Research Studies and Reports

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Yizani Sifunde: Impact beyond the classroom: shifts in homes and communities
(Liberty Community Trust, Wordworks, Book Dash and Nal'ibali, 2024) von Blottnitz, Magali
This is the fifth in a series of learning briefs that explore the design, implementation and impact of Yizani Sifunde, a collaborative multi-pronged intervention designed to boost early literacy outcomes in 4- and 5-year-olds. This brief focuses on: • the elements of the project that targeted the homes of the children, as well as some community stakeholders, namely distribution of abundant children's books for the children to own at home; caregiver workshops; reading clubs and community activations. • the shifts that resulted for these groups, using the Home Learning Environment (HLE) tool from the DataDrive2030 suite; and • how these legs of the intervention consolidated or extended the project’s impact on young children. The HLE data reveals that the project resulted not only in a considerable increase in the number of books available in the homes, but also in increased caregiver reading behaviour. At endline, almost all caregivers claimed to read to their children at least once weekly. Qualitative data revealed that three effects ("nudge effect", "joy and pride effect" and "skill and confidence effect") enabled the shift of the caregivers' reading behaviour. Caregivers also became more involved in the life of the ECDs. In addition, caregivers who attended parent workshops became more involved in a number of other activities with their children, such as storytelling or drawing. These experiences at home helped the children strengthen and consolidate the benefits from improved classroom practices. The brief also reviews and discusses the project's experience with running reading clubs, and find that reading clubs led by the project's staff or by partner institutions were more successful and operated in a more consistent manner than reading clubs run by community volunteers. These additional project activities helped to extend the project's reach to a wider number of children, in particular children in primary schools or young children who were not attending ECD centres.
Yizani Sifunde: How a multi-pronged intervention strengthened teaching and learning in ECD centres
(Liberty Community Trust, Wordworks, Book Dash and Nal'ibali, 2024) von Blottnitz, Magali
This is the fourth in a series of learning briefs that explore the design, implementation and impact of Yizani Sifunde, a collaborative multi-pronged intervention designed to boost early literacy outcomes in 4- and 5-year-olds. This brief focuses on: • the changes the project made possible in early childhood development (ECD) centres, related to resources, practitioner attitudes and teaching practices, centre management, and overall ECD quality; • how durable these shifts were; and • how these shifts contributed to young children’s development. It finds that, for the participating ECD centres, the Yizani Sifunde intervention led to radically improved access to learning materials, better equipped book corners, improved confidence of practitioners with story-based literacy activities. The brief also reveals improvements in the ECD practitioners' experience of parental engagement. Areas where there was still room for improvement include emerging writing and the children's independent use of book corners remain. The brief further provides multiple sources of data revealing that the practices of the intervention have been largely sustained after project exit.
Yizani Sifunde: An effective approach to closing the early literacy gap
(Liberty Community Trust, Wordworks, Book Dash and Nal'ibali, 2024) von Blottnitz, Magali
This is the third in a series of learning briefs that explore the design, implementation and impact of Yizani Sifunde, a collaborative multi-pronged intervention designed to boost early literacy outcomes in 4- and 5-year-olds. This brief summarises the quantitative evidence on how the Yizani Sifunde project effectively closed gaps in early learning, with a focus on early language and literacy. Specifically, the brief: * reviews available evidence about the South African early literacy gaps, particularly in rural provinces and among speakers of African languages, and describes the methodology followed by the evaluators * compares the ELOM assessment results achieved by project children at baseline and endline, against the provincial average * isolates the part of the children's learning gains corresponding to programme effect, after correcting for the expected maturation effect * summarises the findings from regression analyses on contributors, mediators and moderators of the learning gains. Key findings are that within 8 months of the intervention, the children have achieved remarkable improvement in their ELOM scores, including in domains that were not targeted by the intervention, such as numeracy. After correcting for maturation, the children on average gained 3 to 6 extra months of learning, and the most vulnerable children gained up to 13 months of learning in addition to the expected 8 months of maturation. Importantly, these positive results hold irrespective of context factors such as class size or presence of other interventions in the ECD centre. An improvement in the children's task orientation appears to have been a key contributor to the learning gains. The number of books received, and owned by the child, was a significant predictor of the endline achievement. These findings confirm the value of the intervention design, including the provision of books to be owned by the children.
Yizani Sifunde: Lessons from a successful multi-NGO collaboration
(Liberty Community Trust, Wordworks, Book Dash and Nal'ibali, 2024) von Blottnitz, Magali
This is the second in a series of learning briefs that explore the design, implementation and impact of Yizani Sifunde, a collaborative multi-pronged intervention designed to boost early literacy outcomes in 4- and 5-year-olds. The intervention was co-delivered by three leading South African NGOs, with two regional NGOs implementing part of the project locally. This brief focuses on: • the experience of the collaboration; and • the factors and practices that made it successful. In particular, it highlights the role played by the funder, Liberty Community Trust, the importance of clearly defined roles and collaboration modalities between project partners, and the learning mindset that helped improve the project design and adjust to unforeseen realities especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Yizani Sifunde: The design of a multi-pronged intervention for early literacy
(Liberty Community Trust, Wordworks, Book Dash and Nal'ibali, 2024-11) von Blottnitz, Magali
This is the first in a series of learning briefs that explore the design, implementation and impact of Yizani Sifunde, a collaborative multi-pronged intervention designed to boost early literacy outcomes in 4- and 5-year-olds. This brief describes: • how the intervention was designed; • how close monitoring of implementation enabled improvements to the design over time.
STABILIZATION OF HISTORICAL ARCHIVES IN MEKELLE CITY RESCUE OF FIRE AND WATER DAMAGED DOCUMENTS, Report
(Mekelle University, 2024-11-02) Asfha, Alula Tesfay; Dawit Gebrehiwot; Selam Gebrekristos; Yirga Asefa; Nega Tadesse
INTRODUCTION: The archival materials within the Mekelle Municipality building face severe threats due to poor storage conditions and safety hazards. An exposed electrical panel with open wires presents a significant fire risk, which became a reality in a recent incident likely triggered by compromised wiring or nearby cooking activities. This fire caused substantial damage to numerous documents, necessitating the urgent intervention of the municipal fire brigade. Although their quick response prevented further loss, the water used to extinguish the flames soaked many records, hastening their deterioration. The wet papers quickly morphed into a pulpy, unidentifiable mass, combining soot, dirt, and charred remnants, rendering many documents permanently unreadable. This situation underscores the urgent need for immediate archival preservation efforts, as each document represents a vital piece of Mekelle's history that must be rescued before it is lost forever.
Exploring the implementation of the TIME Home Learning programme and learning trajectories of 5- to 7-year-olds. Implementing TIME at home: Insights from caregivers
(Wordworks, 2024) von Blottnitz, Magali
This is the fourth in a series of learning briefs that explore the implementation of the TIME Home Learning programme and learning trajectories of 5- to 7-year-olds. This brief is based on interviews, home visits and observations made between February 2022 and August 2023 with participating families of children who were in Grade R in 2022 and in Grade 1 in 2023. It focuses on the home circumstances of families and their lived experiences while engaging with the TIME programme. This brief seeks to address the following questions: • How does the diversity of families and homes challenge our mental representations of “family” and “home”? • What does it take to embed the practice of TIME in the routine of the home? • What can we learn from caregivers’ experiences with TIME at home, which could help improve the frequency and the quality of families’ engagement? Reviewing the stories of a few families under a dynamic lens, the brief discusses how home circumstances such as family configurations, poverty, working hours, multilingualism, influence the levels of caregiver engagement with the TIME programme, and draws a typology of caregiver engagement.
Exploring the implementation of the TIME Home Learning programme and learning trajectories of 5- to 7-year-olds The TIME programme in its ecosystem: What does it take for a school to commit to TIME?
(Wordworks, 2024) von Blottnitz, Magali
This is the third in a series of learning briefs that explore the implementation of the TIME Home Learning programme and learning trajectories of 5- to 7-year-olds. This brief is based on interviews held in 2022 with stakeholders from Western Cape schools. It focuses on schools’ commitment to TIME, a programme that is offered on a sign-up and co-payment basis. The brief unpacks the factors influencing schools’ decision to either register for the programme, or turn it down, including strategic priorities, past experiences and financial constraints. As such, the brief offers interesting insights for NGOs about opportunities and pitfalls of co-payment models.
Exploring the implementation of the TIME Home Learning programme and learning trajectories of 5- to 7-year-olds The TIME programme in its ecosystem: How can provincial education departments support the implementation and success of TIME?
(Wordworks, 2024) von Blottnitz, Magali
This is the second in a series of learning briefs that explore the implementation of the TIME Home Learning programme and the learning trajectories of 5- to 7-year-olds. This brief is based on interviews held in 2022 with the Western Cape Education Department’s (WCED) Head Office and district officials. It focuses on the role of provincial education departments in supporting the TIME programme and examines: - How the WCED contributed to incubating the TIME programme during the COVID-19 pandemic; - Strategic alignment between TIME and the WCED; - The role of Foundation Phase subject advisors; - Constraints and Opportunities in the WCED's support of the TIME programme; - and Implications for other provinces.
Exploring the implementation of the TIME Home Learning programme and learning trajectories of 5- to 7-year-olds: Introduction to the TIME study
(2024-06) von Blottnitz, Magali
This is the first in a series of learning briefs that explore the implementation of the TIME Home Learning programme and the learning trajectories of 5- to 7-year-olds. This brief focuses on key elements of the programme, and also on the design of a study to explore how it is embedded in the ecosystem and lived in practice.
Exploring the impact of a story-based teacher training programme on language and early literacy in 4- and 5-year-olds. Child characteristics, and teacher, classroom and home variables that predict improvements in language and literacy.
(Wordworks, 2024) Cain, Kate; O'Carroll, Shelley; Oakhill, Jane; Klop, Daleen; Visser, Monique; Smith, Annelien; Swart, Anike
This is the fifth in a series of five research briefs that explore the impact of a story-based teacher training programme on language and early literacy in 4- and 5-year-olds. This brief explores the impact of the intervention and the extent to which child characteristics, home learning environments, and teacher and classroom variables predict improvements in children’s language, literacy and overall development.
Exploring the impact of a story-based teacher training programme on language and early literacy in 4- and 5-year-olds: A description of the isiXhosa children in the study sample. Wordworks: Cape Town.
(Wordworks, 2023) Cain, Kate; O'Carroll, Shelley; Oakhill, Jane; Klop, Daleen; Smith, Annelien
This is the fourth in a series of five research briefs that explore the impact of Little Stars, a story-based teacher training programme on language and early literacy in 4- and 5-year-olds. This brief describes the isiXhosa children in the study, their home learning environment and their early development across different developmental domains.
Exploring the impact of a story-based teacher training programme on language and early literacy in 4- and 5-year-olds. A description of the Afrikaans children in the study sample.
(Wordworks, 2023) Cain, Kate; O'Carroll, Shelley; Oakhill, Jane; Klop, Daleen; Smith, Annelien
This is the fourth in a series of five research briefs that explore the impact of Little Stars, a story-based teacher training programme on language and early literacy in 4- and 5-year-olds. This brief describes the Afrikaans children in the study, their home learning environment and their early development across different developmental domains.
Exploring the impact of a story-based teacher training programme on language and early literacy in 4- and 5-year-olds. Little Stars in the classroom: Did teaching practices change?
(Wordworks, 2023) O'Carroll, Shelley; Visser, Monique; Oakhill, Jane; Cain, Kate; de Wet, Katherine
This is the third in a series of five research briefs that explore the impact of Little Stars, story-based teacher training programme on language and early literacy in 4- and 5-year-olds. This brief focuses on whether resource-based teacher training led to take-up of the programme as intended, and the extent to which teaching practices changed through implementing the programme. We used Kirkpatrick’s model1 and focused on Level 3 (behavioural changes) to explore how teachers were using the programme and how the training translated into actual classroom practice.
Exploring the impact of a story-based teacher training programme on language and early literacy in 4- and 5-year-olds. Teachers at the core: Was the programme useful, feasible and easy to implement?
(Wordworks, 2023) Visser, Monique; Oakhill, Jane; Cain, Kate; O'Carroll, Shelley; de Wet, Katherine
This is the second in a series of five research briefs that explore the impact of Little Stars, a story-based teacher training programme on language and early literacy in 4- and 5-year-olds. This brief focuses on the effectiveness of the training and the teachers’ feedback on their learning and implementation.
Exploring the impact of a story-based teacher training programme on language and early literacy in 4- and 5-year-olds.
(Wordworks, 2023) O'Carroll, Shelley; Oakhill, Jane; Cain, Kate; Klop, Daleen; Visser, Monique
This is the first in a series of five research briefs that explore the impact of Little Stars, a story-based teacher training programme on language and early literacy in 4- and 5-year-olds. This brief focuses on key elements of the programme, and on the design of a study to explore how effective it is. Early Childhood Development (ECD) teachers have a critical role to play in providing language- and print-rich learning experiences for young children. There is a need for evidence-based, contextually relevant teacher development programmes and resources that support quality language teaching. The Little Stars programme was carefully designed to meet the specific needs, characteristics and circumstances of early childhood education in low-resource contexts in South Africa.
Design And Construction Of Anaerobic Digester For Biogas Production.
(2023-10-27) CHIGOZIE, ACHEBE; UCHENNA, UCHECHUKWU CLINTON
Biogas production from waste could be one better way addressing the issues of waste management and energy problem in Nigeria. Biogas produced through the proper waste management in an anaerobic digestion has a huge potential to be an alternative source of energy to fossil fuel. In this project, a 200 liter capacity batch sheet metal biogas plant operated at mesospheric temperature under 40 day hydraulic retention time, Fabricated at Mechanical engineering Fabrication center, Federal Polytechnic Nekede, Owerri, Imo State was used for biogas production of from agricultural waste (pig dung, cow dung, poultry dropping) and kitchen waste. 21.25kg of each waste was mixed with water of same weight at a ratio of 1:1 and charged. The pressure of the slurry was monitored for a certain period of time. The sample gags production was passed through the gas chromatography to determine the percentage composition (mol% dry basis) of the biogas content. The result of biogas before refining were 58.10 mol% dry CH4, 35.9mol% dry CO2 and 0.99 mol% dry H2S, which conformed with literature values of 50-70% mol dry CH4, 30-40% mol dry CO2 and 0-3% mol dry H2S 58.15% mol dry N2, 0.02% mol dry O2, 0.05% mol dry NH3, 0.47% mol dry H2.
Challenges Facing The Use Of ICT In Teaching Computer Studies In Public Secondary Schools In Awka South L.G.A.
(2023-12-08) Davidson, Chukwunedum; Ezeh, Gaius Chuks
This study was conducted to examine the challenges facing the use of ICT in teaching computer studies in public secondary schools in Awka South Local Government Area. The study was guided by two research questions. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Population of the study comprises 1,533 public senior secondary two students (SS2) and 43 teachers from the 18 public secondary schools in Awka South L.G.A. Through simple random sampling, 180 students and 20 teachers were selected as sample size for this study. Instrument for data collection was a 24-item structured questionnaire validated by two experts. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha which yielded a coefficient value of 0.76. The data analyses using mean scores. The findings revealed that the challenges facing the use of ICT in teaching computer studies in public secondary schools in Awka South L.G.A include lack of internet access, inadequate electricity supply, and lack of funding by the government. It was also found that lack of technical support for the available ICT facilities and inadequate security measures to safeguard the ICT facilities are among the challenges to the use of ICT in teaching of computer studies. The findings of this study also revealed that the solutions to the challenges facing the use of ICT in teaching of computer studies in public secondary schools in Awka South Local Government Area includes proper maintenance and repairs of ICT facilities, regular in-service training for computer teachers, monitoring ICT usage in schools by the government. Based on these findings, it was recommended that the government should provide budgetary allocation for the provision of ICT facilities, the school administrators should ensure the safety of the available ICT facilities by providing adequate security measures, internet service providers should provide free internet access to schools to enable them to utilize the available ICT facilities.
Transmuted Cosine Topp-Leone G Family Of Distributions: Properties And Applications
(2024-03-21) Osi, Abdulhameed Ado; DOGUWA, SANI; Yahaya, Abubakar; Zakari, Yahaya; USMAN, ABUBAKAR
A new trigonometric generalized family of distribution, the "Transmuted Cosine Topp-Leone G Family" is proposed in this study. Established on the foundations of, this family combines the adaptability of the Topp-Leone distribution with the periodicity of the cosine function and transmutation theory to produce a flexible framework that may be used to represent a wide range of real-life phenomena. We derive some of the statistical properties of the introduced family such as; survival and hazard functions, and moment and moment-generating function. Moreover, the model parameters are estimated using the Maximum Likelihood method, and a Monte Carlo simulation was performed to ascertain the behavior and the consistency of the estimates. Lastly, we demonstrate the applicability of the family on the two-lifetime datasets.
Visualising Multi-Sensor Predictions from a Rice Disease Classifier
(2022-12-03) Muhia, Brian
The Microsoft Rice Disease Classification Challenge introduced a dataset comprising RGB and RGNiR (RG-Near-infra-Red) images. This second image type increased the difficulty of the challenge such that all of the winning models worked with RGB only. In this challenge we applied a res2next50 encoder that was first pre-trained with self-supervised learning through the SwAV algorithm, to represent each RGB and their corresponding RGNIR images with the same weights. The encoder was then fine-tuned and self-distilled to classify the images which produced a public test set score of 0.228678639, and a private score of 0.183386940. K-fold cross-validation was not used for this challenge result. To better understand the impact of self-supervised pre-training on the problem of classifying each image type, we apply t-distributed Stochastic Neighbour Embedding (t-SNE) on the logits (predictions before applying softmax). We show how this method graphically provides some of the value of a confusion matrix, by locating some incorrect predictions. We then render the visualisation by overlaying the raw images in each data point, and note that to this model, the RGNIR images do not appear to be inherently more difficult to categorise. We make no comparisons through sweeps, RGB-only models or RGNIR-only models. This is left to future work.