterday
Belio said the programme is helping struggling readers to make up for the gaps in reading fluency they should have at the respective grades with the rest of the learners. The reading remediation is taking place in 27 counties on a pilot basis targeting 7.8 million pupils in grades 1, 2, and 3 in all counties in Kenya.
It grew out of the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic which worsened reading disparities among learners across Kenya, following the longest closures globally when schools were closed from March 2020 to July 2021.
Belio said USAID-Kenya partnership in Teacher Professional Development and in School Monitoring Progress is helping to improve the quality of teaching and learning in basic education institutions across the country.
He said the Dashboard the USAID-Kenya has developed in conjunction with the Ministry will improve classroom observation by Quality Assurance and Standards Officers in schools throughout the country.
Belio said the real time data capture and retrieval will not only increase the presence of the Ministry in schools, but help it track the quality of teaching and learning taking place in schools.
Pekol said the areas of Partnership with the Ministry of Education were critical to improving the quality of teaching and learning in schools in the country.
The Class Observation aims to improve a teacher’s ability to teach and, as a result, improves student outcomes as well, providing researchers with current information on both educational practices and instructional problems among other objectives.
By Hamdi Mohamud
