One of the most common questions has been “how do we measure the impact of our program on learners?” Education without Border's (EwB) acquisition of the School in a Box (SIB) tablet system is providing a tool to measure the progress of learners both individually and as a group.
In 2022, the EwB team confirmed that township learners, on average, were lagging at least three grades behind in mathematics. This was in line with research findings across South Africa.
The “Closing the Gap” strategy instructs tutors to begin remediation with each group of learners at levels below their current school class level. An initial quiz on SIB (at the chosen level) provides a baseline for each learner and the group as a whole. SIB also enables the “gaps” to be identified (i.e.concepts/skills not yet mastered).
Once the gaps have been identified and remediated though small group tutorials, the quiz is repeated, and, if learners are now indicating real progress, the tutors move the learner(s) to the next level. We have begun this process at all our sites and will continue in 2023.
Case Study from Bellville South Primary
Four Grade 6 learners (working on Grade 4 material) increased their scores from 40-55% to 98-100%
Two other Grade 6 learners progressed from 30% to over 70%.
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