Ce blog a été écrit et publié à l'origine par la Fondation Bill et Melinda Gates et la CONFENMEN à l'occasion de la conférence « Apprendre pour Demain » à Dakar, au Sénégal (janvier 2025). Il a été publié sur le site web de la conférence (https://linktr.ee/apprendrepourdemain) et dans le répertoire de documents (https://sites.google.com/view/apprendrepourdemain/resources-ressources/others?authuser=3). Cet article décrit comment l'activité « Renforcement de la Lecture Initiale pour Tous » (RELIT, 2021-2026) de l'USAID s'est efforcée de renforcer la capacité du système éducatif à dispenser un enseignement bilingue dans les premières années de la scolarité, en s'appuyant sur une pédagogie structurée et le renforcement des capacités institutionnelles.

This blog was written for and originally published by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and CONFENMEN on the occasion of the "Apprendre pour Demain" conference in Dakar, Senegal (January 2025). It was published on the conference website (https://linktr.ee/apprendrepourdemain) document repository (https://sites.google.com/view/apprendrepourdemain/resources-ressources/others?authuser=3). This article describes how USAID's “Renforcement de la Lecture Initiale pour Tous” (RELIT, 2021-2026) activity has been working to strengthen the education system’s capacity to deliver bilingual education in the early grades, with structured pedagogy and institutional capacity-building as central pillars.

Ces Success Stories ont été préparées par l'équipe du projet Renforcement de la Lecture Initiale pour Tous de l'USAID au Sénégal en 2023. SS05 '"Compréhension à l’audition et enthousiasme des élèves de CI : les premières semaines de classes de lecture en pulaar renforcent la motivation de l’enseignante Fatoumata Sané" donne l'éxperience d'une enseignante en Pulaar qui utilise les materiaux RELIT. SS07 « La co-création avec le ministère de l'Éducation aboutit à des plans de développement des capacités pour préparer le personnel à fournir aux enfants du Sénégal une éducation bilingue de haute qualité » décrit le processus collaboratif de développement des capacités du ministère à fournir une éducation bilingue durable et de haute qualité et SS08 « La cartographie linguistique de plus de 1 000 écoles renforce la capacité du personnel du ministère de l'Éducation à soutenir durablement la mise en œuvre de l'enseignement bilingue au Sénégal » décrit comment le dialogue avec les communautés a permis d'identifier laquelle des langues locales convenait le mieux à l'enseignement en classe.

These Success Stories were prepared by the project team for the USAID Renforcement de la Lecture Initiale pour Tous program in Senegal in Calendar year 2023. SS005: "Improved listening comprehension in Pulaar garners enthusiasm from Grade 1 pupils and their teacher Mme Sané" SS011 " At the El Hadj Oumar Aidara school in Kédougou, student reading achievement in grade 1 is a milestone in adoption of bilingual education" and SS006: "RELIT helps students in remote areas of Senegal learn to read through effective early grade bilingual instruction" describe teachers' experiences using the newly-introduced RELIT materials in their classrooms. SS07 "Co-creation with the Ministry of Education results in capacity development plans to prepare personnel to provide Senegal’s children with high-quality bilingual education" describes the collaborative process of developing ministry capacity to provide sustainable and high quality bilingual education and SS08 "Language mapping of over 1,000 schools builds the capacity of the Ministry of Education staff to sustainably support implementation of bilingual instruction in Senegal" describes how talking to communities helped identify which of the local languages best serves classroom instruction.

Ces Success Stories ont été préparées par l'équipe du projet de Renforcement de la Lecture Initiale pour Tous de l'USAID au Sénégal au cours de l'année civile 2022. SS001 : « 50 personnes-ressource du Ministère de l’Education Nationale et du partenaire d’exécution mettent en place, ensemble, les mécanismes de mise en oeuvre de RELIT». Décrit le co-lancement collaboratif et local du programme en 2022. SS002 : « A l’école élémentaire Boly Diaw de Saint Louis, le programme RELIT mobilise une communauté de parents d’élèves autour de la lecture et l’enseignement bilingue." Décrit une école qui a organisé une célébration à l'échelle de la communauté pour le lancement du programme RELIT en 2022.

Aligning donor investment with country priorities and effective approaches of engagement are essential for long-term impact. Over the last decade, USAID has been supporting the Government of Tajikistan (GOT) to improve literacy and numeracy skills of all primary education students. Numerous other development agencies also fund projects in the education sector, with an average total annual contribution to education of roughly (based on OECD data). The impact of these investments is less than it could be, in part because there needs to be greater alignment between the government’s priorities and development partner activities.

The changes in the labor market, the re-organization of work worldwide, the increasing pressure to improve economic competitiveness in a context of global inter-connectedness, less job security and stagnant or dropping standards of living alongside accelerating climate change have led many countries to rethink education. A common starting point is to consider the relevance of curricular content against this backdrop of complexity, with particular attention to social-emotional skills, competencies and flexibility. Curriculum is fundamental to teaching and learning processes. Its various components have wide-ranging consequences on the quality of education. Over time, a range of successful educational systems have prioritized competence-based curricula, learner-centered pedagogy, and continuous assessment. Other countries, including Kyrgyz Republic, are looking to learn from these ‘global education policies’ in order to update their educational systems. With a competence-based educational framework already in place, Kyrgyz Republic used this as the starting point for reform. A competence-based curriculum was introduced in Kyrgyzstan in 2014 in the form of a State Standard Framework. However, primary grade standards were not revised afterwards to align with the framework. As part of its Okuu Keremet! project (2019-2024), USAID supported the Ministry of Education and Science (MOES) to develop a Road Map that would outline the process for arriving at robust standards. The process would then be used to actually revise primary grade subject standards. This presentation will cover: 1. The government-led collaboration that took place to develop subject standards, including data analysis, the broad-ranging discussions in the working group and the involvement of practitioners. 2. The process of using a Road Map to arrive at the standards that were ultimately approved by MOES 3. The lessons learned with respect to fostering institutional capacity, creating an institutional memory for future reference, and cultivating government ownership. 4. Next steps: how the standards will be put in practice and monitored; the need to develop textbooks aligned with standards; orienting teacher education and in-service teacher training in line with the standards. During 2021-2022, MOES and Okuu Keremet – together with various multi-stakeholder technical groups – revised four primary subject standards: Mathematics, Kyrgyz and Russian Language and Reading, and “Me and the World” (basic science). The process followed the Road Map plan through four stages: 1) analysis of existing educational standards in the country and international trends; 2) review of primary level learning outcomes; 3) alignment with the country’s competence-based educational framework, and 4) consultation with diverse education experts and a community of specialists. The subject standards define the expected learning outcomes and how they relate to competencies. Subsequently, a curriculum map was formulated which depicts how these competencies will shape and prepare students for the real world, such as the job market and life skills. The Kyrgyz Academy of Education – responsible for standards among other things – organized a series of working meetings among a range of stakeholders to arrive at the first four subject standards. It then followed the overall Road Map to develop standards for the remaining six primary school subjects. All of the standards produced were approved in October 2022 and slated for implementation in the 2023-2024 academic year. One of the challenges that arose during the process was related to the lack of experience among the KAE experts in the analysis of assessment data. Understanding the outcome of learning assessment is necessary to setting a level of standards that is ambitious yet feasible for where students currently are in terms of learning per grade. Assessment results also enable KAE staff to understand international and national trends in a context where the country explicitly aims to perform better with respect to international assessments such as PISA. The formulation of measurable and achievable learning outcomes per grade was also a challenge. One of the important decisions made by the working group was to define expected outcomes at the end of the primary cycle. as a starting point. There was attention given to ensuring consistency in the transition from preschool to primary school and from primary to secondary school. Subject standards are only the starting point for changing the content of education. It needs to be accompanied by a range of key components that support the competences, such as appropriate teaching materials, the education of new teachers and the training of existing teachers, and the importance of both formative and summative assessment to know if learning outcomes are going in the desired direction. Moreover, the learning outcomes need to be made clear to communities of parents in every-day language so that they can support the process at home. So far, this has not been done in Kyrgyz Republic. As outlined in the Road Map, once standards are developed, a plan of implementation is needed, followed by assessment and, if necessary, adjustments. This cycle is expected to take a five years before the next round of review according the MOES regulation. CONCLUSIONS The collaboration of the KAE together with Okuu Keremet! and a spectrum of actors and individuals over the past three years to liberate learning shows that: 1) learning outcomes are at the core of the competency-based curriculum and these outcomes need to be clear and achievable for teachers, students, and parents; 2) standards development, revision, implementation and assessment form a unified cycle in leveraging change in the primary education system hence all parts of the cycle must be aligned. Other parts of the education system will also need to be aligned over time with competences forming the core reference point. Continuing fragmentation and incoherence will not achieve the change that Kyrgyz Republic hopes for its students, even if one piece or another is well-designed on its own.

The USAID Leading Through Learning Global Platform (LTLGP) and USAID Improving Learning Outcomes for Asia (ILOA) presented a panel at the 2024 CIES Conference on what each project has been learning about establishing and implementing learning networks. Presentations from three USAID learning networks (HELN, GRN, ECCN) and one regional hub managed by LTLGP along with a presentation from ILOA discuss how each learning network utilizes collaboration, learning, and adapting (CLA) to assess how well their networks are reaching and meeting the needs of their members and how they have adapted and adjusted their networks based on CLA fedback.

Title: Philippine local governments using local solutions to tackle literacy and numeracy through the Education Sector Mechanism Presenter: Mayor Krisel Lagman of Tabaco City Launched under USAID funded Advancing Basic Education (ABC+) in the Philippines, the Education Sector Mechanism (ESM) brings stakeholders (private sector, government units, teachers, school leadership, parents and community) together at the local level to assess the education landscape using data and evidence. This process is led by local governments, but includes all stakeholders and aims to identify key issues and their underlying causes, agree on effective strategies to tackle these challenges, and translate the solutions into well-defined programs, projects, and activities. This process puts local leadership and ownership at the forefront of problem solving based on data, investment programming and results-based monitoring and evaluation. The local governments of Victorias City and Tabaco City in the Philippines lead the way in utilizing ESM, bringing private sector, local government units, and community together to look at education issues. This presentation will discuss the ESM process based on their experience and the results they are seeing, highlighting locally led and locally funded solutions and commitments.

This presentation delivered at the CIES 2024 conference describes key implementation strategies used in USAID/MOE Government to Government Component of RELIT Program.