OVERVIEW

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) works with the Ministry of Education to improve educational attainment in Afghanistan and provide educational services that generate measureable learning outcomes. Recently, USAID conducted a national Early Grade Reading Assessment. The results provide information for the Ministry of Education and the international donor community to support early grade reading reform. The assessment findings also serve as a starting point for the Afghan Children Read for the development of teaching and learning materials and for measuring its progress.

USAID’s Afghan Children Read has two main objectives. 1) To build the capacity of the Ministry of Education (MoE) to develop, implement, and scale up a nationwide early grade reading curriculum and instruction program in public and community-based schools. 2) To pilot evidence-based early grade reading curriculum and instruction program to improve reading outcomes for children in grades one through three in public and community-based schools.

ACTIVITIES

• Build the capacity of MoE, at national, provincial, and district levels to develop, plan and budget for, manage, implement, and monitor an early grade reading curriculum and instruction program
• Develop and adopt policies, standards, and benchmarks that support improved early grade reading instruction in public schools and community-based education classrooms
• Establish national and sub­national early grade reading assessments data collection and analysis systems
• Develop evidence based early grade reading curriculum and instruction program
• Make use of evidence based early grade reading instructional materials in public and community-based education classrooms
• Implement evidence based early grade reading curriculum and instruction program at the school level in public and community-based education schools
• Implement procedures and systems for supervision, coaching, and monitoring of teachers and students
• Increase partnerships with parents, school shuras, communities, the private sector, and non-traditional actors to increase equitable access to a quality education

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Developed early grade reading materials (grades 1 and 2 textbooks, students’ workbooks and teachers’ guides in Dari and Pashto)
• Printed and distributed textbooks, student workbooks and teachers’ guides for grade 1 and 2 in Dari language to children in target schools in Herat province
• Developed and printed teacher training manuals in Dari and Pashto languages
• Developed an Information and Communication Technology system for tracking delivery and distribution of materials with support from Creative's Development Laboratory using its mapping program
• Trained the first cohort of 48 master trainers, 170 teacher trainers, and nearly 1900 Grade 1 and 2 teachers, in pilot schools in Herat and Kabul provinces