Mango Tree Educational Enterprises

This grant to Mango Tree Educational Enterprises would support the expansion of a successful low-cost method to teach children to read in their mother tongue and transition them to English to 200 more schools in Northern Uganda. While developing the model in a smaller number of schools, Mango Tree found that students in their classes were one year ahead of their counterparts in other schools: first graders performed as well as or better than comparison learners at the end of second grade. During the expansion, researchers from the University of Michigan will conduct a randomized external evaluation to measure the impact of Mango Tree’s model on student learning outcomes. If successful, this grant would demonstrate how the government can cost-effectively implement its mother-tongue instruction policy, thereby serving as a model to expand this type of intervention across Uganda.

The Northern Uganda Literacy Program seeks to help children learn how to read in their home language of Lango and then to transition their skills into reading in English. This grant would help Mango Tree to provide leadership training for key staff members of the Northern Uganda Literacy Program to increase the program's effectiveness and to groom staff in preparation for a leadership transition within the program.

This grant to Mango Tree Educational Enterprises would support the rollout of a low-cost method to teach children to read in their mother tongue of Lango and transition them to English. If successful, this grant will demonstrate how the government can cost-effectively implement its mother-tongue instruction policy, thereby serving as a model to expand this type of intervention across Uganda.