Achieving Sustainability Through Complementary Literacy and Teacher Training Activities

• In Event: Crucial elements of standing up a new, sustainable school feeding program in sub-Saharan Africa

Proposal

With USDA McGovern-Dole funding, Planet Aid is implementing a comprehensive child nutrition and education program in Mozambique to combat pervasive malnutrition and associated child development. The program addresses a multiplicity of factors to create momentum in the Mozambican educational sector to improve learning outcomes and program ownership. Since June 2013, Planet Aid has shipped and served over 55 million meals of fortified corn-soy blend provided by American farmers to 86,000 primary school children in Maputo Province. The meals have served to directly raise lagging school attendance rates at participating schools by providing a tangible incentive for children to attend class. The program has witnessed marked increases in attendance (13%) and enrollment (16%).

With more children attending school regularly, the program is also focusing on removing barriers hindering the acquisition of basic skills, specifically reading, and to improve the quality of education in the classroom. Working in close cooperation with the Mozambique Ministry of Education and Human Development and Planet Aid’s in-country partners, ADPP and Cambridge Education, the Planet Aid program has developed and is delivering a flagship early-grade reading intervention that is improving literacy levels of primary school children. Finally, the program is providing certified training of primary school teachers nationwide through ADPP’s network of colleges, with substantial cost-share contributions from the Government of Mozambique, to improve the quality of classroom teaching.

This presentation will explore the results of efforts to improve primary education in underserved areas of Mozambique, and particularly the extent to which the implementation of the McGovern-Dole Food For Education program embeds principles of sustainability through literacy and education development through teacher training.

For the literacy component, The Reforca a Leitura e Escrita (RLE) program, or reading and writing reinforcement activity, was conceived with a view to strengthening the other FFK components through implementation of a systematic literacy program for Grades 1-3. In the context of the official language in education policy, which determines Portuguese as the medium of instruction in all grades, FFK aims to also strongly support the efforts of the National Institute of Educational Development (INDE) in the promotion of bilingual education. The RLE program thus provides materials, teacher development and school-based coaching for the teaching of literacy in Xichangana and Xirhonga.

Early findings indicate significant improvements in student learning outcomes relative to the 2016 baseline. Teachers are also demonstrating increased confidence in applying the 5 components of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension) to their teaching pedagogy and in using more student-centered methods.

For education development through teacher training, this program is complemented by ADPP-Mozambique’s long-standing nation-wide Teacher Training Program; a model which is recognized as innovative, scalable and sustainable. Over 40% of the cost necessary to train each teacher is supported by the Government of Mozambique and other partners. To date over 5,000 primary school teachers have been trained. Sustainability is achieved through the lasting economic impact of 5,000 teachers’ jobs created, and improved quality of instruction and learning for future generations.

Author

• Beth Sheehy, Planet Aid