The Gambia to pilot Early Literacy in National Language Project

He said the objective of his presentation was to inform CCM about the current status and the upcoming project activities, inspire ownership of the programme, which he said As interest in the use of local languages as a medium of instruction in schools grow around the world, the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE), is currently looking into early literacy in national languages.

Mr. Burama L. J. Jammeh, Director, Curriculum Research, Evaluation and Development Directorate (CREDD), MoBSE, during the recently concluded Coordinating Committee Meeting held in Janjangbureh, Central River Region, said that the strategies of MoBSE in this direction include material production, identification of pilot school, teacher training, and monitoring and evaluation.

is not owned by CREDD, FTI or the World Bank, but by MoBSE - Regional Directorates and school communities in particular, identify & discuss issues requiring immediate attention (collective decisions & responsibilities) and highlight the role of key personnel that are crucial to a successful project implementation.

According to Mr. Jammeh, research shows that young children can learn how to read with fluency and comprehension when doing so in a language they speak and understand.

“Once young children have mastered the basic reading mechanisms in their own language, they will be better prepared to read with fluency and comprehension in an official language (English in Gambia),” he revealed. He revealed that the project objective is to teach reading with success for all students in about 100 days.

He noted that the rest of the world is keenly following the development of the project in The Gambia, revealing that the activities of the project include material development, identification of pilot schools, teacher training, monitoring and evaluation, oorthographic and linguistic validations in five languages.

He also observed that there is need for the development of scripted lessons, reading materials for students (Reader 1 and 2), flash cards (including letter, word and picture cards) and the identification of Pilot Schools.

The criteria for selection includes presence of teacher(s) in the school trained on orthography of the target language, community participation in adult literacy - an indicator for a likely community support to the project- a minimum of 25 children in a school predominantly speaking the target language and accessibility to the school.

Mr. Jammeh noted that the project hopes to maintain the 125 classes - 25 per class - significantly reduce the numbers to 10 - 15 in order to focus inputs on smaller number to do in-depth study as basis for scaling up, the issue of Teacher Trainees (PTC extension) in the pilot school (to be involved or not), role of Regional Education Directorates (REDs) in the identification process, managerial capacity is key – Regional Directorates to confirm/propose sites with  committed and reliable teachers, head teachers and school communities  as well as capacity to implement the project.

He added that there is need to “critically review our proposal and suggest on the criteria and the proposed schools, resolving postings and deployment issues, teacher training, practical training using video analysis and practices through demonstration at schools, coaching system - coaches/trainers will be deployed to visit and support teachers at least one visit every two weeks using the GATE & Future In Our Hands models.”

He also said that about eight teachers will be used to a coach and support teachers during the whole period of the instruction, help to identify a school near the training venue for the trainees to carry out practical training activities, facilitate the work of coaches (e.g. linkages with cluster monitors, transportation to and from schools, compilation of coaches’ & monitors’ reports into regional reports, verifying and acting on recommendations.

Mr. Jammeh said the purpose of monitoring and evaluation is “to support the project implementation and to document all the lessons learnt during the pilot project, examine, whether the variance in reading skills at the end of the program is the result of a significant gain from the intervention, therefore both Baseline and Post-test are planned to establish the evidence, the use of controlled groups is being debated.”

He noted that a monitoring and evaluation plan is being developed for all aspects of the project - inputs, process and outcomes –, baseline data collection planned to be started on 24th October 2011, as basis for the evaluation of learning outcomes and the preparation of a cost-financing analysis amongst others.

He highlighted that the purpose of evaluation is to use the information obtained as inputs into scaling up the program, but observed that the dilemma is whether to “Randomly select a number of children within a class for testing - taking all the classes in the program - together with a corresponding control group” or to “do case studies of a small number of classes so that our focus will be more on the process of the program.”

In his conclusion, Mr. Jammeh urged regional offices to take ownership of the project. He also proposed the need for the allocation of at least one hour per day in school time tables for National Language instruction, noting that failure is not an option.