Why do numbers of pupils who can read and count keep dropping?

“Ben is an old man. His work is to make pots. He makes them out of clay. Ken is his grandson who collects clay. Ben sells his pots at the village market. He does it every Saturday…” this is part of a simple Primary Two comprehension story that Grace Natukunda, a Primary Two pupil, read to me on my fact finding mission on literacy and numeracy levels at Silver Spoon Nursery and Primary School in Kibuli, a Kampala surburb.

Natukunda says she started reading while in preschool but became better in Primary One.

“I started reading in Top Class with the help of my parents and teacher. At first, the words were difficult for me,” she says.

Whereas Natukunda is able to comprehend a short Primary Two story in English and the average Ugandan parent would expect that to happen in most schools across the country, it is not the case. Natukunda is a classic example of the public perception of private schools that seem to score high in lower primary literacy and numeracy compared to their counterparts in public schools.

Literacy and numeracy form a foundation and play a greater role in shaping a child’s success path in education. However, it remains a challenge across the country in many private and public schools.

This has been mainly recorded in various assessment reports by both the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) and Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) over the years.

The most recent assessment on competence in literacy and numeracy; ‘Are our children learning’, done by Uwezo, a civil society organisation that specialises in education matters, showed that learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy have remained low with little signs of improvement across the country.

“Nearly all Primary Three to Primary Seven pupils who could read a story at Primary Two showed evidence of comprehension but most children have not reached that level until they are in Primary Six. The only positive change is that the proportions of complete non-readers in Primary Three to Five are slightly lower. In general, the pattern of delayed learning is linked to overcrowding in the lower classes, absenteeism and insufficient resources for learning,” the report reads in part.

In percentage terms, the report indicates that Primary Three to Primary Seven pupils who could read and comprehend a basic story at Primary Two level has since dropped from 39 per cent in 2015 to 33 per cent in 2019. And that the proportions of complete non-readers and complete non-numerate children in Primary Three to Primary Seven slightly reduced from 6.8 per cent to 6.2 per cent.

However, the report shows that for Primary Three to Primary Seven pupils who have attended preschool for at least two years, the rate of Primary Two competence in English reading is 17 percentage points higher than those who have not. For numeracy, there is a difference of eight percentage points.

The report further indicates that children attending community, government and private schools continue to have large differences in learning outcomes. That the rates of Primary Two English reading competence of Primary Three to Primary Seven pupils is 22 per cent for community, 28 per cent for government, and 44 per cent for private schools.

What is lacking?
Esther Kanabi, a parent at All Saints Primary School in Bwole Village, Bugiri District, blames crowded classes for poor literacy and numeracy skills.

“With the high number of pupils in UPE classes, if you do not make a follow-up on a child, they will perform poorly. But parents are also to blame. There is laziness among those who send children to school without books. Others even tell their children to just go and listen to the teachers,” she says.

Kanabi says as a responsible parent, she makes a follow-up of her children’s school work including homework, and visiting the school to speak to teachers on her children’s progress.

Dustan Balaba, the national chairperson of Chief Administrative Officers, says most Ugandan children cannot read and count because some teachers spend more time taking tea and marking books, instead of being in class. Balaba says this is especially in public schools, which indicates laxity. “Teachers must teach for six hours, but some are only effective for one-and-a-half-hours and rather than teach, they prefer to stay under trees conversing.”

He also believes the structures in decentralisation have not played their roles effectively.
“Most local chairpersons do not know what is happening in community schools. We need to change our attitude and find out about issues such as the quality of school inspection being done in our community schools,” he asserts.

Laxity of teachers
Other key issues noted in the report are that instructional time is being wasted as one in five of a primary school’s classes, on average, had no teacher present. Of those who were present, nearly one in four, on average, was either marking books or not doing anything.

There is a generally low level of textbook provision, with only one third of a school’s classes, on average, having one textbook between two pupils, according to the report.

The official policy in Uganda since 2007 has been to use a local language as much as possible for teaching in Primary One to Primary Three. However, the language diversity of Uganda has made the policy difficult to implement. According to Uwezo, this aspect was also difficult for them to assess.

“There are also notable differences between local languages that are used for teaching in the literacy levels. In the case of Acholi region, Primary Three to Primary Seven pupils who are from Acholi speaking homes are nearly twice more likely to have achieved reading competence than those who are not -a difference of 16 percentage points,” the report reads in part.

Nurture vs nature
To Joseph Okoboi, the deputy head teacher at Silver Spoon Primary School in Kibuli, nurture and nature factors play a big role for children to acquire literacy and numeracy skills.

“Children show ability to read and count even before they start going to school. Immediately, a child begins recognising objects at home, they are showing signs of reading. When they get a newspaper, they are able to recognise pictures. In families where most people are educated, children can easily be helped to develop the skill,” he explains.

He notes that by the time a child joins preschool, teachers hinge on such aspects to develop their cognitive abilities.

However, Okoboi says nature issues are difficult to change. For instance, a defect at birth, such as being deaf or blind could affect a child’s ability to quickly adapt to learning compared to their peers without such defects. He argues that the environment around the child should be able to influence a child’s ability to learn.

“The school environment greatly affects a child’s ability to readily comprehend. The smaller the class, the easier it is for a teacher to handle a class and make follow up on a child’s performance,” he shares.

According to Okoboi, the parent-teacher-child philosophy is what guides a child’s success in literacy and numeracy at the lower primary.

“A parent must be brought on board. When we give homework, we request the parent to sign and give feedback on how the child has done the homework. That helps the parent and teacher to monitor the child.”

Parent guidance
Okoboi adds that the teacher’s main role in the philosophy is to understand the unique attributes of each child while the parent offers moral guidance to the child.

“Content must be limited to a certain period because every learner is unique. While a teacher is conducting a lesson, he must be able to understand every child’s individual abilities and how they learn. Children can adjust to learning but the biggest task is to find out the existing knowledge gap and introduce the lacking content,” he explains.

But the fourth issue from the Uwezo findings indicates that children who join from preschool perform better than those who join primary school straight from home. Okoboi observes that preschool remains important in a child’s education.

“The first task in pre-school is helping a child associate sound with symbols so that by Primary One they are able to read instructions and follow and at Primary Two, they are on comprehension, and by Primary Three and Primary Four, reading and understanding should not be a problem because these are in transitional classes.”

Moses Olok, the national chairperson of district inspectors of schools, says the book to pupil ratio should be raised to improve reading and counting outcomes especially in public schools.
However, his worry is whether schools can raise the books. “We need provision of more materials for pupils but also government has to revise its automatic promotion policy, especially for teachers because some teachers take long without upgrading their studies,” he says.

Vigilance of inspectors
According to Olok, inspectors must do their work not as a routine but as fact finding mission of how teachers do their work.

Abbey Musoke, a principal education officer at the Ministry of Education, concludes: “We have teacher management and other related issues. The teachers are trained but some have done a disservice, we need to be extra vigilant and track teachers’ performance. With the teacher incentive framework in place at district level, errant teachers are supposed to be reported by head teachers to the CAO and penalised.”

Meanwhile, government has for long instituted key measures to counter the challenges of poor literacy and numeracy. Such measures include: early grade reading and early childhood development learning centres mainly managed by private schools.

Tell the difference
Nurture. Joseph Okoboi, the deputy head teacher at Silver Spoon Primary School in Kibuli, says nurture and nature factors play a big role for pupils to acquire literacy and numeracy skills.

“Children show ability to read and count even before they start going to school. Immediately, a child begins recognising objects at home, they are showing signs of reading. In families where most people are educated, children can easily be helped to develop the skill,” Okoboi explains.
Nature

However, Okoboi says nature issues are difficult to change. For instance, a defect at birth, such as being deaf or blind could affect a child’s ability to quickly adapt to learning compared to their peers without such defects. He argues that the environment around the child should influence a child’s ability to learn.

“The school environment greatly affects a child’s ability to readily comprehend. The smaller the class, the easier it is for a teacher to handle a class and do follow-up on a child’s performance,” he says.