Road to Reading

This is achieved through the training of teachers, principals, pedagogical counselors, and teacher training college professors. The initiative also involves the development and distribution of radio programming and instructional materials for teachers and students in Grades 1-3 in both classic and bilingual curriculum schools. The beneficiaries of the initiative are nationwide, with radio broadcasts reaching over 7,500 schools, 30,000 teachers and principals, and 1 million students. Additionally, balanced literacy training and materials are provided to over 3,500 schools, 10,000 teachers and principals, and 500,000 students. In medersas, radio and balanced literacy training are provided to over 1,100 institutions, 2,200 principals and French teachers, and 40,000 students. Despite the efforts of the initiative, several challenges have been identified. These include significant mobility among teachers trained in the balanced literacy approach, wide variability in the competencies of pedagogical counselors at the district level, insufficient quantities of balanced literacy materials in classrooms, limited capacity of PHARE to directly follow implementation due to budget constraints, and wide variability in the degree of commitment of actors at the district and school levels. To address these challenges, several solutions have been proposed. These include identifying 560 target schools where teachers trained, materials available, and interventions are being consistently and effectively implemented. This involves twice-a-month monitoring and support from district pedagogical counselors, baseline testing in a sample using EGRA or eEGRA, telephone or text messaging contact from PHARE trainers, and visits at least twice a year. Additionally, implementation of a reward system (non-monetary) for district trainers, schools, and teachers that excel, and a system of PHARE zonal coordinators. Another challenge facing the initiative is the changing focus and priorities of USAID, with a greater emphasis on instruction in national languages in the early grades and successful transitioning to French in upper grades. To address this, the balanced literacy approach and strategies can be applied to any language. This involves training over 1,000 bilingual curriculum schools in the approach, translation into Bamanakan and distribution of texts in Bamanakan for Grades 1 and 2, and distribution of Ciawara listen texts and teacher's guide from IEP's Read, Learn, Lead series.