Education as an act of protest: ARED’s accelerated learning program Ndaw Wune (Success for All)

• In Event: Learning innovations developed by the Global South: "Catch up" programs in Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire, and Senegal

Proposal

This paper analyzes the development and impact of ARED’s Accelerated Learning Program, Ndaw Wune (Success for All/Every Child). ARED, a Senegalese organization with more than 30 years of experience in adult and child literacy, founded Ndaw Wune in 2020 to ensure that the many children who fall behind in an education system founded on inequality and selection will not be left behind. Ndaw Wune is an act of protest within Senegal’s education system, still struggling with the lingering effects of colonialism.
The “formal” school system in Senegal (as distinct from the religious education system) was developed by the French colonial administration with the goal of training a few Senegalese for low level positions in the colonial administration. Starting with the first French-language school in Senegal, opened in St. Louis in 1817, school was and is primarily conducted in French, a language that none of the students spoke and few speak today; instruction was based on rote memorization of a curriculum developed to fit the needs of the colonial administration, and the system was designed to be selective, choosing a few students to become part of the colonial administration..
In 2023, more than 200 years after that first school opened, fewer than 10% of the Senegalese population is fluent in French. Only two thirds of children finish primary school and fewer than 30% of Senegalese can read a simple paragraph by age 10 (World Bank, 2021). Many children, especially poorer children, continue to be marginalized. This starts early, with ARED assessments showing third graders reading an average of three words a minute, far below the 25 words per minute benchmark.
As an act of protest within this unequal system, ARED developed Ndaw Wune, which means Only Success in Wolof, Senegal’s largest language, and Every Child in Pulaar, Senegal’s second largest language. Ndaw Wune supports “les enfants en difficultés,” children who cannot read words at the end of second or third grade. Ndaw Wune is critically important for the large percentages of Senegalese children who fall behind early and are permanently left behind and for the Sahel, where nine out of ten children cannot read a simple paragraph by age 10 (World Bank, 2021). ARED uses bilingual instruction in leveled groups, simple assessment, and teacher training and coaching. During the 2022-23 school year, all regions showed improvement in all learning areas, with some areas improving by well over 100%. Research continues on the impact of Ndaw Wune on teacher’s perspectives on learning and equality, which will be key areas for discussion during this session.
Ndaw Wune is critically important for the large percentages of Senegalese children who fall behind early and are permanently left behind, but important on a large scale for the Sahel. Ndaw Wune demonstrates that all children can learn, that African languages are key languages of instruction, and that education must fit the needs of each child. This is education as an act of protest, being enacted across Senegal with the goal of transforming education in West Africa.

Author

• Mamadou Ly, ARED