TaRL Workshop 2019 trainer, Fred Abungu. Photo: Young 1ove.

From 10-18 September 2019, TaRL Africa and Young 1ove co-hosted a TaRL Workshop. The workshop covered each aspect of the TaRL approach including TaRL models, assessment, reading and maths classroom methodology, mentoring, monitoring, and working with governments. The workshop also included time to practice assessment and activities in classrooms in Gaborone.

Fred Abungu, who is currently working at Evidence Action on the G-United programme, was a TaRL trainer for the event. He reflects on his experience training others in the TaRL approach.

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I was invited to be a member of the training team, together with colleagues from TaRL Africa and Young 1ove, for a set of TaRL Workshops hosted in Gaborone, Botswana. The 2019 workshop attracted participants from countries across Africa, who have a wealth of experience in the education space and are interested in learning about TaRL. It was amazing to see so many countries come together to tap into a rich pool of evidence and experience in order to expand the reading and maths revolution in their different contexts.

A few of my reflections are captured below.

Learning by doing: TaRL trainings mirror TaRL classrooms

TaRL concepts and activities are always evolving and improving. Sessions in the workshop mirrored what happens in a TaRL classroom, including “whole class” and small group activities. Each session started with the whole class activity. In this activity all workshop participants demonstrated key concepts. This was followed by participants practicing in small groups which is important for individual experience and mastery of concepts. My favourite activities were the story reading activity and the “fine with nine” mathematics activity (this involves using stones to teach the basics of addition and subtraction) – so amazing to see how much one can learn with a set of nine stones.

TaRL classroom practice: the key to truly understanding the approach

Before taking on the trainer role, I already had significant experience implementing TaRL in a classroom setting. This practice not only helped me as a trainer to master the concepts but also gave me an understanding of the nuances of the methodology and classroom process.

Classroom practice is embedded in all TaRL trainings and the Botswana workshop was no different. Participants had the opportunity to practice a few TaRL activities in schools.

After practice sessions, participants truly understood why TaRL Africa strongly recommends classroom practice of between 15 to 20 days for trainers and mentors. The classroom practice and the debriefing session that followed helped cement skills acquired during training and identified areas of improvement. This is the power of self-reflection.

“Once you stop learning, you start dying” – Albert Einstein.

I wanted to keep learning so, in February 2020, I set out on a two week learning journey to India – the home of the Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) approach developed by Pratham. To make the most out of this learning journey, I had to keep an open mind and be ready to learn by observation, interactions, and in-depth interviews with Pratham staff, government officials, teachers and community members in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Five years of work on G-United, a TaRL programme in Kenya, gave me the privilege of interacting and working closely with the Pratham team on content development and training. However, I was grappling with some challenges in trying to adapt the approach to my country context. One of the key challenges included high teacher-pupil ratios and its effect on class management. This same feeling may be experienced by organisations across many countries which are testing, adapting and scaling TaRL in Africa.

In India, the TaRL approach is implemented as a direct model by trained Pratham-employed facilitators and/or by the government through teachers. These two models present unique opportunities and challenges.

I’ve learned that, before you choose what model to adopt, it is important to carefully look at the pros and cons of each. For instance, the government model is cheaper and easier to scale up due to existing infrastructure, but one must be aware of bureaucracies and varying levels of commitment. The direct model, on the other hand, is easier to set up, provides more control over implementation but may be more expensive to scale.

Another striking thing I noticed was how the Government of India has managed to reduce the teacher-learner ratio despite the huge national population. The average teacher-learner ratio observed in Nagpur and Katol was at one teacher to an average of 18 learners¹. This makes it easier for the teacher or facilitator to not only provide individual support to learners but also support a heterogeneous group of all levels of learners in one class. Additionally, one keeps the same set of learners for both language and mathematics activities. The result is that you hardly notice the transition from language to mathematics activities.

All government officials and teachers in Nagpur had smartphones. This was a plus in the development and integration of data collection application and data dashboards. Government officials have access to data at different levels. The ability to create filters makes it a very useful tool for data manipulation. Cluster heads visit all assigned schools at least once every week to supervise and provide support. There are also regular meetings at all levels of the government from Division to the block level to review progress and make decisions on areas that need support. These meetings are attended by the Pratham’s state leads.

In Kenya, the teacher-learner ratio is very high (1:50). This makes grouping and targeting of multiple levels of many learners challenging. It also poses different challenges in class management. This is a reality that no one may have answers for, but an opportunity for all of us to explore and learn what works in our context.

While it is exciting to see learners make remarkable improvements at the end of the camps, one question always remained in my mind: how do we sustain the gains from the learning camps? What I observed surprised me: learning goes beyond the school into the community. Pratham mastered this through the integration of learning camps and Hamara Gaon². The objective of the Hamara Gaon (our village) concept is to ensure that children at all levels acquire foundational skills and that community members are engaged in supporting children’s learning. In this programme, the following categories of learners are targeted:

• Grades 1 & 2 participate in light activities with the help of community volunteers.
• Non-readers in grades 3 -5 are targeted for learning camps. Readers are provided with worksheets.
• Grades 6 to 8 participate in the library programme.

Hamara Gaon presents opportunities to sustain the learning gains in schools, to involve parents in supporting the children’s learning, and for project-based learning to take place. Learning does not only start and end at school but is a continuous process, and the community is critical in supporting this.

On the G-United programme, the community engagement component included sharing of progress results: at the beginning of camps, volunteers would meet parents or guardians of targeted learners at school to share baseline results and to ask them to ensure learners regularly attend remedial sessions during the planned time slots. On specific occasions, volunteers would follow up with parents or guardians at home to discuss child progress.

In Africa, the TaRL approach presents many opportunities for learning and integration. As one thinks about planning, programme design, implementation, monitoring and mentoring, one is likely to face a myriad of challenges. Every challenge encountered is an opportunity to learn and improve. It is therefore important to think about how to document lessons and use them to improve delivery and overall programme outcomes.

 

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