| Foundational learning skills are transferable skills, which lay the foundation of learning in later years, builds self-efficacy and enhances participation in future career and economic development. Despite its importance in building sustainable futures, and the initiatives at global, regional and national levels to promote foundational learning, learners are still reading below grade level. Our intervention-based study was designed targeting struggling readers and was modelled around the Response to Intervention (RTI), with the aim of improving literacy skills among early-grade learners at risk of reading failure. The study utilized a pretest-post-test study design. An Early grade reading assessment (EGRA) was administered to 2805 learners in 15 schools in Kiambu County, Kenya and 920 (33%) learners were identified to have reading difficulties. The learners were grouped into small homogeneous groups according to their reading levels – non-readers, beginning readers and intermediate readers, followed by a 13-week targeted instruction in English and Kiswahili. The endline EGRA results showed that more than half (58.9%) of learners in the non-reader category progressed to the subsequent levels, majority (70.4%) of learners in the beginning readers category progressed to the intermediate (32.7%) and emergent (37.8%) while most (71.5%) of learners in the intermediate category progressed to the emergent level. Further, the proportion of learners who were not able to read a single correct word per minute reduced from 43.3% at baseline to 18.9% at endline. The classroom observation findings showed improvements in teachers’ use of recommended instructional practices such as use of direct instructional model, perky pace and giving formative feedback. The study provides policy-relevant evidence on how support for struggling readers can be formally and systematically incorporated into the school structure, school timetables, education systems, policy guidelines, and be implemented with high fidelity. |
