Dianarose Odhiambo, Author at

Inyang Udo-Umoren’s Journey as the Country Director of TaRL Africa in Nigeria

Dianarose Odhiambo — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 19:35:38 +0000

Inyang Umoren (Second Right), TaRL Africa Nigeria Country Director, at an education conference. Photo: TaRL Africa

Inyang Udo-Umoren is the Country Director of TaRL Africa in Nigeria.

What has your experience been so far working with TaRL Africa?

I have been working with TaRL Africa since 2019, and it has been a huge learning journey for me. As the first recruited person from Nigeria, I have had the opportunity to build relationships with government officials and contribute to the growth of the organization. TaRL Africa is a learning organization, and we constantly strive to improve our methods and impact.

In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge facing children today?

In my experience, one of the biggest challenges facing children today is the lack of strong teacher factors. This includes issues such as low teacher competencies, lack of mentorship, motivation, inadequate salaries, and inconsistency in support systems. I have observed that many children join our program with very low learning levels, but after a few months of intervention, their progress is significant. It highlights the need to address teacher development and support to ensure children receive a quality education.

What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?

One of my biggest accomplishments so far has been reaching 7 states in Nigeria within a span of 4 years. Although we haven’t reached all the states in the country, having a presence in these 7 states is significant progress for TaRL Africa. It demonstrates government recognition and visibility, and we could have chosen to implement our program in just one state. However, expanding our reach to multiple states showcases our commitment to reaching as many children as possible.

TaRL Africa Nigeria Country Director, Inyang Umoren together with the Kebbi state governor, Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu; the commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Rt. Hon. Hassan Mohammad Shallah Gwandu; and Master Trainers during the governor’s visit. Photo: TaRL Africa

What’s the most unique part about working here?

The most unique aspect of working at TaRL Africa, based on my experience, is the unwavering focus on our mission. We stay true to the TaRL approach in all our programs and initiatives. Unlike some organizations that may get sidetracked or lose sight of their core objectives, we maintain a clear and dedicated focus on the TaRL methodology. This level of clarity and commitment ensures that every program and action we take aligns with our mission.

What does relaxation/unwinding look like for you?

For me, relaxation and unwinding involve having a social life and spending time with friends. Since I spend a significant amount of time in front of my computer at home, it’s important for me to balance work with social activities. Engaging with friends and enjoying their company helps me relax and recharge.

What is that one thing that your colleagues don’t know about you

One thing that my colleagues may not know about me is that I enjoy trying new recipes. Recently, I made Asun (peppered goat meat) for the first time, and I’m starting to develop a liking for cooking. It’s a hobby that allows me to explore different flavors and experiment in the kitchen.

Parting shot

There is a lot to learn in this world, and every day presents a new learning opportunity. I am grateful to be part of a great team in Nigeria, although managing a growing team can sometimes be challenging. Even with the headaches that come with it, our team is exceptional, and I appreciate their dedication and hard work.

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How TaRL Transformed Nasiru’s Learning Journey

Dianarose Odhiambo — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 10:00:46 +0000

Nasiru Mustapha, a learner in the TaRL program in Kano, Nigeria. Photo: TaRL Africa

Meet Nasiru Mustapha, a Dawakin Tofa Model Primary School learner in Kano State, Nigeria. Just a year ago, school was a daunting place for Nasiru, especially when it came to reading. He struggled to keep up with his classmates and found no joy in the act of reading itself. The long closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic only worsened his situation, leaving him far behind in his educational journey.

But fortune smiled upon Nasiru when his school became part of the Teaching at the right level (TaRL) Kano Literacy and Numeracy Accelerator (KaLMA) program. Led by the Kano State Universal Basic Education Board, Ministry of Education, Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, and in collaboration with the British Council and Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) Africa, this program was his ticket to reclaiming his learning losses.

Nasiru was assessed and immediately enrolled at beginner letter level in the program to receive the essential foundational literacy and numeracy skills he desperately needed. Starting from the basics, he learned to identify letters and words, gradually progressing to reading sentences in both Hausa and English. The progress he made filled him with pride as he looked back at how far he had come.

Nasiru Mustapha in class. Photo: TaRL Africa

“Nasiru started off at beginner level, where he could only identify letters and words. He could not read a sentence either in Hausa or English,” said Mr. Sabiu Mohammed, the school’s Head Teacher.

Nasiru’s reading skills continued to improve, enabling him to comprehend other subjects with ease. Mathematics, in particular, became a joy for him as he eagerly looked forward to the fun and play-based learning and use of bundles and sticks for addition and subtraction—a TaRL classroom activity that quickly became his favorite. His math grades soared alongside his confidence.

But Nasiru’s journey didn’t stop at the school gates. Teachers provided him and his fellow learners with engaging worksheets to continue learning beyond school hours. He took this opportunity to go the extra mile, becoming a mentor to his younger brother. With enthusiasm, he taught his sibling how to read the syllable chat, where he helps him recognize syllables in words, making spelling and reading an easier task for children.

“When I do my homework, my brother comes to where I am. My assignments are interesting and I find myself teaching him how to identify letters and numbers. When he starts school he will be topping his class,” he adds with a smile.

In his everyday life, Nasiru’s newfound math skills became a valuable asset. When sent by his parents to the shop, he now returns home with the correct change from the money given to him. Gone are the days when shopkeepers took advantage of his innocence, and not give him the correct change, which would often get him into trouble.

“Nasiru has been progressing well through the TaRL program and his academic performance is improving. He has emerged as a beacon of inspiration, radiating confidence and academic excellence,” said Mr. Sabiu Mohammed, the school’s Head Teacher.

Nasiru Mustapha’s success story is a testament to the transformative power of TaRL. His journey serves as a reminder that with the right support and opportunities, every child can unlock their full potential and shine brightly in education.

___________
Dianarose Odhiambo is the Communications Associate for TaRL Africa

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Meet Naaman Ochieng, our passionate Programmes Coordinator

Dianarose Odhiambo — Wed, 17 May 2023 12:11:55 +0000

Naaman Ochieng is TaRL Africa’s Programmes Coordinator. He supports Incubation and Learning as well as government engagement in Kenya to strengthen implementation and strategy to improve program growth. He lets us in on his role as a Programmes Coordinator and why he loves working at TaRL Africa.

What has your experience been so far working in TaRL Africa?

My time spent working for TaRL Africa has been wonderful and exceptional. I joined TaRL Africa when the TaRL approach program was starting in other countries in Africa. This was a tremendous learning curve for me because one of the fascinating aspects of TaRL Africa is how it is grounded on evidence-based programming.

Presently, I have concentrated more on Kenyan programming, as I support government engagement through the Kenya Learning Labs where the organization trials and incubates nimble innovations and tweaks in the TaRL approach.

In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge facing children today?

The biggest challenge facing children today is the rapidly changing world requiring the 21st century skills and knowledge. These are extremely difficult to achieve if children are unable to learn independently, a scenario that is exacerbated by the lack of foundation literacy and numeracy skills in Kenya, and worse in many other African countries.

We have serious learning iniquities where children move through classes and don’t obtain the requisite skills to learn on their own. For instance in Kenya, the curriculum change into the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) requires children to learn independently as well as with parental support. Imagine how learning is for children who are the first to attend school in their families, and have no literate person around them to support. This is a common story in the arid and underresoruced counties in Kenya.

What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?

My biggest accomplishment so far has been building relationships with the government, particularly, in having conversations with the Ministry of Education technocrats to appreciate the need for accelerated learning and how that fits in our context, and to also witness the real time impact on children’s ability to read and carry out basic maths operations in the schools where the TaRL approach has been tested.

What’s the most unique part about working here?

The unique bit about working at TaRL Africa is the laser-focus on root cause of learning crisis in Africa. The approach allows time for a deep-dive in learning, that is based on the needs in a particular context. I don’t know that this can be achieved in any other way.

What does relaxation/unwinding look like for you?

I read a lot, primarily about the global perspectives, to better understand what is happening in various parts of the world and how it can impact children’s future, particularly in Africa.

What is that one thing that your colleagues don’t know about you?

I love singing. I sing any genre generally for entertaining purposes.

Parting shot

We are here to change the education landscape for good, and with a great focus on the TaRL approach, this should be achieved in under one decade.

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Teaching at the Right Level Website Launch

Dianarose Odhiambo — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 13:06:23 +0000

J-PAL Africa and Pratham have launched a new Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) website in response to growing demand from governments, schools, and NGOs for details on TaRL methodology and implementation. In recent years, education stakeholders have become increasingly aware of low foundational skill levels in primary schools and the lack of safety nets for the children who have not mastered basic reading and mathematics in the first two years of schooling. We designed the website to provide practical information on Teaching at the Right Level, an approach that effectively address this problem.

Teaching at the Right Level

TaRL has gained recognition as an evidence-based approach to address the learning crisis. Six randomised evaluations conducted by J-PAL affiliated professors have shown TaRL to be effective across a variety of contexts and implementation models. While the concepts behind TaRL remain simple (assessment, grouping children by learning level, and focusing on foundational skill activities appropriate for each group), evidence shows that the success of TaRL requires a comprehensive approach including several interacting support pieces.

The Website

The TaRL website provides policymakers, implementers, donors and other partners with a starting point for understanding how this approach has worked in other contexts as well as a plethora of implementation details.

Website visitors can start with the TaRL Approach. First, Implementation Teams outlines the different kinds of teams required and how to build their capacity through active training and mentoring. The second section, Assessment—the backbone of TaRL—explains the kinds of assessment tools that are used and why, and highlights how foundational skills assessments can refocus education systems. Third, Classroom Methodology describes Pratham’s approach to reading and mathematics instruction, including examples of classroom activities. Finally, Measurement and Monitoring explains what TaRL implementers measure and how they use the information collected.

The TaRL Approach resource is supported by an Evidence section, which includes a summary of research conducted by J-PAL affiliated professors on TaRL interventions, and TaRL in Action, which features case studies that provide useful examples of how the TaRL approach has been applied in different contexts.

TaRL Community of Practice

Ideally, the resources on this website will be complemented with leadership from local teams who can help tweak and test the approach in local contexts as well as technical assistance from the Pratham/J-PAL Africa team.

However, we know we can’t be everywhere at once—so we’re spearheading the creation of a TaRL Africa Community of Practice to bring together TaRL-inspired implementers and supporters throughout the African continent. The Community section on the website highlights resources available for those interested in learning more and houses a forum aimed at facilitating discussion on key implementation questions. In addition, we plan to host guest writers on the TaRL blog, highlighting TaRL-inspired interventions and lessons coming from the field.

Are you or your organization interested in learning more about TaRL? Are you working on a TaRL-inspired intervention? Would you like to connect with others or share your reflections? Would you like to connect with the J-PAL Africa and Pratham teams? Please visit our website! While you’re there, start a discussion in a TaRL forum or submit a blog post on your latest TaRL innovation to info@teachingattherightlevel.org.

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Join the TaRL Africa Team

Dianarose Odhiambo — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 13:00:30 +0000

TaRL Africa: Who we are

The Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) Africa team was launched in January as a joint initiative of Pratham and J-PAL. We collaborate with governments and partners across Africa to address the learning crisis in primary schools through TaRL, an educational approach that builds foundational reading and mathematics skills.

Pratham and J-PAL have worked together over the last fifteen years to improve upon and refine TaRL through rigorous randomised evaluations, identifying the most effective and scalable solutions to improve learning in schools. The TaRL Africa team embodies a wonderful combination of characteristics from both organisations: exceptional spirit and drive to meaningfully improve learning for all children, education expertise, deep experience taking programmes to scale, commitment to policy engagement and evidence-based decision-making, and continuous learning.

Learn more about the TaRL approach >>

We’re looking for passionate programme and policy experts to join our team and help lead efforts to expand TaRL to reach up to three million primary school students in Africa over the next five years.

What we do

TaRL Africa consists of a central team and multiple in-country support teams. We work directly with governments and their partners to develop, adapt, and embed TaRL approaches in education systems, and collaborate with non-governmental organisations to build and strengthen TaRL-inspired approaches.

The central team supports delivery of TaRL programmes across countries and partners, ensuring high-quality implementation true to the TaRL approach. We also create useful resources for government officials, school administrators, and teachers, support development of detailed monitoring systems, and drive a robust learning and innovation agenda across countries.

In-country teams work closely with governments and other implementing partners on context-specific TaRL programmes in Côte d’Ivoire, Zambia, and Nigeria, with potential to expand to new countries in the future. We forge long-term partnerships through working together to adapt the TaRL approach with evidence and experience, solve implementation challenges as they arise and plan towards sustainability and scale.

Across the team, we are working to connect and grow leaders of practice who can innovate, learn, and demonstrate effective TaRL approaches. As a team committed to evidence and learning, this work will contribute to a global learning agenda that informs how to effectively improve children’s learning outcomes at scale. We hope to lay a strong foundation for continued improvement of learning outcomes for all children.

Join us!

To achieve these goals, we are recruiting high calibre team members dedicated to improving children’s learning across Africa for several new and dynamic positions.

Most positions will have specific focus areas, including teaching and learning; monitoring and measurement; programme management; policy; communications; research; and finance and operations. These roles provide extraordinary opportunities to help shape this exciting new venture, with the potential to make meaningful systems-based change.

Please see all our available positions on the Join the Team page.

We’ll be posting more open positions in the coming months. To stay up to date on upcoming vacancies, sign up for the TaRL newsletter and regularly check our Join the Team page on the TaRL website!

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COVID-19 Makes Teaching at the Right Level Even More Pressing

Dianarose Odhiambo — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 07:06:51 +0000

COVID-19 makes Teaching at the Right Level even more pressing

Global education, News

Read the blogpost by Lant Pritchett on the RISE blog…

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TaRL Webinar Session 3: Mentoring and Monitoring

Dianarose Odhiambo — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 06:08:18 +0000

Are you part of an implementing organisation or government that is frustrated by inadequate gains in learning outcomes? Are you interested in learning about an effective strategy to foundational reading and mathematics skills? Sign up for the TaRL mailing list to receive news about the upcoming webinars.

Join us for a series of webinars about Pratham’s Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL), a methodology that has been shown, through rigorous evaluations, to consistently improve basic reading and numeracy skills. Each webinar will feature presentations by Pratham, J-PAL, and a number of our partner organisations and will give you the opportunity to ask questions.

Session 3: Monitoring and Mentoring

The third webinar on Monitoring and Mentoring took place on Thursday, December 7, at 8:00 AM EST. Devyani Pershad (Head of Program Management, Pratham) discussed the role of monitors and mentors in TaRL programs. Benjamin Piper (Senior Director, RTI International) shared research on teacher coaching and innovative ways of collecting data. Hanno Kemp (Program Director, FUEL) talked about how to ensure monitoring data is used to strengthen systems and inform action.

Links to resources from the third session:

What is Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL)? (30 August 2017)
Assessment (27 October 2017)
Monitoring and Mentoring (7 December 2017)
Teacher Training (6 March 2018)
Adapting the TaRL approach to different contexts (11 December 2018)
Maintaining Quality at Scale (upcoming – date TBD)
Research Lessons and Agenda (upcoming – date TBD)

We will share the presentations and webinar recordings on this page after each webinar.

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Transforming Education Begins with Teachers

Dianarose Odhiambo — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 05:27:04 +0000

Mr. Batholomew Kasamika in class teaching Grade 3 learners literacy. Photo: TaRL Africa

It all began as a simple volunteer exercise in teaching Sunday School children at his local church. From helping them recite Bible verses and composing songs that would enable them to remember Bible stories. His efforts were noticed by the church leadership as well as parents who pointed out his gift of teaching. The more he taught, the more his passion grew and that is how Mr. Bartholomew Kasamika, a Catch Up teacher at Bimbe Primary School in Lusaka, Zambia, knew he was cut out for teaching.

“When I completed High school, I went straight to a teaching college because I was sure that was my calling,” said Mr. Kasamika.

Like many young men his age, he was discouraged from pursuing teaching as a career, because people said that teachers are poorly paid. However, this did not kill his dream. 20 years into the profession, Mr. Kasamika looks back with nostalgia on how teaching has transformed post the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Learning continued in other developed countries that had better internet connectivity through zoom lessons. I teach in a rural school where access to the internet is a challenge and learning was temporarily suspended during the pandemic,” said Mr. Kasamika.

This Year’s World Teachers’ Day theme “The transformation of education begins with teachers” highlights the crucial role teachers and educators play in the response to the learning crisis and educational disruptions. Many teachers had to re-organize and adapt teaching and learning processes, in particular those related to online and remote education, and take part in activities to safeguard the material safety of learners and their families, providing socio-emotional and psychological support to students and their families.

Mr. Kasamika who is also a Zonal Inservice Coordinator (ZIC), coordinates schools in his jurisdiction on Catch Up and supports the continuous capacity building of teachers to ensure they are growing in their profession as he sees to it that learning continues in schools in his zone.

“The world is now a global village. As teachers, we need to invest in technology because we are the vehicles of transformation and we cannot lag behind,” said Mr. Kasamika.

Zambia’s New Dawn government fulfilled its main electoral pledge to make primary and secondary education free in its first six months in office. Thousands more learners nationwide have been enrolled in full-time school as of January 2022. This has consequently increased the population of children in school.

“I am most proud when I meet my former students who have completed basic education and are pursuing their careers. I get motivated to do more,” proudly said Mr. Kasamika.

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Street Child: A tale of Resilience and Hope for Out-of-School Children in Cameroon

Dianarose Odhiambo — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 05:28:47 +0000

Children playing at a street learning corner. Photo: Street Child

Since the beginning of the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon in 2016, which led to instabilities and displacement, children have been worst affected by school closures in the country’s Northwest and Southwest regions. The most urgent issues are a shortage of secure learning spaces and qualified teachers, particularly those with training in the fundamentals of psychosocial and instructional materials.

Amid this humanitarian crisis is a man on a mission, trying to alleviate the suffering of learners who have been displaced due to conflict. Kingsley Udo is the Country program manager of Street Child Cameroon. Street Child is a non-profit organization that partners with other like-minded organizations to ensure that every child has access to education.

“Our work is to ensure children are safe, in school and learning, even when they are affected by a humanitarian crisis,” said Kingsley.

Kingsley Udo is proud to identify himself as a trained teacher. Interesting to note is that Education was not his first course of learning in school as he had pursued studies in various fields like petroleum engineering, environmental protection, and industrial safety. According to him, he still struggled to find a niche in the areas of his studies.

It was when he met a volunteer teacher in Gwoza, a local government area of Borno State, Nigeria, who was teaching children fleeing captivity by the Boko Haram (one of the largest Islamist militant groups in Africa), that his passion for teaching was ignited.

“We sat with the learners on the floor and tried teaching them correct pronunciation of English words. Her passion inspired me,” said Kingsley.

It was after his stay in Gwoza that he went back to Maiduguri and registered to become a teacher. After four years of training, he is now a certified teacher.

“I am proud to be a teacher and that is what stands out for me. A teacher in the classroom and a teacher beyond the classroom,” said Kingsley.

Kingsley, whose long-term goal is to become the best teacher in the world, encouraged the volunteer teacher who was working with children in Gwoza to enroll for her Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE), which she did.

“She inspired me to become a teacher and in return, I paid for her to become a certified teacher. We sat in the same exam hall in Gwoza during our final year,” said Kingsley.

With a career spanning over 18 years, Kingsley is a renowned educationist. He recalls one of his senior managers recommending him to attend training organized by Pratham in Borno, Nigeria, about the Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) approach. He turned down the offer and instead recommended his junior colleagues to attend the training.

“A week into the training, they shared what they were learning and I was excited. I wanted to join in but could not because I did not start from the beginning,” said Kingsley.

After a month of training, Kingsley’s colleagues became master trainers who now taught him about the TaRL approach. He rolled out TaRL in Gwoza, where he says both the teachers and learners were excited about a new methodology that was fun and helped children catch up.

“TaRL is totally different from the pedagogical approaches and classroom management training we are taught as teachers. Learners are free to write on the floor and even on the walls. Everything is resourceful for learning,” added Kingsley.

Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) is an evidence-based approach pioneered by Pratham that moulds classroom instruction to a child’s learning level. The essence of the approach is grouping children according to their learning levels, focusing on foundational reading and mathematics skills, and targeting instruction to a child’s current level.

According to UNICEF, more than 855,000 children remained out of school in North-West and South-West Cameroon due to violence and insecurity. The learning crisis is exacerbated by pendular displacements, where families sporadically keep moving from one place to another due to security challenges.

“The learning gap is becoming wider for displaced children. Even though schools have reopened, families that have settled in the urban areas are not willing to go back to the communities due to fear. This has caused overcrowding in urban schools,” said Kingsley.

It is to this effect that various organizations in Cameroon pioneered an education pilot project which brought together five national-level partners to address the issues around children who have been affected by the crisis. One of the partner organizations to take part in the education pilot is Nkong Hill Top Association for Development (NADEV). NADEV works to improve the learning outcomes of children in the North West/ South West conflict regions of Cameroon through the “We Go Sabi” pilot project, which implements the TaRL approach to improve access to learning for conflict-affected children.

“13 teachers and headteachers were trained on TaRL and within seven weeks, 500 children who were mostly Internally Displaced children moved up at least one literacy and numeracy learning level. This shows that children have a hunger to learn,” said Kingsley.

According to Kingsley, parents have been impressed by the way their children have been able to learn in short periods of time. He says some of the children would keep their old books and would teach the younger children while they were in camps.

To widen its scope and scale up the TaRL approach for out-of-school learners, Street Child is pioneering the Street-to-school project in Cameroon that reaches out to street children.

“We started street learning corners with them. We used the TaRL assessment to gauge their learning levels and we got great feedback that will support the implementation of the TaRL approach in the Street2School project,” confirmed Kingsley.

The Street2School project is a non-formal education (NFE) program designed for children living in the streets whose education has been disrupted or requires additional support to adapt to learning in a new context.

“In Cameroon, the greatest challenge was the language of instruction. There are various variations of pidgin English; hence we settled on one variation of Pidgin to support in catch-up classes and initial literacy and numeracy programs,” added Kingsley.

Growing up, Kingsley confirms that his parents were teachers. Little did he know that his strict childhood upbringing would shape his leadership skills steering him to be a passionate teacher who is out to create great impacts in the community.

“I am happy seeing how we are impacting the lives of children,” said Kingsley.

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The TaRL Africa Learning Agenda

Dianarose Odhiambo — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 11:53:15 +0000

Members of the TaRL Africa Community of Practice discuss TaRL pedagogy. Photo: Samyukta Lakshman, TaRL Africa.

Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) is a learning approach. In the approach, both children and adults are challenged to assess their competencies, test strategies, and reflect on their progress. At the classroom level, teachers assess students, review this data, and change their actions based on this data by regrouping the students into a level-wise group. Mentors review data on learning outcomes from the teachers they support and decide where to focus their efforts. Government officials meet to discuss data and change their actions accordingly. At a macro level, the TaRL approach has been iteratively developed over two decades with rigorous testing by six randomised evaluations in India which helped determine which components were critical for cost-effective scale.

While the evidence is strong that TaRL is effective, there is still much to learn about how to best implement TaRL in different contexts. The TaRL Africa team has come up with a list of priority questions for further adapting TaRL to local contexts and further driving down costs so that governments can effectively scale the approach on their own. We group these learning topics into three themes: 1) Teaching Learning, 2) Teacher Support, and 3) Impact and Sustainability. We describe these themes briefly here. For a more detailed description, please see our learning agenda on the TaRL Africa website.

A child in a TaRL classroom in Côte d’Ivoire reads a number chart. Photo: Samyukta Lakshman, TaRL Africa.

Teaching Learning, the first theme, focuses on what happens inside the classroom, the most important part of improving learning outcomes for students. Pratham’s TaRL approach in India has been honed over decades. While this provides a strong base, we see many ways in which TaRL can be further adapted to the African context. For example, TaRL’s literacy components are designed for phonetic languages which are learners’ mother tongue. However, many school systems in Africa teach children in languages such as French or English, which rely much more heavily on sight words and might be a second or third language for schoolchildren. The learning team plans to adapt the TaRL materials further, including testing dual language models and testing how TaRL approaches run in these languages affect learning outcomes. Another salient issue is how to adapt further to large classrooms as the average African classroom contains many more children than the average Indian classroom. The team has many questions around models and delivery design, including whether homogeneous vs heterogenous grouping of students is more effective for accelerating learning outcomes and if the TaRL approach is effective for grades above and below grades 3-5.

Teacher Support is the second them. As mentioned by Esther Duflo in her Nobel prize lecture, attempts to simply train teachers in TaRL have failed to improve learning outcomes. In India, TaRL was only proven to be effective if the education hierarchy saw the approach as part of their core business. This teacher support includes teacher training, mentor training, mentor support, and data flow, understanding and action. However, supporting teachers effectively can be expensive and difficult. How can government systems do this more cost-effectively and sustainably at scale? For example, how many visits do teachers need to stay focused on their goals? Is there more that schools can do to support teachers rather than relying on mentors who rove between schools? Can phone calls effectively supplement some in-person visits? How can mentors be effectively supported? Understanding these types of questions will be important for TaRL’s cost-effectiveness.

TaRL’s Long-term Impact and Sustainability is the third theme. We still know little about how long the impact of TaRL persists or the effect on other learning outcomes such as higher level skills or standardised test scores. Studying these impacts will inform policymakers hoping to improve children’s learning outcomes over the long-term. In addition, our team is interested to learn how TaRL can be furthered adapted so that governments can run it with minimal or no outside support. What can NGOs do to build the capacity of the government to carry TaRL forward on their own? What roles can government officials play at the central and local levels that effectively improve learning outcomes? What existing government structures can the TaRL approach leverage to improve sustainability and effectiveness over the long-term?

Throughout all of these themes, our priority is to learn in a way that informs decisions made by governments and partners working with governments. We hope that, if structured well, this learning can also inform the academic debate, especially on topics pertaining to how to scale and sustain the impact of an effective education intervention. We plan to use the TaRL website to continue sharing lessons as they emerge. If you are interested to discuss any of these topics further with us, please reach out!

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