PRIMR - ICT for Education

Overview: In early 2013, following a baseline assessment, EdData II’s PRIMR Initiative began piloting 3 different ICT intervention strategies in Kisumu County, Kenya. The intervention is designed to evaluate how the technologies will impact instruction and pupil learning.

Sixty schools are participating in the intervention, with another 20 serving as a control group. The strategies include providing tablet devices to Teachers’ Advisory Centre (TAC) tutors to enhance their support to teachers; providing teachers themselves with tablets specially fitted with PRIMR instructional materials, as well as specially designed classroom pedagogical supports, including virtual flashcards, additional reading materials, and the RTI-developed continuous-assessment software called Tangerine:Class®; and providing pupils with e-readers they can use both in and out of school.

The three interventions are being applied to distinct groups of 20 schools each, and the impact on teaching and learning will be measured toward the end of 2013. Midterm analyses show large impacts of PRIMR on learning outcomes after a few months of intervention, and this has spurred additional interest in the approach that is being used. As a result, the DFID awarded PRIMR with funding to expand the ICT for education pilot to a national support system for the Kenyan TAC tutors.