Backup Uganda

At Backup Uganda, we are committed to promoting and providing individualized attention for learners, particularly those who experience learning difficulties & disabilities.

We envision an education system that is able to give all learners - including children with learning difficulties & disabilities - the individualized support they need to achieve their goals in education and in life.

Our core values include:

Diversity
We acknowledge and respect that all human beings are unique, having their own individual preferences and valid needs.

Equity
We understand that these preferences and needs are best met with individualized approaches and we design our programs accordingly.

Empowerment
We believe empowering teachers, school administrators, parents, and communities at large is the key to progress for the education sector.

Sustainability
We build and implement our programs with sustainability as our main focus: lasting impact trumps short term successes.

Transparency
We are committed to being open, honest and accountable at all levels for every step we take.

Annemaaike Kruisselbrink is one of the Co-Founders of Backup Uganda and the current Uganda Country Director. She is responsible for:

- Overall Theory of Change and strategy design
- Program & project design, implementation and management, including Monitoring, Evaluation, Assessment and Learning
- Initiating and maintaining relations with local & national government, (funding) partners and professional networks
- Overseeing financial administration, NGO compliance and human resource management
- Fundraising

Our Team Lead Annemaaike will be joined by Fred Onyango (Fundraising & Communications Coordinator, transitioning to become the next Uganda Country Director) and Glades Lanyero (Lead Trainer). All three have been part of ODII - our proposed solution - since its ideation stage: they have designed the approach and content, created the videos and workbooks and are currently involved in the pilot phase. They have also been working together with our MEAL volunteer to design methods to collect and analyze evidence in relation to ODII so far. Annemaaike coordinates the overall design, implementation, management, MEAL aspects and resource mobilization for ODII. Fred will take up this role toward the end of 2023 and currently uses evidence generated to maintain relationships with current partners and donors and approach new ones. Glades coordinates the day-to-day activities at our partner primary schools and maintains our relationships and communication with the teachers and administrators. Engaging in the LEAP project would therefore align well with their current responsibilities and Backup Uganda's priorities.

ODII: Optimizing the Development of Inclusive Instruction in primary education in Uganda through blended teacher professional development.

In Uganda, inclusive education is a concept that is aimed for in theory, but is rarely seen when you enter a primary school classroom. Uganda has ratified the UNCRPD in 2008, leading to binding international commitments to uphold its prescribed standards. While Uganda’s Persons with Disabilities Act enacted in 2006 is meant to cover all aspects of life for persons with disabilities, inclusive education in particular is yet to be defined and described in the National Inclusive Education Policy - currently being finalized under the leadership of the Special Needs & Inclusive Education Department of Uganda’s Ministry of Education & Sports. 

Practical challenges to implementing inclusive education in Uganda include constraints in human, financial and other tangible resources, knowledge gaps and unsupportive attitudes and beliefs. Teachers, school administrators and parents are becoming more familiar with difficulties and disabilities, especially physical disabilities, visual and hearing impairments. Learning difficulties and disabilities are still new to the majority - characteristics are observed, but diagnostics and further individualized support is close to non-existent. Currently, teacher training and guidance for parents offers little to no practical information on this. Especially teachers at remote schools often miss out on further professional development opportunities due to their location and lack of resources. 

A survey done by Backup Uganda in March 2023 at 3 primary schools in Gulu showed that less than 30% of their teachers knew anything about three common learning disabilities (dyslexia, dyscalculia and AD(H)D). These statistics are alarming, considering how common these disabilities are; worldwide research estimates that approximately 20% of the world's population experiences a form of dyslexia, for example. Every teacher is likely to receive children with these and other learning difficulties and disabilities in their classroom throughout their career. Teachers and school administrators need to be able to identify them and teach all learners based on their unique learning needs.

Backup Uganda developed the ODII (Optimizing the Development of Inclusive Instruction) blended training package in an effort to build capacity in inclusive education at remote primary schools in Uganda. The package pairs interactive video and audio with printed training guides and workbooks. Schools can use their own device(s) or borrow them from Backup Uganda. ODII enables teachers and school administrators to follow 9 sessions of our training program towards an inclusive, school-based support system independently, remotely, and at their convenience. It equips primary level teachers and administrators at rural schools with knowledge and skills in identifying, supporting, and referring children with learning difficulties and disabilities in particular, while growing in their ability to teach all children inclusively based on the principle of Universal Design for Learning.

Through peer mentoring, teachers help each other to get familiar with the practical application of their new knowledge and skills. Our team follows up with the participating schools through monthly phone calls and termly in-person learning & evaluation sessions. An Inclusive Education Committee (IEC) chaired by the head teacher is formed at each school at the beginning of the partnership. The IEC ensures that teachers, parents and caregivers get continuous support from them while helping children with learning difficulties and disabilities, linking them to health facilities for assessment and support. After 1 school year, each school's IEC assumes responsibility for managing all inclusive education activities at the school. Backup Uganda continues to follow up with IECs, attends meetings when requested and offers consulting support for specific cases.

We have been piloting ODII at two primary schools in Gulu district since 2022. We plan to scale it up to 45 additional primary schools in Northern Uganda by the end of 2026.

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Before we designed our general training approach, we conducted foundational research in the form of a brief literature review to explore the impact of cascade-model and distance teacher professional development. We did this to learn more about potential ways to scale up our training program on inclusive education, learning difficulties and learning disabilities, especially to remote, rural primary schools in Uganda.

Since the start of our pilot phase with 2 primary schools in Gulu in 2022, we have been making use of formative research. Before the start of our partnership, we completed a mixed-methods baseline survey that included lesson observations and questionnaires with teachers plus participatory activities with learners. We will repeat this halfway through our partnership as a midline measurement and upon completion as an end line survey. In addition, we collect user feedback from teachers and administrators after each video workshop.

Our foundational research informed us that cascade models of teacher professional development tend to be ineffective. Trained teachers are expected to share their new knowledge and skills with their fellow teachers, but this is either not done at all or not up to standard. This made us decide against using this approach. We also learned that distance approaches can be supportive, as long as challenges that come with requiring internet, specific devices and regular communication are taken into account. We therefore incorporated all these elements into our ODII blended training package.

While our formative research is still in progress, so far our baseline survey demonstrated that the majority of the teachers and administrators at the 2 primary schools involved in the pilot phase were not aware of the most common learning difficulties & disabilities, were not identifying learners who experience these and were not offering them individualized support. This confirmed the need for additional professional development in this area. The user feedback has revealed that the videos need to be played using specific software to ensure synchronized image and sound; that the accent of a foreign instructor during some videos is challenging to understand; that the video workshops are difficult to complete in large groups when the device used has a small screen; and that the content is shared at a fast pace, but is quite useful. We have proceeded to re-record one of the videos and advise the Inclusive Education Committees on the use of specific software and group size.

There are several aspects of our solution that would benefit from a stronger evidence base. It would be most helpful to engage in this now, as our pilot phase is still in progress this year, which gives us the opportunity to collect more helpful evidence in more effective ways with our first users. This will give us the chance to improve our solution significantly before scaling it up to more schools in Northern Uganda.

First of all, this includes the impact of the peer mentoring approach that we use with the schools that make use of ODII. The intention of this approach is to have the teachers observe each other's lessons on a monthly basis to share feedback and learn from each other in relation to inclusive teaching, based on the training content from the video workshops. This approach is coordinated by each school's administrators. While we collect observation forms that reflect their experiences, it would support the sustainability of our solution to explore the effectiveness of the peer mentoring practice.

Secondly, we would have more accurate measurements of the impact of our solution if we learn ways to separate it from the impact of other organizations that are active in the same primary schools. For example, at one of our ODII pilot schools, another organization is implementing a project that focuses on inclusive education as well, although with a bias toward children with physical, visual and hearing impairments.

Lastly, we would like to do a more thorough review of the different elements of the training package itself, including the videos and workbooks. As mentioned, we have been engaging the teachers and administrators who use them in review moments. However, we believe the LEAP Fellows would be able to support us in designing a more systematic way of collecting and processing evidence of our users' experiences.

- To what extent does the peer mentoring approach offer sufficient guidance to teachers on using their new knowledge and skills, compared to in-person lesson observations by Backup Uganda?

- To what extent can schools' growth in offering inclusive education be attributed to Backup Uganda's ODII blended training package?

- Which elements of the ODII blended training package require improvements, and in what way?

Categorized under formative research, we would like to work on a more detailed usability study of the ODII blended training package. Ideally, this study would lead to recommendations for improvement of the various elements of the package.

Under summative research, we would like to include a randomized control study and a correlational study. The randomized control study would focus on the effectiveness of the peer mentoring approach, leading to recommendations to collect evidence of this and to strengthen the approach. The correlational study would help us learn more about how to obtain evidence of the correlation between ODII as a whole and improved inclusive education in partner schools, separating it from the impact of other organizations' solutions as much as possible.

We are open to recommendations from LEAP Fellows when it comes to types of research and outputs that they believe will help answer our questions stated above.

We plan to use the usability study to guide us on investments we need to make to improve the ODII blended training package elements before scaling it up to more primary schools in Northern Uganda. We will be able to prioritize our current resources and incorporate additional needs in our fundraising activities.

The randomized control study will give us the chance to consider improving the current peer mentoring approach and tools, developing new tools or consider a different approach to classroom-based guidance altogether, based on the recommendations that the study will lead to. For example, at the moment, we are suspecting that an incentive system for teachers might be beneficial; the study will help us decide on this aspect.

Based on the correlational study, we will have better insight in the general impact of ODII, allowing us to make adjustments where recommended. We also plan to use it for improved coordination with other organizations to avoid duplication. Lastly, depending on the results, we will be able to use these to communicate with potential partners and funders about why and how to invest in strengthening ODII and scaling it up to more primary schools.

The short-term outcomes we would like to work together toward include:

- An ODII blended training package that is optimized for the circumstances in which it is used, with teachers and administrators being able to make better use of it without major challenges;
- An approach to classroom-based guidance that teachers and administrators use continuously, adding to the sustainability of ODII;
- Stronger applications for funding and partnerships to improve and scale up ODII.

In the long run, we are aiming for the following outcomes:

- Scaling up ODII to the planned number of schools in Northern Uganda (and beyond);
- Teachers and administrators are using the knowledge and skills they have learned consistently;
- The ODII blended training package remains available for new teachers at the trained schools;
- Children are accessing inclusive education that is tailored to their unique learning needs, helping them to achieve their goals in education and in life.