Accelerating foundational skills development for adolescents in Uganda:vv Teaching at the Right Level Approach for Upper Primary Learners: Does It Work? (2023)

A significant proportion of adolescents are over-age for grade and in need of improved foundational learning in Uganda. With limited foundational skills (FLN), adolescents from both the refugee and host communities remain at risk of dropping out, face barriers to completion of education and successful transition to adulthood, and will have poor chances of accessing decent and viable livelihoods. To address this challenge among adolescents enrolled in public schools, Uganda developed its contextualised Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) model to tackle learning crises and accelerate the development of foundational learning skills in primary schools. The model was piloted in 180 schools in three refugee-hosting districts. The end goal of the piloting process is to evaluate the effectiveness of the TaRL model in the Ugandan context and fine-tune it based on the specific needs, challenges, and overall nature of the schooling system in the country. The learning paper captures key findings from the piloting process in target schools and highlights the potential of TaRL as a remedial pedagogy that can help adolescents and children who are over age for grade acquire foundational literacy and numeracy.