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Call for Concepts on Uwezo Data

About Uwezo Tanzania

 Uwezo Tanzania is a registered independent NGO under NGO Act No. 24 of 2002 with registration number 00NGO/R/09001. Uwezo meaning “capability” in Swahili, was  a nation-wide citizen led learning assessment initiative established  by Twaweza East Africa since 2009 in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. In recognition to the credible work that Uwezo has accomplished over the past 10 years, Twaweza, in 2019, reached a decision to register Uwezo as independent entities in the three countries. Uwezo’s main function has been to generate data and curate evidence on actual literacy and numeracy competency levels among children aged 6-16. Uwezo has also used the assessment evidence to experiment and conduct innovative interventions eg. Jifunze(Teaching at the Right Level -TaRL) that demonstrate what works to improve learning outcomes especially on literacy and numeracy skills.

Over the past 10 years, we have conducted the Uwezo assessment in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, making Uwezo the largest study ever conducted in East Africa. We have complete datasets since  2011 to 2019;

Though we have launched about 7 reports, ‘Are our children learning? ’ And a few policy briefs, these have not utilised all the relevant data generated through assessment and learning interventions.

This year, we envisaged to conduct ‘data mining to explore specific thematic areas’ that have so far not been adequately exploited.

All about this Call

  1. Uwezo asks the interested individuals (University Students and interested academicians and researchers) to check through data collected by Uwezo over the years, and submit concept notes for consideration to produce the expected write-ups.
  2. Uwezo targets to produce two main types of outputs:
    1. Policy briefs – a 4-pager summarizing the key policy implications from the Uwezo assessment results. The target for this would be the education sector leaders at both national and subnational levels, as well as the education partners (donors) and civil society. The production of this deliverable will happen within 40 days after selection;
    2. Articles – these will be more rigorous write-ups to be published in websites, blogs or peer-reviewed journals. The production of this output would take longer, but target to achieve the draft with 40 days after engagement with the author.

We invite authors to submit a 500-word concept note that aligns with at least one of the story line/topics listed below.

Uwezo Secretariat and the selected reviewers will review and select three (3) best concepts which will then be developed by authors to full length papers.

The concepts should be stating the main topic of the paper, the story lines /main areas/points they want to make, methodology, and recommendation to the government and other stakeholders. Moreover, we seek concept notes  that cultivate the importance of children learning outcomes evidence, contain policy implications in our Education Systems and teaching practices, provide recommendations to policy makers and education practitioners  to improve Children education.

Together with using other sources make sure your concept note is informed much from Uwezo Assessment findings/ data. Reports are available through our website; www.uwezotanzania .or.tz  and dataset at, https://data.humdata.org/dataset/uwezo-2017-dataset

The authors for the best selected concept notes will be required to write full-length papers of up to 2500 words. Finally, best 3 papers will be selected  and recognized by Uwezo  and the full length papers will be published on various sites including Uwezo Website, Pal Network and to other academic and credible sites. The authors will also be encouraged to publish their papers on journals and other publication platforms.

Instructions for submission

For any further information, please contact us through;  info@uwezotanzania.or.tz  or visit our website, www.uwezotanzania .or.tz

ANNEX:

The stories that we could tell:

  1. Learning outcomes over the years

The story should explore changes that happened in learning outcomes within Tanzania or East Africa among children aged 6-16years. Where are changes mostly happening? relevant? How does the progression of outcomes in literacy compared with numeracy? Is gender an issue in learning? or geographical location? or type of school, or household socioeconomic status?

– What about out of school children enrollment status and learning outcome?

– What, overall, can we say is our story of learning across the years?

  1. Understanding our teachers and their status

The story should lay bare all aspects linked to teachers that are present in our data and also comparing with other sources e.g. World bank and SDI surveys.

– Who is teaching in our schools? How is the teacher distribution?  (Where are our teachers?).

– How does gender look like in teacher distribution/establishment? What about their qualifications VS  location? Any Urban  VS rural difference in this?

– What about absenteeism? Is it equally shared in all locations? , or are teachers more absent in some places than others? Differences between urban and rural settings? Can PTR and teacher absenteeism be associated with learning (even minimally)?

– Who are the head teachers in our schools, and can head teacher’s age, gender, qualification and experience (years in teaching profession) be linked to teacher absenteeism? Or learning outcomes?

  1. Early Childhood Education/Pre-school

– How is the enrollment trend over the years? Are there any gender differences?

– Who teaches our pre-school children? And what gender, experience and qualifications do they have?

–  Any relationship between parents’ education, family socioeconomic status in ECE and geographical differences in ECE enrollment?

– How is ECE financed?

– What are the policy implications and recommendations?

  1. Adult literacy, parental characteristics and their influence on the acquisition of literacy and numeracy

– Many studies have linked parental education to learning of children, but which parent matters more? (note that in Uwezo  we only collected data for mothers so cannot compare with fathers.) In earlier years, adult literacy was a big thing in our governments, is this forgotten past? Where are the adult literacy programs, and where have they died?

– To what extent may adult education level be associated with learning of younger children? How does this affect the literacy levels of their children?

– Majority of class 7 leavers goes back to the community and these are future adults. What is their learning ability by the time they leave Primary school in terms of being literate and numerate?

  1. Understanding schooling, learning and out of school context in the country /region

Many studies have estimated that wastage is a big issue in our education in east Africa. Many children drop out, others stay in but do not learn, while others have never joined school.

–  What about gender? Is it girls or boys who dropouts more? How does this compare between the public and private school? From which grade and at what age do children seem to drop out more?  If they drop at certain grade, how would their outcomes compare with their counterparts that stay in school?

  1. Disability, poverty and schooling

We are existing in a reality where disabilities are part of us, and many times we have been asked – why doesn’t Uwezo assess children with disabilities/special learning needs? One would however ask, who and where are these children, in school or at home?

– How does the enrollment/non-enrollment associate with household socio-economic status? – How does age-for-grade look like for children with disabilities? What about gender difference? Which disabilities seem to be schooling more or less? Does the type of school and settings (rural/urban) seem to influence enrollment of children with disability? Does parent education has any influence on enrollment of children with disability?

  1. Learning environment, Health/Nutrition, water and education in Tanzania

Education does not thrive in isolation, but is affected by other sectors.

-Do all schools have water, feeding program? How many households provide breakfast   to children before going to school?

– What are the households eating routines ( 1, 2 or 3 meals a day) and dietary choices ( what do they eat in every meal)?  How does nutrition at home (meals per day) and school (feeding programs) seem to associate with both attendance and learning?

– Are schools with better health /nutrition services or water infrastructures thriving more?

– What is the ratio of Pupils to Latrines (PLR)? Any gender variations? How does the ratio align with WASH policy in the country?

–  What is the pupil-classroom ratio (PCR)?

– What is PTR?

– How does a map of schools access to water look like in

Surveyed regions/districts?

 

 

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