By Andrew White | Operations Manager
CharChar Literacy Term 2 Report (January - April 2024)
Executive Summary
The second term of the 2023-2024 academic year has been marked by significant challenges and remarkable resilience within the CharChar Literacy Teaching Team. Despite facing increased economic pressures and environmental hardships, our dedicated team of Literacy Specialist Teachers (LSTs) and support staff have continued to make substantial progress in improving foundational literacy skills among learners at the Demonstration primary school in Lilongwe, capital city of Malawi.
Key highlights of this term include:
- Continued development of our programme within the Demonstration School
- Adaptation to challenges posed by rising transport costs and learner absenteeism
- Innovative teaching strategies developed by LSTs to maintain engagement
- Development of new teaching and learning materials
Context and Challenges
CharChar Trust has faced new challenges in the early months of 2024. The most significant obstacles have been:
1. Rising costs of transport, impacting both staff and learner attendance
2. Increased learner absenteeism due to hunger, resulting from failed crops
3. Ongoing effects of insufficient rainfall during the previous rainy season
These challenges have tested our team's adaptability and commitment to our mission. However, they have also spurred innovative solutions and a deeper engagement with the local community.
Literacy Skills Development
Despite the challenges, our learners have continued to make progress in developing vital foundational literacy skills. Building on the skills acquired in previous terms, children have shown improvement in:
- Decoding more complex words
- Blending and segmenting consonant-vowel-consonant words with increased fluency
- Identifying beginning sounds in words as a stepping stone to recognising word families
- Expanding their vocabulary through contextual learning
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Our LSTs report that while progress has been somewhat slower than in previous terms due to increased absenteeism, the learners who attend regularly are showing remarkable resilience and determination to learn.
Teaching Strategies and Resources
Our LSTs have risen to the challenge of maintaining engaging and effective lessons despite the difficult circumstances. Some key strategies employed this term include:
- Increased use of games, songs, and interactive activities to make lessons more engaging and memorable
-Supplementary reading books from the CharChar Library
- Development of hand-made teaching materials using locally available resources, spearheaded by Andrew Mchisa
- Implementation of short, high-impact literacy activities that can be completed in a single session to accommodate irregular attendance
These strategies have proven effective in maintaining learner engagement and ensuring that even learners with patchy attendance can make progress in their literacy skills.
Volunteer LST Performance
Our volunteer LSTs continue to be the backbone of our program. This term, we've seen them go above and beyond in their efforts to support learners:
- Thandiwe, Florence, and Constance have shown exceptional dedication, often working extra hours to provide additional support to struggling learners
- LSTs have taken initiative in reaching out to families of absent learners, working to address the root causes of absenteeism where possible
- The team has collaborated on developing a bank of quick, engaging literacy activities that can be implemented with minimal preparation, ensuring that every moment of class time is used effectively
Support and Professional Development
Under the guidance of our Senior Education Officer, Andrew Mchisa, our LSTs have continued to receive robust support and professional development:
- Regular in-action coaching sessions have helped LSTs refine their teaching techniques in real-time
- On-action reflection sessions have provided opportunities for LSTs to share challenges, brainstorm solutions, and celebrate successes
- Andrew has led sessions on creating effective teaching materials from locally available resources, enhancing our programme's sustainability
These ongoing support efforts have been essential in maintaining the quality of our program despite the challenging circumstances.
Community Engagement
Recognising the impact of wider community issues on our learners, we've increased our community engagement efforts this term:
- Initiated discussions with PTA about potential community-based solutions to address root causes of absenteeism
- Engaged parents and guardians in literacy activities, encouraging them to support their children's learning at home
While these efforts are still in their early stages, we're seeing promising signs of increased community support for our literacy program.
Case Studies
1. Innovative Attendance Solution:
LST Florence noticed that learner attendance was particularly low on market days when many children were helping their families. She proposed and implemented a flexible schedule, offering additional sessions on non-market days. This simple adjustment led to a 15% increase in overall attendance for her class.
2. Peer Learning Success:
In Standard 2, LST Constance introduced a peer learning system where more advanced readers were paired with struggling learners for short, daily practice sessions. This not only improved the skills of both groups but also fostered a supportive classroom community.
Quantitative Data
- Overall attendance rates have decreased by 12% compared to Term 1, primarily due to economic and food security challenges
- Despite lower attendance, literacy assessments show that regular attendees have maintained or improved their skill levels
- We currently have 3 LSTs supporting approximately 350 learners across Standards 1-3, with Andrew directly supporting Std4.
Challenges and Solutions
Major challenges this term included:
1. Transport costs: Through a separate fund-raising initiative we've been able to increase transport allowances for LSTs
2. Irregular attendance: We've developed modular lesson plans that allow for skill progression even with intermittent attendance.
Looking Ahead
As we move into Term 3, our focus will be on:
- Strengthening our community partnerships to address underlying causes of absenteeism
- Expanding our bank of locally-made teaching materials
- Developing additional video content to share our methodologies more widely through our channels and those of other literacy related programmes
- Exploring funding opportunities to support an additional year of the program and potentially hire a local project manager
Acknowledgments
We extend our heartfelt thanks to our dedicated LSTs, Andrew Mchisa, the staff at the Demonstration School, and all the learners and families who continue to prioritise education despite significant challenges.
Your ongoing support makes our work possible. Together, we are improving the future prospects of Malawian children through the power of literacy.
By Andrew White | Operations Director and Chair of the Board
By Andrew White | Operations Director
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