BackgroundDeaf children face many challenges in dealing with educational opportunities and ensuring attainment of academic skills. A parent's involvement in the child's education has the potential to enhance academic performance. We sought to study the association between parental involvement and academic achievement among deaf children in Uganda.MethodsUsing purposive consecutive sampling, one hundred and eight parents of deaf children (Primary 1 to 7) were recruited from Mulago School for the Deaf in Kampala, Uganda. The Parental Involvement Questionnaire was used to measure parents' involvement in school activities while the Wide Range Assessment Test, third edition, was used to measure academic achievement (reading, spelling and arithmetic). Linear regression was used to test the association between parental involvement and academic achievement.ResultsOne hundred and five children with mean age 11.09 years (SD = 2.89) were enrolled of whom 56 (35.3%) were female. With a Beta coefficient of 0.07, a 7% unit increase of summed parental involvement showed no significant association between parental involvement and academic achievement (p = 0.46) of the deaf children.ConclusionParental involvement was not associated with academic achievement among deaf children in Kampala. Other factors associated with academic achievement need to be identified to enhance deaf children's performance at school.

Health systems globally demand more competent workers but lack competency-based training programs to reach their goals. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a competency-based curriculum (EQUIP-FHS) for trainers and supervisors to teach foundational helping knowledge, attitudes and skills, guided by the WHO/UNICEF EQUIP platform, to improve the competency of in-service and pre-service workers from various health and other service sectors. A mixed-methods, uncontrolled before-and-after trial was conducted in Nepal, Peru, and Uganda from 2020 to 2021. Trainees’ (N = 150) competency data were collected during 13 FHS trainings. Paired t-tests assessed pre- to post-change in ENACT competency measures (e.g., harmful, helpful). Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. EQUIP-FHS trainings, on average, were 20 h in duration. Harmful behaviors significantly decreased, and helpful behaviors significantly increased, across and within sites from pre-to post-training. Qualitatively, trainees and trainers promoted the training and highlighted difficult competencies and areas for scaling the training. A brief competency-based curriculum on foundational helping delivered through pre-service or in-service training can reduce the risk that healthcare workers and other service providers display harmful behaviors. We recommend governmental and nongovernmental organizations implement competency-based approaches to enhance the quality of their existing workforce programming and be one step closer to achieving the goal of quality healthcare around the globe.