Measurement and research support to education strategy goal 1: Malawi social and behavior change communications pilot; endline report

To reinforce school-based efforts to improve early grade reading, ministries of education and their technical and financial partners are paying increased attention to how families can help children build literacy skills at home. This report describes an activity in Ntcheu District in Malawi, sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was designed to use social and behavior change communication (SBCC) techniques to mobilize parents to help their children learn to read. The SBCC campaign was evaluated with a household survey, with a baseline survey being conducted in March 2016 and the endline survey in September 2016 after the intervention. The survey explored the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of family members of students enrolled in Standards (grades) 1–3. In addition, the teachers at the schools from which students were sampled were interviewed. Invest in Knowledge Initiative (IKI), a Malawian contract research organization, collaborated with the USAID-funded Early Grade Reading Activity to select a sample of households of students enrolled in two zones: Kasinje, which served as the intervention area; and Senzani, which served as the comparison area. In addition, a separate survey queried the teachers of the classrooms from which students/households were sampled.