USAID/Southern Africa recently awarded Khulisa Management Services (Khulisa) the fourth task order under the Practical Education Research for Optimal Reading and Management: Analyze, Collaborate, Evaluate (PERFORMANCE) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. As mentioned in Bob Stross’ November 2020 NGO Financial Newsletter, this new multi-million dollar award entails Data Collection and Analysis for the Early Grade Reading Study (EGRS), the Reading Support Project (RSP) as well as Benchmarking.

Together with subcontractors Research on Socio-Economic Policy (ReSEP), Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International, and Benita Williams Evaluation (BWE), Khulisa will contribute to the body of research on early grade reading interventionsin South Africa’s North West province. Key activities include an impact evaluation that continues the longitudinal testing of Grade 6 learners to determine the sustainability interventions provided under the Early Grade Reading Study (EGRS I). Khulisa will also conduct an impact evaluationof the Reading Support Project (RSP) by assessing learners in Grades 2 and 3.  Additionally, the team will contribute to early efforts of establishing reading benchmarks in English First Additional Language (EFAL) and Setswana Home Language (HL) by analyzing the impact evaluation learner results from the two sets of impact evaluation data.

Khulisa’s immediate aim is to kick off research on the social-emotional effect of COVID-19 on early grade reading learning and teaching. Survey service provider, GeoPoll, will perform computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) to remotely collect data from principals, teachers and parents/caregivers in relevant schools. Our team is thrilled to collaborate with USAID/Southern Africa in planning, designing, monitoring, evaluating and learning from interventions focused on improving the reading skills of primary grade learners in South Africa.