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Roots to Rise Foundational Learning

The project aims to facilitate growth in both direct implementation and government uptake of Building Tomorrow’s proven community-powered foundational learning approach.

  • 00,000

    children will be directly benefiting

  • Where
    Bugiri, Uganda
  • Focus area
    Education
  • Duration
    2024 - 2027
  • Economy
    DKK 10 million
Prime partner: Building Tomorrow

Through the project, Building Tomorrow will reach a total of 84,300 learners with transformative literacy and numeracy lessons over three years, including 71,100 in the three expansion districts - Bugiri, Bugweri, and Kaliro. This amounts to about 37% of Uganda's total primary school-aged population.

Context

This project is situated within a learning crisis in sub-Saharan Africa, where despite measurable gains in access to schooling, nearly nine out of every 10 children in the region remain unable to read and understand a simple text by the age of 10 (UNESCO, 2023). In Uganda, at least 7.3 million children lack these foundational skills (World Bank, 2019). Without the ability to read, write, and do basic math, these learners are less likely to advance to the next grade level and more likely to drop out of school, impeding academic success and limiting prospects for future dignified livelihoods.

Building Tomorrow has selected five districts in the Busoga sub-region of Eastern Uganda to focus on in this project. These districts have been identified in close coordination with the Ministry of Education and Sports, recognizing the scope and magnitude of need in these geographies.

The project

Roots to Rise (R2R) builds on the rigorously evaluated Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) methodology by adding a community focus, as well as more accessible delivery methods. The program involves regular assessments of literacy and numeracy levels, grouping students according to their learning level rather than age or grade, and providing fun, interactive, and learning-level-appropriate lessons in both school and community contexts. 90% of participants are expected to advance a level in literacy and/or numeracy through R2R, and over 80% are expected to be able to read a paragraph, compared to historical baseline numbers between 11% and 19%.

The program will be delivered by Community Education Teams, made up of Building Tomorrow Fellows, Community Education Volunteers (CEVs), local leaders, teachers, and school leadership. Building Tomorrow Fellows are recent Ugandan university graduates hired to serve a set of rural schools for a term of two years, while CEVs are community residents passionate about education.

To support education systems strengthening, 10 Building Tomorrow Fellows alumni will be seconded to Kamuli and Jinja as Technical Advisors (TAs), working to catalyze a pathway to government uptake that includes enhanced co-creation with local officials.

Objectives

Specifically, the project focuses on four objectives, reflecting the organization’s complementary investments in direct implementation and systems strengthening:

  1. Improve foundational learning by expanding R2R in geographic and numeric reach.
  2. Promote education systems strengthening through the deployment of TAs, seconded to local government offices across Jinja and Kamuli from mid-2024 to mid-2027.
  3. Enhance co-creation with local government.
  4. Increase knowledge-sharing with local and international audiences,
    particularly around advocacy for BT’s volunteer model.