What should the future look like for out-of-school children and youth? Several USAID projects met in Nairobi in October 2023 to review progress on progress and look forward to future education interventions in Somalia. Over the past 5 years, AGES and BaB have implemented accelerated basic education (ABE) in Somalia, and LASER Pulse researchers have engaged...
A recent workshop brought together Mogadishu-area educators and education experts to discuss the past, present, and future of an initiative bringing schooling to some of the most-needed groups in Somalia. The Bar ama Baro (BaB) project has provided accelerated basic education (ABE) for formerly out-of-school children and youth in Somalia in recent years. The Somali Research...
Dissemination of Research Findings Multidisciplinary stakeholders convened in Morogoro, Tanzania over a period of two-day Monday May 15th through Tuesday May 16th, 2023 for an engagement during which results from a project funded by USAID through LASER PULSEwere disseminated. This project, running from April 2021-July 2023, is titled Tanzania Early Grade Social and Emotional Skills and...
Uganda is known for its cultural distinctiveness, strong traditions and hospitality. Children in Uganda comprise 55% of the total population, making it the country with the youngest population on the continent, with massive potential for growth. However, mental health needs are high in some Ugandan school communities. An estimated 45% of Ugandan primary school learners...
Researchers in Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) represent a significant resource of scientific talent to partner with USAID in development research. Development research, in turn, provides new opportunities to MSI researchers to increase the impact of their research and secure new valuable research funding. In view of USAID’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Strategy, the Administration’s...
Teachers are a key factor in student success, but literature is limited in exploring how the well-being of teachers—affections, attitudes, and perspectives of their occupation—affects teachers’ practice and students’ learning in the global south. Teacher well-being is particularly important to consider in a context such as Uganda, where teachers’ job satisfaction is low, teacher shortages...
The current LASER PULSE funded project is a second-generation investigation of implementation of this work. In collaboration with Ministry of Education, Teacher Training Colleges, and Mental Health professionals, we are testing new scalable implementation strategies to integrated the program into national teacher training curriculum, which would benefit more students, teachers, and families. In addition, because...
University of Nairobi, Makerere University-ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) and Catholic Relief Services under the Long-Term Assistance and Services for Research (LASER) – Partner University-Led Solutions Engine (PULSE) program conducted a case study of the Kenya early grade reading program, Tusome (“let us read” in Kiswahili’’). The goal of the study was to outline the key elements...
