Malawi Teacher Professional Development Support (MTPDS) Program Monthly Newsletter May 2012 Issue

The program is being implemented by Creative Associates International, RTI International, and Seward Inc. in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. The MTPDS program focuses on improving literacy skills among early grade learners in Malawi. To achieve this goal, the program has introduced a literacy intervention called "Maziko a Kuwerenga," which provides training and support to early grade teachers in improved literacy methods and the supply of supplementary readers to learners. The program has been implemented in seven districts, with a total of 1,310 schools benefiting from the literacy intervention. The program has made significant progress in improving literacy skills among learners. In one of the schools visited by US-based literacy experts, Makanda Primary School in Ntchisi, the learners demonstrated improved reading and writing skills acquired through the intervention. The experts praised the relationship between project implementers, teachers, and community members, stressing the vital role parents must play in supporting and sustaining literacy. The MTPDS program has also introduced a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) component to improve teachers' literacy instruction skills and school managers' leadership abilities. The CPD component has been delivered through training on Literacy Modules provided to all Standard 1-4 teachers and through training on Leadership Modules provided to head teachers and deputies from every primary school in Malawi. The Literacy Modules focus on teaching foundational literacy skills, starting with learning the sounds and syllables of words. The program has reported significant improvements in literacy skills among learners. In one case, a learner named Linly Soko, aged 11, from Ngazi Primary School in Mzimba North, was able to read words, sentences, paragraphs, and passages after attending the CPD training. The teacher, Ms. Mercent Gondwe, reported that the CPD trainings had motivated her to spend more time on remedial work with learners who struggled with reading. The MTPDS program has also supplied 160,000 copies of the supplementary reader "Nditha Kuwerenga" to over 1,300 schools in the seven districts benefiting from the intervention. The program has made a significant impact in improving literacy skills among early grade learners in Malawi, and its efforts are expected to continue in the coming years. The program's monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activities have been enhanced to track the progress of teachers' classroom practices and learners' literacy achievement as it relates to project interventions. The M&E activities include monthly classroom observations of teachers' practices, regular assessment of learners in foundational literacy skills, collection of student literacy assessment data from teachers, and the use of digital software for conducting EGRA assessments in Salima and Ntchisi districts.