Annual Work Plan FY 2019: USAID Learn to Read Year 1

The Activity focuses on non-Lao-speaking children and children with mild disabilities, with the goal of reaching an estimated minimum of 65,313 children over the life of the project. The Activity is implemented across 16 districts in four provinces of Laos, working closely with the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) and development partners to strengthen the Lao education system. The Activity is led by a consortium partnership consisting of Save the Children, Room to Read, and Humanity & Inclusion, bringing together extensive technical expertise and experience. The overarching goal of the Activity is to improve reading skills for all children in pre-primary, first, and second grade, with a particular focus on non-Lao-speaking children and children with mild disabilities. To achieve this goal, the Activity will develop and distribute teaching and learning materials, train and support teachers, and engage school communities to help children learn to read on time. The Activity employs a flexible, system-strengthening approach to address key gaps that limit reading skill acquisition by non-Lao-speaking children and children with mild disabilities. This approach involves co-design and co-implementation methodologies to reinforce government and non-government national-, provincial-, and local-level systems and technical materials. The Activity will work closely with the MoES and other leading donor-funded education initiatives to ensure that MoES systems-strengthening, school improvement, and community mobilization efforts are complementary and mutually reinforcing. One of the key components of the Activity is the development of a Reading Readiness (RR) and instructional materials package for pre-primary. The Activity will partner with the Global Partnership for Education (GPE II) to support the MoES Research Institute for Educational Sciences (RIES) in developing this package. In Year 1, GPE II, RIES, and the Activity will combine efforts and jointly develop a program for reading readiness in open collaboration with other development partners through the newly established RR Task Team. The Activity will also work closely with UNICEF and the MoES Early Childhood Education (ECE) department to ensure alignment of the PP-RR package with the Pre-Primary national curriculum, which is currently under revision. This collaboration will help ensure that the Activity's interventions are complementary and mutually reinforcing with existing MoES efforts to improve the quality of education in Lao PDR. The Activity's approach to addressing key gaps in reading skill acquisition by non-Lao-speaking children and children with mild disabilities is centered on developing and distributing teaching and learning materials, training and supporting teachers, and engaging school communities to help children learn to read on time. By working closely with the MoES and other development partners, the Activity aims to strengthen the Lao education system and ensure that vulnerable children have access to quality education. The Activity's geographic focus is on 16 districts in four provinces of Laos, with a particular emphasis on non-Lao-speaking children and children with mild disabilities. The Activity's timeframes are from 2018 to 2023, with a focus on Year 1, which includes the development of a Reading Readiness (RR) and instructional materials package for pre-primary. The Activity's implementation details include the development of teaching and learning materials, training and supporting teachers, and engaging school communities to help children learn to read on time. The Activity will also work closely with the MoES and other development partners to ensure that MoES systems-strengthening, school improvement, and community mobilization efforts are complementary and mutually reinforcing. The Activity's monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning (MEAL) plan will be implemented to track progress and ensure that the Activity's interventions are effective in improving reading skills for all children in pre-primary, first, and second grade. The MEAL plan will include regular monitoring and evaluation of the Activity's progress, as well as a system for accountability and learning to ensure that the Activity's interventions are sustainable and effective in the long term. The Activity's sustainability plan will focus on ensuring that the interventions implemented during the Activity's lifespan are sustainable and can be maintained by the MoES and other stakeholders after the Activity's completion. This will involve working closely with the MoES and other development partners to ensure that the Activity's interventions are integrated into existing MoES systems and that the necessary capacity and resources are in place to maintain the interventions in the long term. The Activity's communications and outreach plan will focus on ensuring that the Activity's interventions and progress are communicated effectively to stakeholders, including the MoES, development partners, and the general public. This will involve developing a communications strategy and implementing a range of outreach activities to ensure that the Activity's message is heard and that stakeholders are engaged and informed about the Activity's progress.