Strategies and practices of reforms from the point of view of the implementing partner

• In Event: Teacher Education Reforms: How National Government Visions Get Translated into Practice: The Case of Early Grade Reading in Afghanistan and Social Emotional Learning in Nigeria

Proposal

Afghanistan is rebuilding its educational system and institutions after decades of devastating conflicts. The Ministry of Education (2016) with the support of international donors has built more than 16,000 schools, recruited and trained more than 154,000 teachers, and increased net enrolment rates of school-aged children close to 60%. Reports from MoE indicate that currently 9 million students are enrolled in schools, 40% of whom are females. Despite these achievements, however, the quality of the education system remains low. A good example is the reading achievement among early grade children. However, the MoE is working together with international partners to integrate EGR into the its national basic education programming. The Afghan Children Read project is designed to addresses the improvement of reading instruction by achieving two results: improve MOE capacity at all levels to implement a national EGR program, and pilot an EGR program in select provinces to increase the number of children in Grades 1-3 who are able to read and understand grade level texts.
This panel will discuss the strategies adopted by the project to meet these aforementioned goals. These strategies include curriculum development, in-service teacher training/professional development, follow-up support (coaching and mentoring), Teacher Learning Circles, which are a community of practice and community engagement. These programs and activities are offered to both formal schools and CBEs, thus making sure MoE’s vision for a reformed education system becomes a reality.
The participant will walk away with greater insights into the following as they relate to Afghanistan:
• Implementation of EGR
• Theory of change applied to a conflict-affected context to explore the motivation, strategies and practices of reforms from the point of view of the implementing partner
• Preconditions to exist for successful in-service teacher education
• Strategies of in-service teacher education

Author

• Teshome Begna, Creative Associates International