Learning and Growing With ‘My Village’

By Husna Abeid Zaid, Tabu Hotel Primary School, Gairo, Tanzania

 

For math, we were taught cool approaches like the pyramid method, place value box, and number line for teaching multiplication and division.

 

One day, we got a text message from the Education Officer of Gairo District. She told us that we needed to attend a two-day training for the ‘My Village’ project. My friend and I were excited to learn more about it.

Finally, the day for the training came, and I remember it was on a Tuesday. When we got to the training venue, we walked into a big room and saw four trainers. They each introduced themselves one by one. Then it was our turn—there were 60 teachers like us from 30 different villages in Gairo district.

The trainers started talking about the ‘My Village’ project. They said it was an initiative of the PAL Network run by Uwezo Tanzania in three districts, including Gairo. The goal of the project is to improve reading and math skills among children aged 6 to 17.

During the training, we were taught how to assess children. We received assessment booklets with reading and math questions to assess all children in our village, whether they went to school or not. We also learned how to record and share data from the assessment using the Kobo Collect application.

After the training, our first task was to go from house to house and assess all the children in our village. We used the assessment booklets to test children and record their performance on Kobo Collect. The children identified to be struggling to read or do basic math would then be enrolled in the Jifunze (accelerated learning) camps.

A few days later, we went through another four-day training on implementing the project. The team taught us different ways of teaching in the learning camps to help all the children learn basic reading and math.

For math, we were taught cool approaches like the pyramid method, place value box, and number line for teaching multiplication and division.

In reading, we were shown how to teach children at different levels. The levels are based on children who struggled to read syllables, words, sentences, paragraphs, and stories. We also learned a lot of fun and playful ways to teach in the classroom, like using mind maps and other tricks.

After the training, we shared what we learned with our teaching colleagues. They really liked it, and now they use these methods to teach in their classrooms. We want to say thanks to the Uwezo Tanzania team for making ‘My Village’ fun and helpful for our children.