Developing Interest in Reading Among Primary School Students in the Republic of Tajikistan
KIX EAP Learning Cycle Case Study

Developing Interest in Reading Among Primary School Students in the Republic of Tajikistan

November 2021

by Irina Vafaeva, Muborak Safarova, Subhon Ashurov and Ayubjon Ayubov

This report evaluates the potential for scaling up the innovative Reading Calendar pilot of the Read with Me (RWM) project, which aims at improving reading among grade 3 and 4 students in Tajikistan. This project was a joint initiative by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tajikistan (RT MoES) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Considering the positive results achieved in the Reading Calendar pilot to improve reading commitment among students of grades 3 to 4 learning in Russian classes, we propose to expand this innovative project to cover those in grades 3 to 4 for which Tajik is the language of instruction.

The two key features that were examined to evaluate the successful implementation of the Reading Calendar components within the Read with Me project are: 1) the selection and development of interesting and accessible topics in the Reading Calendar for students in grades 3 and 4, and 2) the mentoring support offered to primary school teachers. The report consists of five sections. Section 1 describes the data, the education sector context and the problem that existed before the implementation of the pilot project. Section 2 presents the goals, activities, expected results and the theory of change of the project. It also lists the enabling conditions for the successful implementation of the project based on Tajikistan’s history and identifies risks that could undermine the successful implementation of the innovations. Section 3 describes the methodology and presents the results of the evaluation. Section 4 considers the potential to scale up the innovative features of the project in grades 3 and 4 for which the Tajik language is used for instruction. To determine the potential for scaling up, attention is paid to the theory of change, project outcomes, implementation arrangements, calculations of financial costs and the identification of limitations and potential challenges. Section 5 presents recommendations and an action plan for scaling innovation in classes where Tajik language is used for instruction. Further details and protocols of the applied research tools are given in the Annexes.