Report: Tanzania Kiswahili Self-Administered EGRA/EGMA Pilot Results
Executive Summary
This report summarizes the findings of an effort to develop and validate a tablet-based, selfadministered assessment of Kiswahili-language foundational literacy and numeracy in the early grades in Tanzania. RTI International developed the two assessments, known respectively as the Self-Administered Early Grade Reading Assessment (SA-EGRA) and the Self-Administered Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (SA-EGMA) instruments, in Kiswahili, with the support and at the direction of Imagine Worldwide. The assessments are deemed “self-administered,” because children complete the assessments independently in response to instructions and stimuli embedded in a tablet-based software. Adults typically supervise the organization of the assessment and orient the children to the tablet-based assessment environment before they start.
The effort to develop these Kiswahili instruments took place in 2025, beginning with an adaptation workshop with language and curriculum experts in Tanzania in May, where items for the SA-EGRA and SA-EGMA were adapted and revised based on the needed specifications established in previous SA-EGRA and SA-EGMA development efforts. The instruments then underwent user testing with 20 Grade 2 students. Minor changes were made to the user interface and instruments in response to the feedback from user testing. The revised instruments were field tested in Grades 2 and 4 at 20 schools across five regions in mainland Tanzania with 374 students taking the SA-EGRA and 371 students taking the SA-EGMA. Item response theory (IRT) and factor analysis from this field test led to further minor alterations to the instruments, including removal of several lower performing items. The next versions of the instruments were pilot tested from September 22, 2025, through October 2, 2025, with 600 students across Grades 2, 3, and 4 in 15 schools in five regions of Tanzania to assess internal consistency, reliability, and concurrent validity with the traditional EGRA and EGMA instruments. This report presents the results of this pilot testing phase and recommendations for the final instruments to be made publicly available in early 2026.