USAID has partnered with the Government of Malawi to improve the reading skills of students in the first four years of primary school through the Malawi National Reading Program (NRP). The NRP is revising the curriculum and instructional approach to be founded upon evidence-based practices for teaching reading in Chichewa as well as English. The program also includes revising student textbooks and teacher guides, distributing textbooks to students, training teachers, assessing students, updating national policy, and engaging communities and families to support reading. The Malawi Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) is in the process of implementing the country’s five-year National Reading Strategy (NRS).
STS will assist MOEST in developing appropriate reading benchmarks and setting targets for reading achievement for Chichewa and English across Standards 1-4 of primary school. STS will travel to Malawi for an initial kick-off and design trip as well as for two workshops: a performance level descriptor workshop and a cut-score setting workshop. STS will document the process and outcomes of the work in a Benchmark Technical Report submitted to USAID and socialized with the MOEST and other early grade reading stakeholders in Malawi.
Read more about STS’s previous work with Malawi’s National Reading Program.
