Support for Learners with Learning Disabilities: A Call for Differentiated and Individualized Instruction

Global and continental efforts have been put in place to support foundational learning and improve reading levels for learners in basic education. This includes the recent “Ending Learning Poverty” campaign launched by the African Union in September 2024 to mobilize resources, advocate for policy change, and drive community-level engagement to ensure that every child has access to quality education. Further efforts in the past include intervention programs such as Tusome early grade literacy program that was implemented at scale, and led to the subsequent adoption of the model in the development of competency based curriculum in Kenya. In addition, response to intervention programs to support learners struggling with reading have been designed such as the Developing Readers Program, and campaigns heightened with the aim of leaving no learner behind. Despite these efforts, learning poverty still persists in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). For instance, 89% of 10-year-old children in SSA cannot read and understand simple text while in Kenya, 2 in 10 class 8 learners and 3 in 10 grade 6 learners cannot meet expectations in reading grade 3 English text.