How EQUIP-T rolled out its early grade math in-service teacher training programme across 5,196 schools in Tanzania

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Thurseday I)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: How culture impacts early grades math teaching and learning

Proposal

The Education Quality Improvement Programme (EQUIP) Tanzania aims to develop, implement and demonstrate best approaches to strengthen the quality of education in nine regions in Tanzania, ready for national scale-up within the structure of the national Primary Education Development Programme Phase III (PEDPIII). From 2014 – 2020 EQUIP-T targets 2.3 million enrolled primary students in 5,196 schools in 1,123 wards, across 51 Local Government Authorities (LGAs) in the regions of Lindi, Dodoma, Tabora, Kigoma, Mara, Simiyu and Shinyanga. Funded by DfID, the programme aims to 1) improve teacher performance 2) strengthen school leadership and management 3) enhance district planning and management 4) strengthen community participation and accountability and 5) strengthen learning and dissemination of results. The sustainability of the programme is evident in its comprehensive approach of education management and delivery at national, regional, district, ward, school and community levels.
The Improving Teacher Performance outcome aims to improve the professional capacity and performance of teachers in the classroom in alignment with the National 3Rs programme. The baseline study found that the overall average percentage score in math knowledge assessment of teachers was 73.9% with an average score of 76.9% for male teachers and 70.9% for female teachers . Furthermore, the mean percentage score of teachers’ pedagogy observed in mathematics classes was 33.29%. As such, the programme prioritized an evidence-based, iterative curriculum and teacher professional development approach with its institutional partner the Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE) supported by international experts and a continuous feedback loop that included children, teachers and district officers. The in-service teacher training (INSET) delivery model of a combination of residential, cluster and school-based training provided a low-cost, effective means for continuous teacher professional development results are influencing national dialogue for future programmes.

The co-creation of 13 in-service teacher training modules and videos produced for early grade mathematics with key stakeholders namely TIE as an institutional partner, teachers, students and experts was invaluable for ensuring local cultural traditions was incorporated into classroom strategies that drew from international best practices thereby securing the confidence of education officials at regional, district, ward, and school. Furthermore, all curriculum-related materials developed through programme funding is led and owned by TIE.

Factors that promote sustainability in this approach include:
1) Strategic planning – Assess the capacity of our partners mainly TIE and Teachers college in teaching numeracy in order to develop a strategic intervention which responds to capacity gaps identified.
2) Open communication – EQUIP-Tanzania allows information within a programme, among partners and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to foster the ownership of programme progress
3) Use of persuasive data – We use the baseline, monitoring and midline data to build the case for pedagogical and training modality change in teaching numeracy
4) Engagement of key officials –The programme identified champions from ministerial to school level to advocate for improved subject and pedagogical knowledge
5) Expanding partnership – The programme expanded the partnership with other programme funded by USAID, GPE/LANES to adopt our training modality and modules

The programme encounters some systemic and structural challenges hindering delivery of quality training mainly: 1) large classes which hinders teachers to apply some of the new strategies, 2) teacher turnover, 3) low teachers’ morale and motivation, and 4) inconsistency of procedure and delay for approval of teachers’ supporting materials.

In ensuring the consistency of improved numeracy teaching we recommend the following: 1) The government to contextualize and institutionalize the best practices emerging from EQUIP-Tanzania and, 2) The programme in collaboration with other partners to address the key system and structural factors affecting the quality of education in Tanzania.

Authors

• Vincent Katabalo, Cambridge Education

• Kiruba Murugaiah, International Rescue Committee