2015 International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA)Baseline Results: ELM project Afar and South Omo, Ethiopia

Introduction Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) programs ensure that young children fulfill their right to healthy development, including engaging education, to help them reach their full potential. There is mounting evidence from around the world proving that the first years of life are critical in the development of the child as they shape cognitive, social and language skills, as well as lifelong approaches to learning.

Intervention Summary Since 2015, Save the Children has implemented an innovative Emergent Literacy and Math (ELM) toolkit in Ethiopia, with an aim to provide targeted training to ECCD and government “O” class facilitators on how best to support early development skills through play and joyful learning, in both pastoralist communities and school-based early childhood centers. ELM aims to demonstrate techniques that are pedagogically sound, scalable, and which will ensure that during the critical early years Ethiopian children benefit from inclusive, effective teaching and learning opportunities that support early literacy and math skills development at the pre-primary level, and improve school readiness and long-term learning outcomes for young learners.

Methodology This study sought to understand the baseline development levels of preschool-age children in the pastoralist regions of Afar and South Omo, Ethiopia before the ELM program begins in these communities. Data were collected using the International Developmental and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) tool, a one-on-one, play-based assessment designed for children ages 4-6. All of the ECCD centers that will participate in the ELM program were included in this assessment. A total of 120 children with their caregivers in Afar and 380 children with their caregivers were randomly selected for the survey.

Results-ELM Skills The IDELA tool measured children’s skills in five domains: motor skills, emergent literacy and language, numeracy, socio-emotional development, and executive functioning. Children in Afar and South Omo display the strongest skills in the motor skills and numeracy domains and are weakest at emergent literacy, although in general all domains could use strengthening since average total IDELA scores were 44% or lower in each site (Figures 1 and 2). There were no significant differences between boys’ and girls’ scores in either region.

South Omo Zone predicted average IDELA scores by age

Afar Region predicted average IDELA scores by age

Results-Home Learning Environment Having a strong home learning environment has been shown to be a strong predictor of children’s early learning and development. In this study, children from both regions come from homes with high rates of parental illiteracy and low education (45% of Afar children and 21% of South Omo children come from homes where neither parent has attended school). Children only have about one type of reading material at home, on average. The most common activities for household members to do with a child are to take them outside and to play with them, and negative discipline (hitting, yelling) is very common.

Results-Learning Equity Multivariate regression analyses were used to explore the relationships between key equity factors—sex, SES, home learning activities, and reading materials—and IDELA domain and total scores in each region. In Afar, children from households with higher socioeconomic statuses had higher overall IDELA scores, which was driven by higher scores on the numeracy and socio emotional learning sub -tests (Figure 3). Additionally, children who had participated in more types of home learning activities in the week before the assessment performed better on the numeracy and socio-emotional learning sub-tests, as well as the emergent literacy test, although these increases in performance were not strong enough to increase their overall IDELA scores.

Predicted IDELA scores by socioeconomic status- Afar

Continued…. In South Omo, the main equity finding was around the links between reading materials at home and learning. The number of reading materials a child has at home turns out to be significantly correlated with IDELA scores, particularly motor skills, literacy skills, numeracy skills, and, subsequently, total IDELA score (Figure 4).

Predicted IDELA scores by socioeconomic status- South Omo Zone

Results- Caregiver Attitudes Finally, caregivers in both regions were asked a set of questions about their attitudes towards children’s early learning and their reasons for sending their children to an ECCD program. In both regions, almost all caregivers said they “Agreed” or “Strongly Agreed” with positively worded statements about encouraging children’s learning and school readiness. The most common reason mentioned for sending children to an ECCD center was that the center provides food for the child. Many parents also said they send their children to ECCD because it helps children learn something, keeps children occupied and out of mischief, and prepares them for primary school.

Discussion The baseline results have led the Ethiopia country office to recommend a stronger focus on home learning environments to support children in learning outside of the ECCD centers. It is critical to engage parents and caregivers to support children with ELM activities at home to ensure that the skills children learn at the ECCD centers are reinforced at home. The program facilitators will focus particularly on the Emergent Literacy and Language domain to build children’s skills in that area, since it was the domain that children struggled with the most.

Continued….. Save the Children Ethiopia staff also hope to incorporate a coaching component into the program for field staff if the budget allows, and plan to collect data from a comparison group at end line in order to measure impact of the program in these sites.

IDELA-Baseline data collection by using the tools

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