The World Cocoa Foundation’s rural education project, ECHOES, has been working to improve the lives of youth and young adults in Côte d’Ivoire through an integrated approach that links basic education and livelihoods. Two components of the program that embody this approach are the functional literacy classes and the agricultural livelihoods training for out-of-school youth. Thanks to the impact of the literacy program in Biéby, Mr. Charles N’Din Koba has learned to read and write. Charles registered for the program with no previous education experience. He had never been to school. To date, Charles had one of the highest scores in the literacy final exam.

According to his tutor Mr. Christien Sombo, Charles never missed a day of class. “He often comes to me after class and asks for assistance,” said his tutor. Charles borrows the manual to take home and practices in his free time. During the reading test of the final exam, I congratulated Charles for his progress and efforts, a perfect score of 50/50. With a great big smile, Charles thanked me and thanked IFESH for the opportunity and his accomplishments.

Later that evening some of the learners and tutors visited me. The manual was on a table and I noticed Charles thumbing through it. He stopped at the foreword and said, “When I first opened this book in class I made it my goal to be able to read these paragraphs and to understand what these letters I.F.E.S.H really mean, and now I can read them and I thank you and IFESH for the difference you have made in my life.” He then continued to read and asked for help when needed. This year Charles has enrolled in the ECHOES agricultural livelihoods training being implemented by Winrock International. He is attending weekly agriculture classes with Mr. Sauveur Camara, the Winrock field agent in the region. As a result of his participation in the literacy classes, Charles is now able to take notes in the agriculture classes. At the end of the nine-month agriculture training, Charles will plant a new field of cocoa, using the improved farming techniques learned in class.

ECHOES is a partnership with WCF, a group of its member companies, and the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Africa Education Initiative. ECHOES implements projects in cocoa-growing communities in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.

Charles with literacy materials

The view from the pirogue while crossing the inlet at Foundiougne, on my way back from a workshop.

It has been some time since I have been able to sit down and write a blog post.  I have been extremely busy working with teachers, conducting English courses, building relationships with local organizations, and meeting reporting requirements.  I finally found a little free time today, and so I thought I share a bit about some of the work that has been keeping me so busy.

THE CONTEXT

In 2009, IFESH bid on and was selected for $8 million dollars in funding to be an implementing agent of the USAID-funded “American Educators for Africa Program.”  One of the big goals of this program is to provide teacher-training expertise in the most economically-challenged regions of the participating sub-Saharan African countries.  This goal guides the majority of my work here in Senegal.  It is one of the major reasons that I am here. Thus, over the course of the past three months, I have been traveling around the Fatick Region doing day-long teacher training workshops with les cellules mixtes or the “mixed training cells” of teachers of English.

THE “MIXED TRAINING CELL” SYSTEM

These “mixed training cells” are groups of about 20 or more teachers from schools in geographic proximity within the region that come together for a certain number of pedagogical trainings per academic year. So, for example, there are many schools in the tiny villages around the cities of Diofior and Fimela, plus the schools within the cities themselves, and together the teachers from these schools form le cellule mixte de Diofior/Fimela.  (There are also “school training cells” at most of the larger schools, those in the large villages and small cities which dot the region.)  Each training cell has a Cell Coordinator, who informs the colleagues of upcoming events, new requirements, or changes of plan, and makes the necessary preparations for all of the scheduled activities for the school year.

The teachers of English in the Fatick Region have a very dynamic and active training cell system.  The teachers assemble themselves four to five times a year, and they come from all over the region, including from some remote areas of the “bush.”  Transportation to and from these assemblies is not provided by the school system, so the teachers travel to the cell meetings and trainings at their own expense.  They come by les sept places (old seven seat Peugeot station wagons), bush taxis, donkey carts, pirogues, and whatever other means of transportation they can find to get to the predetermined location  for the training or meeting.  Sometimes they end up waiting for hours in the sun for a bus or car that never comes, and they do not even get to attend the training.  Sometimes they have to leave their house the day before the meeting to make it.  To help address this difficulty, the planning for all of the trainings scheduled for the academic year is done in October, right at the beginning of the Senegalese school year, so the teachers know well in advance as to when they will need to travel.  Also, all of the trainings are scheduled to fall on the “market day” of the cities or villages where they will take place.  In this way, it is much easier for the teachers to find a mode of transportation, as there are many more options and many other people traveling on market days.

The teachers of English in the Fatick Region have also organized an excellent system to provide lunch for the trainings, which is again at their own expense.  Each teacher comes to the meeting with a predetermined amount of money which they contribute to the “lunch fund.” The cell coordinator or one of the female teachers (who can often bargain for a better price!) then hires local women to cook big plates of traditional Senegalese food (usually the national dish Chebu Gen, or “Fish and Rice, Senegalese style”), which are finished off with soft drinks, Senegalese tea (VERY important!), and sometimes fruit or cookies.  In this way, by sharing and going in together for lunch, everyone saves a little money and eats very well.

TRAINING WORKSHOP SERIES

The trainings I have been conducting with the mixed training cells have taken place in cycles dispersed throughout the academic year, in what I call “Training Workshop Series.”  I go from one predetermined city or village to another over the course of some weeks and present the same training to each mixed training cell.  To this point in the academic year, I have conducted two of these series of training workshops (15 workshops total) for the mixed training cells, with another series (8 more workshops) which I have just begun.  Each individual workshop lasts all day and included six hours of actual training (and a nice lunch).  During the workshops, the teachers have to work very hard.  Since there can only be so many workshops held per year, because of the logistical constraints involved, a lot of work has to be crammed into one day. Also, the trainings (by the teachers’ choice and education policy) are conducted completely in English, which sometimes is a teacher’s fifth or even SIXTH language!  (They are truly amazing with language, and they inspire me to present extremely useful and informative workshops.)

ESTABLISHING AND DELIVERING TRAINING CONTENT

The content of these workshops has been designed to simultaneously meet the expressed needs of the teachers and align with the criteria of the USAID-funded “American Educators for Africa Program,” focusing on the cross-cutting themes of 1) Classroom Management and 2) Creating Teaching and Learning Materials.  More specifically, at the beginning of the school year, I studied the National Curriculum for Teaching English in Senegal, talked with teachers and education officials, and brainstormed topics that could help the teachers and simultaneously allow me to stay in line with my work for IFESH and USAID.  I then came up with a list of potential training topics, and with this list in hand, I met with the cell coordinators and thoroughly discussed the training needs of the teachers.  As a group, we ranked the training needs of the teachers and narrowed down the list of topics I came up with accordingly, selecting those that would allow me to provide trainings the teachers need, but that also would allow me to meet the demands of the project I work on behalf of.  Please see the basic data for each workshop series, and the topics we chose, below:

Training Workshop Series One: “Teaching Methods for Success” – 7 Individual Workshops

Subtopic 1:      Preparing Students of English for Examinations

Subtopic 2:      Using the National Curriculum for Lesson Planning

Subtopic 3:      Differentiated Learning Activities in English classrooms

Participants:    114 In-Service Teachers of English from the Fatick Region

Locations:        Fatick, Niakhar, Diakhao, Samba Dia, Tattaguine, Soum, and Sokone

Dates: 9           January 2010 – 22 February 2010

Training Workshop Series Two: “Classroom Management” – 8 Individual Workshops

Subtopic 1:      Managing the Classroom: Theories, Approaches, and Useful Strategies

Subtopic 2:      Teaching English in Large Class Settings

Subtopic 3:      Strategies for Building Student Confidence in Speaking, Reading & Writing English

Participants:    134 In-Service Teachers of English from the Fatick Region

Locations:        Fatick, Niakhar, Diakhao, Diofior, Dioroup, Jilor, Passy, and Gossas

Dates:              9 March 2010 – 22 March 2010

THE RESULTS

As to the results of the first two workshop series, I will let the teachers speak for themselves. The following quotes are taken from some of the “Follow-Up Survey Forms” that I give the teachers to fill out as part of IFESH monitoring and evaluation:

“I am losing my shyness.” – Ms. Ndeye Nogaye Diagne

“The training received has allowed me to vary the way that I evaluate my classroom activities.  Now I have many ways to evaluate the work of the students.” – Mr. Issa Diao, Niakhar

“I now have better regard for my students, and they are more involved in the classes.” – Mr. Ouseynou Noumou Ndiaye, Fatick

“The training has helped in my teaching because I am now better preparing my students for the [national] exams.  Also, sometimes I now organize games for them.” – Mr. Ousmane Mbaye, Diouroup

“The changes in my behavior resulting from the trainings received: at home, I am always learning; at school, I am better at explaining concepts to my students.” – Mr. Dib Ndior, Patar Sine

A LITTLE FUN

Working with the teachers is one of the highlights of being here in Senegal.  It has given me as close to an “authentic Senegalese experience” as a westerner can ever really have, and it has helped me grow as an individual as well.  You see, I too face the difficulties of transportation; I too work in the hot classrooms with no electricity; I too have to find ways to teach with minimal resources in remote places.  It has caused me to find adaptability and resourcefulness that I did not know that I had.  It has also made me come to truly appreciate the work that the teachers manage do to under the conditions they face.

But Senegal is not all difficulties.  There is a lot of positivity, “a spiritual wealth,” that counteracts some of the material poverty that you find here.  One significant demonstration of this positivity took place right here in my small town of Fatick, and all across the country.  April 4^th, 2010 was a special day in Senegalese history, as it marked 50 years of independence from the colonial rule of France.  All across the country, there were celebrations, parades and (in true Senegalese fashion) feasts.  Many people told me, “Michael, go to Dakar for the holiday.  There will be a HUGE parade that will last for hours. It will be televised. You might even be on T.V.!”  However, I did not want to go to Dakar, because I knew that there would be a smaller parade right here in Fatick.  I was so glad I stayed, because the our local parade had such a wonderful “proud little city; proud little region” feel to it, and featured the local military.  It was not some big international show like the parade in Dakar; this one had a “small town heart” (kind of like me), and made me happy to be part of the Fatick community.  One of the other IFESH volunteers, Yanick Douyon, was visiting on Senegalese Independence Day, and was with me for the parade.  Luckily, she remembered her camera.  So here is the parade, in pictures.  (All photos are credited to and courtesy of Yanick Douyon.)

A drum and dance team.

Girls from a local organization that supports girls education participating in the parade.

Students marching.

Karate club members showing their national pride.

Some majorettes from a local junior high school.

A local women's group marches in the parade.

Local soldiers proudly bearing the Senegalese flag.

Representatives of the the local "Gendarmerie" marching in formation.

A female soldier leading the way.

Local police in their "dress uniforms."

Everyone likes a parade!