It’s late 2016, and I’m standing at the back of a classroom in rural Eastern Province, Zambia, together with my colleague Emily Cupito and Ministry of General Education Principal Education Standards Officer, Mahuba Hazemba. A teacher stands at the front of the class describing a new maths concept, occasionally asking a question to the class. A few children confidently raise their hands to answer, while many others stare down at their desks hoping not to be called on.

A bell rings, indicating that the class is over, and the next lesson is starting. There is an instant change of mood as some children join the class while others leave. Desks are quickly moved out of the way as children enthusiastically find a spot to sit on the floor. The teacher, too, moves away from the chalkboard and towards the centre of the classroom.

As the lesson gets underway, the desk-starers from the previous class now have chalk in hand and are working together to write a set of words on the floor. It’s hard to know exactly what these children are thinking or feeling, but they’ve transformed from the previous class and appear excited by the opportunity to engage and learn.

I was observing a Catch Up class – a foundational skills programme based on the Teaching at the Right Level approach, pioneered by Indian education organisation Pratham and informed by years of iterative rigorous research spearheaded by Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo.

Years earlier, Banerjee and Duflo, co-founders of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, a global research centre, together with Pratham, planted the seed that led to the buzzing classroom filled with engaged and empowered children I witnessed.

Concerned by the large numbers of children in India who were in school but not learning, Pratham, Banerjee and Duflo  asked the question: What if we start with what children actually know, instead of what they’re supposed to know, and see if we can make progress from there?

Pratham developed an approach to improve learning in the classroom. First, identifying what children knew through a simple reading and mathematics assessment. Second, grouping children based on their learning level rather than their age or grade. Finally, focusing on building foundational skills for children in middle and upper primary school, through innovative, engaging classroom methodology, to ensure they had the basics before exiting primary school.

Pratham and J-PAL tested the approach through a series of randomised evaluations. For over 20 years, the model was refined in the pursuit of a cost-effective and scalable way of ensuring that all children are equipped with basic maths and reading skills. The fruits of these efforts have been the development of what we now refer to as the Teaching at the Right Level approach.

Several countries in Africa face the same challenges now that Banerjee, Duflo, and their colleagues at Pratham interrogated all those years ago. With support from Co-Impact, Pratham and J-PAL have partnered to form TaRL Africa, a team that supports governments and organisations in more than ten countries working to address the learning crisis in Africa.

The strong research roots of Teaching at the Right Level, combined with Pratham and J-PAL’s efforts to create a nurturing environment in which TaRL interventions can grow, has contributed to a budding Teaching at the Right Level Africa Community of Practice committed to solving the learning crisis, and inspired by the way rigorous research has demonstrated the approach’s ability to improve learning outcomes.

Since 2016, I have been fortunate enough to stand at the back or sit on the floor of several classrooms across Africa, observing and participating in a quiet revolution as children stop staring at their desks and start raising their hands. We look forward to taking this effort forward with our partners to reach millions of students in the coming years. To learn more about Teaching at the Right Level, visit https://www.old.teachingattherightlevel.org/the-tarl-approach/.

“Finding people with a common vision has helped make this a movement around the world”

Usha Rane, Pratham

Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL), an education approach pioneered by education NGO Pratham, is designed to help ensure that all children learn the basics of reading and mathematics in primary school. The approach, developed and strengthened in India, is now taking root in Africa. African organisations and governments inspired by the TaRL evidence and faced with similar educational challenges to those in India – children in school but not learning – have begun to adapt the approach for their contexts.

To facilitate learning across these different contexts, Pratham and J-PAL Africa hosted a TaRL Conference from 26-27 September in Johannesburg, South Africa. The event marked the launch of the new TaRL website and celebrated the uniting of an inspired and motivated community committed to overcoming the learning crisis through the adoption of evidence-based education approaches.

The event brought together over 70 curious and engaged participants from African ministries of education, donor organisations, and education NGOs from 18 countries, connected by their mutual dedication to get children learning.

The two-day conference focused on providing participants with practical insights to strengthen TaRL implementation, drawing on the deep and varied experience in the room. It also provided tailored sessions for building a shared understanding of the roles of different players in addressing the learning crisis and how to best work together to make real progress. The presentations, panels and case studies were interspersed with productive tea and lunch breaks during which participants excitedly discussed the potential for future collaborations and engaged in passionate debates on popular education policy topics like the role of technology in education and language of instruction for foundational reading and mathematics.

Strengthening TaRL Programmes

Day one of the conference focused on systems’ strengthening and improving programme implementation. Sessions included:

• The role and importance of assessment within TaRL programmes and as a way to shift the focus of education systems to foundational skills.
• Pratham’s vision of moving from “schooling for all to learning for all.”
• How to effectively recruit and motivate volunteers, engage communities, and support teachers through coaching and mentorship.

The highlight of the day was a panel discussion on government’s perspective on adopting Teaching at the Right Level. Angela Tsheole from Botswana’s Ministry of Basic Education, Raoul Kone from the Côte d’Ivoire Ministry of Education, Cynthia Efua Bosumtwi-Sam from Ghana’s Ministry of Education, Habat Abdi from Kenya’s Ministry of Education, and Mahuba Hazemba from Zambia’s Ministry of General Education shared their rationale for implementing TaRL-inspired interventions in their contexts as well as the successes and challenges of implementation.

“TaRL might seem modest in terms of its ambitions but I can tell you how effective it would be if all teachers were implementing it. Colleagues went to India and came back and were just a bit crazy I would say. It was the same “illness” I saw in Zambia. This is so contagious. Those who went to India were so enthusiastic when they came back. Now I see why. There is some magic in Pratham.”

Raoul Kone, Côte d’Ivoire Ministry of Education

Building Collaboration

The second day focused on looking forward – moving to scale and building collaboration. Participants discussed:

• Creating and strengthening monitoring systems and feedback loops.
• The challenges of moving to scale.
• How to collaborate to build stronger TaRL programmes across various organisations and Ministries.

Throughout the day, key questions emerged about how to ensure quality at scale, including making sure that mentoring and monitoring remains effective at scale.

The TaRL conference and website are part of a continued effort to bring together implementers, policymakers, and supporters of TaRL and TaRL-inspired programmes to share, learn and work together to proactively address the learning crisis.

Want to learn more? Visit the website to see a recap of the conference and download slides or read more about the approach and community.

Have your own conference reflections to share? Visit the TaRL forum and post about your experiences.

 

Cross–posted from the J-PAL blog.

The application of the Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) approach in Zambia, through the Ministry of General Education’s Catch Up program, provides an opportunity to capture key aspects of TaRL in an African context.

TaRL pioneer Pratham, together with J-PAL Africa, worked closely with the Ministry of General Education to produce a set of videos that transport the viewer into a Catch Up classroom and highlight essential aspects of the TaRL approach.

At its core, TaRL is an education intervention that targets teaching to the basic skill level of the child. TaRL teachers assess learners’ basic reading and mathematics levels, group them according to level (rather than age or grade), and spend a period of the day or year using engaging, relatable activities to teach basic skills.

Rigorous impact evaluations over the last 17 years have demonstrated the effectiveness of the Teaching at the Right Level approach.

The videos were developed with the primary goal of strengthening training as Catch Up moves to scale in Zambia.

As with any program, as it expands, key principles of the approach risk getting diluted through multiple rounds of training and implementation, which could affect the success of the program. J-PAL Africa and Pratham created the videos in an effort to further ensure that information gets delivered accurately and consistently to teachers and mentors.

As interest in TaRL grows, we hope these videos will also serve as a useful tool for policymakers and organizations across Africa, helping to deepen their understanding of the TaRL methodology—and spark their interest in learning more about adapting and building their own TaRL programs.

For those seeking a more tangible TaRL experience than an academic paper or policy report, the videos provide a window into the energy and feel of a TaRL classroom. However, they are just one component of a broader set of resources and support systems designed to help policymakers and organizations understand and implement TaRL and should be used together with other pieces of process support.

Pratham and J-PAL Africa work collaboratively to provide this process support to stakeholders interested in building TaRL interventions in Africa.

The Catch Up program was piloted in 2016/17 and is being scaled up by the Ministry of General Education to 1800 schools over the next three years. The program drew on support from a number of collaborating partners, with J-PAL Africa working together with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), Pratham, UNICEF, USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures, USAID Zambia, VVOB, and Zambia Education Sector Support Technical Assistance.

The TaRL videos were filmed in two Catch Up pilot districts, Pemba in Southern Province and Katete in Eastern Province. Thank you to Makomba Primary School and Kazulabowa Primary School for making it possible for us to document Catch Up classes in action!

Listen in on our next TaRL webinar on training best practices to learn more about the TaRL approach.