Policies

Scaling-up of a Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum in Uganda

Context and Issue

In Uganda, renowned for its strong tradition and culture and young population comprising 55% children, significant growth potential exists. However, these children face developmental, health, and educational challenges, with over a quarter experiencing behavioural and social-emotional issues. Just 53% achieve grade-level academic competency by 6th grade. These challenges stem from adverse environments, inadequate nurturing, and limited socio-emotional competence among adults due to historical adversity. Teachers' socio-emotional competence fosters positive relationships and effective classroom management. Thus, reforming the education system to enhance social-emotional learning programs for teachers and students is imperative to narrow educational disparities.

Solution 

This project utilized a transformative learning collaborative approach, which employs partnership research principles to translate regional evidence into policy and systemic changes. It engaged a diverse group of experts from the US and Uganda, including stakeholders from Primary Teacher Training Colleges, policymakers, mental health practitioners, and researchers. By harnessing each stakeholder's unique strengths and resources, the project aimed to develop solutions and products collaboratively. Together, they designed and tested a scalable train-the-trainer model to empower Teacher Training College trainers and mental health professionals to implement the PD-Enhance program. This model trained a team of nine TTC tutors and Ugandan mental health professionals, who then delivered the PD-Enhance program to teachers in 12 schools, comprising six intervention and six wait-list control schools.

Impact

In the study, 98 teachers (52 intervention, 46 control) participated, benefitting over 8,000 students. An effectiveness evaluation included interviews with 198 families before (Time 1) and after (Time 2) the intervention. Results showed improved teacher practices in family engagement and reduced use of harsh discipline. The PD-Enhanced program also enhanced teacher emotion regulation, decreased stress, and improved work support, positively impacting students' peer relationships. Male students experienced fewer social problems compared to females.

Analysis

Collaboration of experts from different regions increases the vision of the intervention and allows us to learn from the best practices that could be replicated in different ecosystems.