Quarterly Progress Report: January – March 2018

Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the program seeks to contribute to USAID/Ethiopia's goal of enhancing the country's economic, social, and political development. READ II provides support to grade 1-8 students in the target regions of Addis Ababa, Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, SNNPR, and Somali, creating a learning-supportive environment in schools, communities, and homes. The program supports the Ministry of Education (MOE) in expanding, refining, and implementing a reading-supportive policy, investment, and program framework. This framework is grounded on analysis of reading assessments and MOE-generated evidence of best practices. READ II also assists regions, woredas, and schools in developing systems and procedures to implement the framework. Key highlights this quarter include the appointment of senior staff members, including the Chief of Party, Deputy Chief of Party, Finance Director, and Senior Gender Advisor. The project has been introduced to all directorates of the Ministry of Education and all six-target regional education bureaus, generating excitement and enthusiasm among partners. The program's first intermediate result (IR 1) focuses on improving classroom reading and writing instruction. In this quarter, the team initiated the mapping and review of instructional materials developed by READ TA and the Ministry of Education to identify hard-spots and gaps. This effort will be part of the next quarter's activity plan, where the qualitative baseline for the reading/writing agenda will be established. READ II will build on the READ TA accomplishments and refine and enhance where needed. The senior reading specialist has started providing support by meeting and sharing her experience with the READ II start-up team. Activities undertaken include participating in briefing meetings with different directorates at MOE, reviewing the annual implementation plan template, and providing feedback. The team also reviewed different documents and reports on MT curriculum implementation in the READ TA target regions and produced a brief report on the gaps identified in implementing the revised MT curriculum and recommendations. The geographic coverage of the program includes Addis Ababa, Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, SNNPR, and Somali regions, with major counterpart organizations being the Ministry of Education and Regional Education Bureaus. The program's overall objective is to contribute to USAID/Ethiopia's goal of improving reading proficiency and educational attainment of 15 million children in Ethiopia.