By Donstance Koroma
Bonthe, Pujehun and Moyamba districts have been identified by the 2017 multiple indicator cluster survey (MICS) as districts whose children between the ages brackets of 7-14 have poor foundational reading skills after successfully completing three foundational reading tasks.
The MICS report says, out of fifteen thousand, two hundred and twenty seven 15,227 children surveyed nationally, Bonthe District recorded four hundred and nine (409) children who successfully completed three foundational reading tasks.
The report further recounted that Pujehun and Moyamba districts scored four hundred and seventy five (475) and five hundred and ninety five (595) respectively.
The MICS report further pointed out that eight thousand five hundred and eighty two (8,582) children within these age brackets in the rural areas successfully completed the three foundational reading tasks as opposed to the Urban area with six thousand six hundred and forty five (6,645).
Further Analysis also indicated that 30.7 % of children do not have the reading books in appropriate language while 4.7 % demonstrated foundational reading skills.15 % were also captured to have correctly read 90 % of words in a stray.
Districts figures captured Bo with one thousand four hundred and eighty one (1,481) children while of the 15,227 that successfully completed the three foundational reading tasks Kenema recorded one thousand four hundred and seventy (1,470).
Bombali recorded one thousand three hundred and seventy two ( 1,372).
The diamond district of Kono ranked fourth with one thousand one hundred twenty three (1,123), Western area rural recorded one thousand and seventy one (1,071) followed by Tonkolili, one thousand and thirty four (1,034).
According to Statistics Sierra Leone, the ability to read and understand a simple text is one of the most fundamental skills a child can learn.
The report also highlighted that in many countries students enrolled in school between the age brackets of six years are unable to read and understand simple texts.
This is according to a regional assessment by the Latin American Laboratory for Assessment of the quality of Education (LLCEC) ,the Program for the Analysis of Education System (PASEC) and the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEO).
Stats –SL has also noted that acquiring literacy in the early grades of primary education is crucial noting that doing so becomes more difficult in later grades, for those who are lagging behind.
They stated that strong foundation in basic numeracy skills during the early grades is important for success in mathematics in later years.
Mathematics, statistic Sierra Leone stressed, is a skill very much in demand and that most competitive jobs require some level of skills in mathematics.
“Early mathematics knowledge is a primary predicator of later academic achievement and future success in mathematics is related to an early and strong conceptual foundation “Statistics Sierra Leone stated.
The country’s statistics office noted that there are a number of existing tools for measuring learning outcomes with each approach having their own strength and limitations as well as varying levels of applicability to household survey such as MICS for some international assessments.
It may just be too late. “Even though international testing programs are steadily increasing their coverage to also cover developing countries, much of the divergence in test scores happens before the points in the educational trajectories of children where they are tested by international assessments” Statistics –SL.
They continued that national assessment such as the early grades reading assessment, which happens earlier and is more context specific will however be less appropriate for cross- country analysis, although it may be possible to compare children who do not complete an exercise (Zero Scores) set at a level which reflect each national target for children by a certain age or grade.
Additionally, it is recognised that some assessment only capture children in school.
However, given that many children in school do not attend school, further data of these out of school children is needed and these can be adequately captures in household survey.