A two-year (2020-2022) partnership between the Government of Nepal and the U.S. Agency for International Development is helping children across Nepal learn to read with fluency and comprehension, skills that help set them up for success later in life. The Early Grade Reading Program (EGRP), led by RTI from 2015–2020, achieved significant impact in terms of reading gains:
- The average number of correct words per minute (cwpm) read by second graders increased from 6.9 (2016) to 12.15 (2020), a near doubling in four years. This represents progress toward Nepal’s national early grade oral reading fluency benchmark of 45 cwpm.
- The percentage of learners who demonstrated reading fluency and comprehension of grade level text at the end of grade 2 increased from 0.9% in 2016 to 3.21% in 2020.
EGRP created a climate conducive to scaling up early grade reading activities—also a key focus area for EGRP II. Activities include:
- Supporting development and rollout of the integrated curriculum (IC) and continuing to scale up the government’s National Early Grade Reading Program (NEGRP).
- Building municipal- and provincial-level capacity for delivering early grade reading services.
- Improving local governments’ ability to provide effective teacher professional support, coaching, mentorship, and supervision.
- Supporting continuity of learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Improving Teacher Training, Instruction, and Support
Providing support and training for teachers is a critical step in ensuring students receive a quality education. EGRP II has been assisting the government to integrate early grade reading best practices in their Integrated Curriculum and roll out trainings at central and cluster levels. Training topics include:
- key reading components and instructional approaches
- best practices for teaching Nepali to second language (L2) learners
- the “I do, we do, you do” gradual-release instructional model (where teachers first illustrate a skill, practice the skill with their students, and then have the students perform it), and
- best practices for using instructional materials, such as teacher guides and student workbooks and supplementary reading materials at various reading levels and in several languages.
EGRP II also helped the government develop a quality assurance tool to ensure consistency of trainings as they are cascaded from the master trainer level to lower levels.
In addition to training, ongoing support to teachers, including mentoring and coaching, is essential to ensure that what is learned is being applied in the classroom. Working with Nepal’s Center for Education and Human Resource Development (CEHRD), EGPR II is helping to revise and roll out a teacher professional support system to operationalize the new curriculum and materials.
Building Capacity to Scale Up Early Grade Reading
As with EGRP, all of EGRP II’s activities are designed to foster sustainability through government ownership of program implementation and coordination across all levels (local, provincial, and district).
Through capacity building workshops, EGRP II is continuing to engage and build stakeholder knowledge and skills in early grade reading concepts; NEGRP goals, strategies, and activities; and the roles and responsibilities of each level in reaching early grade reading goals.
Importantly, the program is also helping integrate NEGRP interventions into local level policies and programs across 396 target municipalities by supporting local officials with planning and budgeting. Training on preparing Municipal Education Plans in consultation with local stakeholders has succeeded in getting local governments to allocate their own resources to early grade reading activities, including support and coaching for teachers.