Trusting the Process

The First Evaluation Results are In!

Much-anticipated answers have started to arrive.  The answer to the question:  How effective are the new literacy teaching methods tried out in a pilot project consisting of CP1 (grade one) teachers in six SET schools?

Determining how well this CP1 student at the SET school in Avedze has learned to read

A little background first.

In 2019 SET members, Angèle Aklah-Egle and Serge Akpagnonite, travelled to Togo with directors Simon and Anne Carette. As teachers and literacy specialists who went to school in Togo, Angèle and Serge established a strong relationship with eight SET CP1 teachers in a three-day literacy workshop. To support the teachers develop by observation and suggestion, SET undertook a half-time hire, Jean-Paul Mlope, a professor in the Togo Teachers’ College.

Reading to pilot project evaluator at SET school in Bedjeme

Angèle, Serge and Jean-Paul evaluated the participating children to establish a base line.  Although the goal was to do the post-pilot evaluations at the end of the 2019-2020 school year, due to Covid-19 they had to be postponed until summer 2021.

Accounts by teachers using the new methods were glowing. According to Essohana Mizou, a CP1 teacher of many years at the SET school in Ametonoukondi, “The new technique of teaching really improves the time the children spend in school.”

Clement Komi Adon, an intern teacher in Ametonoukondi agrees. “The much-improved results…come from learning techniques and having them reinforced through Jean-Paul’s observations and suggestions.”

Simon Carette with Essohana Mizou, CP1 teacher at SET school in Ametonoukondi

Simon Carette, SET director who went to Togo in July 2021 to participate in the evaluation process also spent a great deal of time talking to SET teachers and principals.  On his return he reported good news to the SET board.

The testing results were so encouraging the board decided to continue the pilot project in the new 2021-2022 CP1 class.  The last year’s pilot project students will be taught with the new literacy methods in their CP2 classes.  Their teachers will learn the new methods and receive supervision and mentoring from Jean-Paul.

In response to the positive results, SET board president Don Barclay says, “We have to continue to establish a strong case for the important successes these new teaching methods create. SET will continue to move slowly, steadily, responsibly to partner with the dedicated teachers in SET’s schools.  We have all learned to trust the process.”

A mix of primary students at SET school in Bedjeme

 

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5 thoughts on “Trusting the Process”

  1. Harold & Margaret Saunders

    Sounds encouraging! We in Canada, and beyond, can’t begin to imagine the hardships placed on the Togolese teachers and students. Imagine teaching classrooms with 80 or 86 children! We protested when our children’s classroom size reached 30 back in the 1980’s !

    Thank you SET and educators for “stepping up to the plate” and doing some remarkable work hand-in-hand with these precious children. A mighty task but you are definitely advancing forward from what we can see!

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