1. What attracted you to working with Nuru?

I looked at the profile of the organization and I saw that they were really committed to working with the community, especially those who are marginalized. I’ve been working with marginalized communities in different places and I wanted to bring my experiences to share with Nuru.

      2. In your previous positions with organizations you worked in some very tough places. What did you learn from those experiences?

I worked in countries like South Sudan. It has been experiencing war and neglected for quite some time and there were no structures in place. I helped to keep them updated on education, so they could take over some responsibilities in education within their country and their government. I feel like we achieved our goal by training teachers, making sure children had access to education, and parents were able to see what the value of education was. I hope that they can continue to grow, and it will help the growth of the country.

      3. You’ve worked in several different countries, how have those experiences been similar and different.

In South Sudan, we were building structures and putting in new things. In Zambia, the structures were already in place, put there by the government. This is also the case in Kenya and Tanzania. In South Sudan, things were quite different. We borrowed a lot of things like the syllabus and training from Kenya. In Zambia, we were trying to reinforce the capacity of the staff that had already been built. 

      4. What initially drew you to working in education?

All along, I’ve seen that education is quite a good profession. I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was in primary school. I thought when I had the education background, I would be able to assist the community in different ways. I don’t think of teaching as a part-time job. It is something we always have to focus on and help empower the community. It helps to develop the community.

      5. Why did you decide to work for NGOs and other organizations rather than just teach?

Looking at the work of the NGOs, it’s wide and gives someone a number of experiences and helps you to interact with the community. I wanted to reach out, not just in schools, but also with other community members. I like working with stakeholders in other fields like health, agriculture, and income generating programs. It gives me a wide experience to interact with those sectors.

      6. Since you have started working at Nuru, what is your impression of the education program?

With Nuru, I see the education program is something that really is helping to develop literacy in public schools. I see that we can encourage those schools and teachers so that they can use some of the techniques that we use. I am looking forward for our program to keep expanding, so that more pupils in Kuria will be literate, meaning they will be able to read, write, and comprehend.

      7. What do you think is the next step for Nuru’s education program?

Scaling and expanding to other divisions is the next step. Also, we are looking forward to see if some of our staff can be integrated in the public schools. We want to increase the number storybooks and textbooks that we can share with the schools. We will be reaching out to other stakeholders and institutions to create partnerships. We also want to encourage the teachers and headteachers to collaborate with the Nuru staff. We also want to reach out to the PTAs (parent teacher associations) and Ministry officials, so that they will be able to understand our programs.

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With the start of Term 2, we will implement a qualitative measurement system to track student progress as well as monitor our team’s delivery of lesson content and their interactions with students. We will use this information to further improve the content of our programs as well as the quality of instruction and student engagement. We will also be working to share our approaches with the school administrators and teachers more actively over the coming months.

A reflection on our goal

The Nuru education program aims to increase basic literacy levels among primary school-aged children living in rural areas and experiencing extreme poverty. We target Standard 2 literacy levels; most countries worldwide agree that children should have developed basic literacy by the completion of their second year in primary school. We work to fill the gap in Standard 2 literacy attainment that exists within public schools throughout rural communities experiencing extreme poverty.

The Standard 2 literacy level represents the level at which children “read to learn” and develop independent literacy skills. Achieving the Standard 2 level ensures basic literacy is instilled for life. Basic literacy enables students to understand lessons across disciplines and perform better across the board, increasing the likelihood that they will complete primary school and progress to secondary school. Basic literacy also contributes to more engaged community members and parents, more informed adults and individuals who are equipped with the fundamental skills they need to become life-long, independent learners.

Our goal is to raise Standard 2 levels through targeted instruction in the essential components of reading, writing and oral language. Reading proficiency includes phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and text comprehension, as identified by the National Reading Panel (2000). Many literacy interventions overlook oral proficiency, believing that it naturally stems from the development of reading and writing skills. Nuru differs in this regard and is supported by recent research. As stated by The National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth, “instruction in the key components of reading is necessary – but not sufficient – for teaching language-minority children to read and write proficiently in English. Oral proficiency in English is critical as well – but student performance suggests that it is often overlooked in instruction.” (August & Shanahan, 2006, p.4)

We aim to bring high-quality literacy development interventions to rural primary schools as a supplement to existing language development efforts. The Nuru outreach program focuses on creating an engaging and enriching learning environment that is facilitated by a teacher trained in student-centered learning.

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In November 2012, we met with the Area Education Officer who helped us identify the 3 schools with the most need in Mabera Division: Boremagongo Primary, Gosese Primary, and Moheto Primary.  We then met with each of the head teachers and told them about our programs, they agreed to let us come, and we continued our final preparations and planning for outreach in Mabera. We entered the three schools in Mabera in January, and the first two months have been an overwhelming success.

When asked about how the community in Mabera responded to our education program coming there, Field Manager Tinyi Johnson had this to say, “The community is happy with the program that we take to the schools. For example, in Moheto Primary, whenever we go to the school we always meet with the parents and they are always appreciating the good work we have done there and they are always appealing for us to continue going to those schools and helping the pupils there.”

Field Manager, Ambrose Maroa, excitedly said, “The community is energized and rejoices in our presence.”

The response of the teachers was also encouraging, “It was a positive response.  Teachers were ready for our program.  In fact, it was a time that they needed help from other stakeholders on the side of education,” said Johnson.

Johnson continued on by saying, “The teachers themselves, they are happy with us in their schools. They are ready to help us, even with materials like pens and chalks. The teachers want us to stay with them in the staff rooms and share with them the techniques that we have, so that they can use them.”

Finally, the pupils also seem to be enjoying Nuru’s presence, “The pupils are also happy with the facilitators going to their school.  They are eager to learn from the facilitators.  They always appreciate what we do by saying ‘Thank you for teaching us,’ and they keep on telling us to come again,” said Johnson.

In addition, Ambrose talked about the increased frequency we are going to the schools in Mabera  (up from once every two weeks in Isebania). “We go there weekly, which has created a bond, which is quite strong between us, the community, the teachers, and the learners themselves. “

Johnson added, “This is only the beginning, but outreach is picking up very well, because we are going there on a weekly basis.  For example if we go there on Monday, we will also go there the next Monday. This makes the learners remember what we taught them when we review the previous lessons. On the side of the staff, it is the same facilitators that see them each week.”

The Mabera team of Nuru’s education staff is working extremely well together and developing their teaching techniques quickly, something that has not gone unnoticed by the teachers in the schools there. In a recent letter regarding Nuru’s education program and it’s impact, the Head Teacher of Gosese Primary School had this to say, “Your intervention has not only added value towards the very successful improvement of literacy to our pupils, but much enhanced their morale and attitude towards education…Your staff is wonderful, creative, and innovative. They have a sound understanding of teaching and they are of unimpeachable integrity.”

We can only hope that this good will and success continues as we expand our program into Mabera Division and continue to try to raise literacy levels in rural, public primary schools.

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Nuru’s Education Program aims to address the lack of access to quality primary education through targeted literacy workshops for public, primary school-aged children living in rural areas experiencing extreme poverty. The lack of access to quality primary education results in widespread failure to attain basic literacy.

Access to free primary education is ineffective if children are not learning. Many low income countries have been recognized for their recent progress toward achieving education for all. Much of this progress has been generated by inputs – the provision of infrastructure and the addition of schools, teachers and physical resources. However, this progress does not consistently correlate with improvements in basic literacy or in the quality of education provided. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) “provides a composite measure of progress, encompassing access, equity and quality”[1] in its annual Education for All Development Index (EDI)[2]. The reports consistently indicate low EDI results in sub-Saharan Africa despite increasing school participation rates[3]. These rates are determined by a combination of factors including primary school enrollment rates and survival rate to grade 5 (which is used as a measure of quality). EDI results indicate that the quality of education is particularly poor in sub-Saharan Africa, suggesting that interventions targeting access to quality education are needed to supplement the global efforts to provide free, compulsory primary education.

Many organizations and statisticians rely on enrollment rates to generate conclusions about learning. Few organizations focus on learning outcomes, such as the attainment of basic literacy. At Nuru, we believe our understanding of learning outcomes is essential for informing interventions. We have partnered with Uwezo, an organization focused on providing independent, publicly available data on learning levels that is intent on shifting the focus from “educational inputs to learning outcomes.” [4]  We have partnered with them to adapt their Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) tool for use at the school level to develop our understanding of literacy levels within our partner schools. Uwezo’s methodology was developed from Pratham’s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER).

Proponents of the both the educational inputs and learning outcomes approaches will find the same results; in East Africa, the quality of education is low and children are not achieving basic literacy levels. The following bullets and charts provide context for the need as well as for Nuru’s decision to focus on basic literacy.

• Recent studies demonstrate that learning rather than time spent schooling drives economic growth. The National Bureau of Economic Research claims “a ten percentage point increase in the share of students reaching basic literacy is associated with 0.3 percentage points higher annual growth.”[5]
• In Kenya, “7 out of 10 children in class 3 cannot do class 2 work. Learning levels are poorest in arid districts and in Western Province.”[6] In addition, “more than two out of every three pupils enrolled at Standard 3 level in East Africa fail to pass basic tests in English, Kiswahili or numeracy set at the Standard 2 level.”[7]

• Nuru does not prioritize education for girls but rather focuses on all primary school-aged children. In East Africa, “there are minimal differences in test scores between boys and girls: gender disparities do not appear to be significant in the early years of education.”[8]

The following figures illustrate the need for basic literacy support:

Figure 1: 2012 Uwezo findings demonstrating that less than 1/3 of pupils in East Africa possess basic literacy and numeracy skills.[9]

Figure 2:2012 Uwezo findings demonstrating literacy levels by socio-economic status. Findings indicate significantly lower pass rates among those living in extreme poverty (our target population) at all ages.[10]

 

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[1] UNESCO, “Education for All Development Index,” 2010

[2] UNESCO, “Education for All Development Index,” 2011

[3] UNESCO, “Education for All Development Index,” 2010, p. 278-279

[4] Uwezo, Uwezo, “Are Our Children Learning? Literacy and Numeracy Across East Africa” 2012, p. 5

[5] Eric A. Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann, “Do Better Schools Lead to More Growth? Cognitive Skills, Economic Outcomes, and Causation,” NBER Working Paper Series, 2009 p. 23

[6] Uwezo, “Are Our Children Learning? Annual Learning Assessment Report,” 2011, p. 3

[7] Uwezo, “Are Our Children Learning? Literacy and Numeracy Across East Africa” 2012, p. 3

[8] Uwezo, “Are Our Children Learning? Literacy and Numeracy Across East Africa” 2012, p. 3

[9] Uwezo, “Are Our Children Learning? Literacy and Numeracy Across East Africa” 2012, p. 11

[10] Uwezo, “Are Our Children Learning? Literacy and Numeracy Across East Africa” 2012, p. 18

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1. Vicky, please tell us about yourself and background.

I’m Victoria Tissian. I’m 26 years old and I’m trained as an ECD teacher and am currently pursuing studies in that direction. I’m Kurian and the elder of four children. I joined Nuru 20 January 2010 where I started as a Field Officer and moved to Education Coordinator, then Field Manager, and finally became program leader in March 2011.

2. Why did you choose to work for Nuru and what does Nuru mean to you?

Being an orphan I grew up with hardships in life and from there I developed the personality of helping. I chose to work with Nuru so as to serve my community. When I was working in Bungoma as a teacher, Jake came for a ceremony of my cousin’s wedding. I was curious to know why the mzungu was in our home and then I asked Dr. Sangai and my uncle and they then explained how Jake had started a project in Kuria that was helping the community. They explained the programs in Nuru, specifically Agriculture, and I developed an interest to come home and serve my community.

Nuru has come to bring light to our community and save us from poverty. It gives us skills. It gives us knowledge. It gives us choice. We are taught about how to come out of poverty. Nuru also teaches us as leaders how to work and how to help every person learn from what you have learned in Nuru.

3. What changes have you seen since you started working with Nuru, both in education and the organization as a whole?

In the organization, we’ve grown. The number is so large now. At the same time, we are now helping so many communities, much more than the beginning. Agriculture is really giving an impact to the community. When you first ask someone about Nuru, the first program they identify is Agriculture and how it’s helping the community. Everyone appreciates what it is doing.

For education, the department has been through so many phases, trials, and experiences. Most of these were geared towards helping out the teachers, since teachers were not trained well. Despite this, it was hard to work with teachers in an effective way. Finally we identified literacy as our poverty indicator and we identified our goal as raising literacy to a Standard 2 level in rural public schools working directly with pupils.

4. What are the key components of Nuru’s outreach program?

Outreach is a major activity and the key components are English literacy workshops. Some of the workshops are reading, writing, and creative workshops. For the team to facilitate all of these effectively and efficiently we get new skills from trainings from our Training Manager.

We have two divisions we work with: Isebania and Mabera. In Isebania, we go twice per month in every class for one hour per class right now. In Mabera, we go to every class there every week for one hour per class. We have a staff of 30 members who split up and work in small groups with pupils. To enhance all of this, we have collaboration with the teachers, community, and pupils themselves because we believe with them we have a reason to be there.

5. What is it about the outreach program that works so well?

It’s effective because we are seeing the impact with the pupils. Pupils are able to comprehend what we are teaching. We’ve had feedback from pupils and teachers that they love when we come. Above all, they acknowledge that reading is improving in their schools. Also, we as a team try to figure out from feedback and observations general behaviors that hinder or help learning in the classes.

6. What is your favorite time or most enjoyable experience at Nuru?

There are many good experiences. Sharing my knowledge with the team. Going out for outreach. The Nuru Days, where we all come together and each program explains their goal to the new foundation team members. It brings all of the members of Nuru together and it enhances team building. Going to the community is the biggest honor and priority. Example: Helping the Healthcare team to give out flyers, joining community members in Agriculture meetings, delivering outreach to pupils, and so forth.

7. When you interact with school officials, what do they say about Nuru’s Education Program?

They are open to our work. They appreciate the fact that we supplement the learning in the schools. They also invite us to all of the meetings with the ministry of education to share the ideologies we have. Sometimes, they have ideas on how we should improve, but we assess if it’s sustainable and scalable and then we explain it to them. For example: We have told them we cannot provide notebooks for all pupils, but we can provide papers for them to write on.

8. Where do you see Nuru’s Education Program heading in the next two years?

We see ourselves scaling to other divisions and wherever we are working, when that time comes in two years, we hope that many pupils in the schools we are working in will be literate.

9. Do you have any other thoughts that you want to share?

I believe in Nuru. I believe in education. I would like to thank all those who help in donations because from that we get nothing but encouragement to serve the community.

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I often thought of teaching as knowing more content on the subject area than the pupils. Later, I realized that methodology and teaching styles are equally important. Additionally, I have learned that facilitators need to respect learners by exhibiting values such as lowering yourself to the level of pupils, being honest with them, showing empathy and respect to the learners, etc…. I have learned these skills and values as I have grown as a facilitator and trainer and now I am trying to share them with Nuru’s Education team.

As a training manager, I develop the curriculum for the Education Program and conduct trainings for the Education staff facilitators. The training manager also observes the facilitators and learners in the field so as to get useful feedback for enhancing the development of both the curriculum and trainings for the team. Other than the feedback, the Monitoring and Evaluation team has been very instrumental in determining the level of learners through sharing data from the Uwezo examination. All this is enhanced by current research on best practices in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) around the world.

So far, the facilitators have learned the theoretical background on how English Language Learners (ELLs) learn and practical aspects in facilitation techniques for ELLs. One such training is a language development training where the facilitators learned how language is acquired by ELLs, principles of vocabulary instruction, and academic language teaching approaches. The facilitators have also learned some practical aspects in classroom instruction, such as “think, pair, and share”, which they have found very useful in the classroom. Other trainings focused on various approaches in teaching both phonics and whole language.

Facilitators are also trained to make use of games and fun activities during facilitation. Various games and fun activities have been introduced to the facilitators and this has acted as a trigger to make them come up with so many other games and fun activities. Learners always enjoy the fun activities and ask us when we will be coming back. One such fun activity is where learners had to mime a given profession/job and the other learners in the class had to guess what the profession/job was based on the mime. It was really great fun for the pupils. Role plays have been used to make the lessons as fun as possible. There are many more games and fun activities that have been used by our facilitators and this has seen the level of participation of the learners improve in our classes

The feedback process has been very useful so far, in sharing best practices, determining the level of learners, and the needs of the facilitators. In the office, the facilitators share the best practices in facilitation they observe during the week. Then the training manager uses the feedback to determine the level of learners for each school and class. This process helps in lesson planning to fit the pupils’ needs. The training manager also uses the feedback to develop more trainings to increase the skills of the facilitators.

All of these processes help myself, and the Education team as a whole, to model our lessons and facilitation skills to fit the level and needs of learners, so that they can read, write and comprehend. I also plan to use the Uwezo literacy test results to get a clearer picture of the level of the learners. By doing all of this, I believe that the education goal will be achieved, and I will have achieved my goal of serving the community in a holistic manner.

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During my visit with the team, I shadowed outreach throughout Isibania division and worked with the team on areas of growth. We have several new Education Coordinators at the moment who are undergoing training and had just started to facilitate in schools under the supervision of Field Managers when I arrived. For teachers joining our team, there is often a significant learning curve involving the departure from ingrained rote teaching methodology and teacher-centered facilitation techniques. We train new hires on our model, methodology and provide seminars on engaging, student-centered tactics as well as overarching literacy development principles and best practices. Once they have undergone intensive training, they shadow experienced facilitators before moving to team-teaching and eventually facilitating on their own with a manager shadowing their classes and providing feedback and mentorship. The team is doing a great job all around – improving their facilitation skills, embracing creativity and innovation in lessons, remaining open to feedback and giving strong constructive feedback.

We had the pleasure of hosting Julius Ngombo, our new District Manager for two days during my visit. During that time, Julius observed the team during their outreach feedback sessions and lesson preparation. Jimmy, Vicky and I also worked extensively with him to set expectations for the first quarter of 2013 and review priorities and strategic milestones that will happen early in his time with us. Already he has proven to be a strong contributor and a humble listener. We appreciate the long journey he took from Mombasa to join us and look forward to January when he will be with us full time.

Another highlight of the visit was our decision to promote our Field Manager George Nyamweya to Training Manager. George has demonstrated a tireless work ethic, thoughtful leadership, a pure commitment to literacy development that often translates to hours of personal time spent researching resources for the team, and a high capacity for innovation. We are now in the process of prioritizing and building training modules for the team and developing curricula for 2013.

Other highlights include: preparing for 2013 outreach, receiving feedback from team members, finalizing our scaling plan, engaging in strategic talks that ranged from monitoring plans to budgeting sessions, and refining our plan to increase the number of hours that we will offer outreach programming in the coming year.  The team is managing beautifully. Vicky, Jimmy and the Field Managers have all demonstrated excellent leadership and a high capacity for accomplishing significant milestones. The Education Coordinators have consistently demonstrated their dedication to literacy development by implementing feedback quickly, engaging with the students and delivering quality programming.

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This week we are winding down our outreach program for 2012, which has made tremendous strides throughout the past 12 months. Unfortunately, due to the national teachers strike, we will not be able to take our mobile learning center to schools during the school break because the school schedule got pushed back to make up for lost time. However, there are many exciting things on the horizon for Nuru’s education program in the coming year.

Outreach Starts in Mabera Division

After being only in schools in Isibania Division since 2011, Nuru’s education program is scaling to Mabera division for the 2013 school year. We will be conducting outreach in Moheto, Gosese, and Boremagongo primary schools in addition to our nine schools in Isibania division. These schools are all in very remote areas and were identified by the Area Education Officer of Mabera as needing special attention. With the addition of these schools, we will be serving almost 1,000 more students in Pre-Unit (Kindergarten) to Standard 7. Two of our new Field Managers who have stood out as leaders, Tinyi Johnson and Ambrose Maroa, will be leading 10 new staff members to Mabera Division to work with these schools.

Upping the Hours in Mabera

The chance to scale to Mabera will also allow us the chance to test a more intensive version of our outreach program. Limits on staffing in Isibania, scheduling with schools, along with the fact we work in nine schools allowed us to only go to each school two times per month for a total of two hours per class per month. However, in Mabera, with only three schools we will be able to go to these schools every week for a total of four hours per class per month of instruction time. Our staff members have been asking to do this for awhile, and we’ve been trying to figure out a way to go more often. We believe the increased number of visits and hours in Mabera will help us to know the pupils better, tailor our instruction to the level of the learners, and create a larger impact on literacy development in these schools. If our new model is successful in Mabera it will help us to think about how we should move ahead in future scaling. We’re very excited about this opportunity and can’t wait to see the Uwezo results.

Videotaping Lessons

With the addition of our new Training Manager, George Nyamweya, we will have the opportunity to try out several new things in the field. One of the things we are looking forward to doing is videotaping lessons, or partial lessons, of each of our facilitators and then having George sit down with them to analyze their teaching style, student-teacher interaction, and engagement of pupils with the teacher. We think that this will help our facilitators to see themselves in action instead of always hearing how they did from others. Similar to reviewing film from a previous football game, facilitators will have the opportunity to make adjustments in their style and correct mistakes. They will also hopefully be able to catch these mistakes or habits in the middle of teaching during their subsequent lessons.

Other Things to Come

Our new District Manager, Julius Ngombo, will begin in January 2013 and we are excited about the wealth of knowledge and experience he will bring to our team. We’re also looking forward to developing our curriculum further and offering a variety of professional development trainings related to English Literacy instruction to our staff by our Training Manager, George. We hope to continue to analyze data we are collecting to tailor our programs to schools and classes within those schools. Finally, we hope to continue to reach out to the community and school leaders to find areas where we can strengthen education in Kuria. Hold on tight, 2013 promises to be an exciting year…

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To successfully manage our team’s growth and that of our program, we are adding two senior level positions to our Kenyan team – a District Manager and a Training Manager. The District Manager will be responsible for strategy development, team management, maintaining relationships with the Ministry of Education and partners, coordinating and implementing scaling plans and managing the team’s budget. The District Manager will also liaise with our Monitoring and Evaluation team to track impact metrics. The Training Manager will research and develop our curriculum guide, drawing from lessons learned in the field and best practices demonstrated globally. She or he will train our education staff on literacy development best practices and create training materials to promote constant learning. The Training Manager will also shadow outreach and respond to needs through high impact training and materials.

Our Kenyan team has completed the interview process for the District Manager role and we are thrilled that Julius Ngombo has accepted our offer and will be joining our team in January. Julius comes to us with significant experience in literacy development and management. He received his Masters in Sustainable International Development at Brandeis University as a Ford Foundation Fellow. Since then, he has worked as a Community Development Facilitator with the Aga Khan Foundation along the Kenyan coast. Julius has also served as a college lecturer, a Senior Supervisor for the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, the Head Teacher of several primary schools throughout Kenya as well as a Community Development Project Manager. With over 25 years of experience, we are fortunate to have him join our team and look forward to partnering with him to further our team’s goals.

We are in the final phase of the Training Manager interviews and are eager to round out our team with this hire. The interview process has been a great learning opportunity for our team in Kenya. They have seen candidates with a wide array of experiences, backgrounds and leadership styles. We are grateful for all the talented applicants who have expressed interest in joining our team. This step in our team’s development will increase our capacity and help us strengthen our program offerings, our team and our ability to positively impact literacy levels throughout Kenya.

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School Schedule Going Forward

As a result of the teachers strike, the Kenyan government decided to extend the school year three weeks, until the end of November. This was helpful to us because it allowed us to get in a full 3^rd term of outreach before the end of the year exams commence at the end of November.

In addition to changing the end of this year’s school schedule, the Ministry of Education also decided to push back the beginning of next school year to the beginning of February instead of the beginning of January. Kenyan public schools usually begin the school year and have three terms with breaks in between, culminating with the school year ending in early November. The government’s decision to push back the beginning of the school year also meant that all of the other terms would be pushed back. Needless to say, the fluctuations in the school schedule have made it difficult to plan.

Just a few days ago, the Ministry of Education announced yet another change in the school schedule, revising the starting date back to January 7^th. This change was made in response to criticism from parents and also concerns about the time around elections in Kenya. The 2007 elections in Kenya were marred by violence and rioting post-election over vote counting irregularities and many fear that there could be violence in March of 2013 when the presidential election is scheduled to take place. As a result, the schools have decided to give pupils the week off during elections to be with their families.

Impact on Our Program

What do all these changes in the school schedule mean for Nuru’s education program? Well, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that our outreach program is able to make up the lost time for the strike and will continue to present English literacy workshops in the schools until the end of the 3^rd term in 2012 and beginning in January of 2013. We are expanding into Mabera division in January, and our plans are still on track there.

The bad news is that the Mobile Learning Center program, where we go out into our schools and do literacy workshops during the school breaks, might not be able to occur this year. We originally had planned to conduct four weeks of English literacy workshops in the schools that would be very similar to camps that children attend during school breaks. Now that the school year will be pushed to the end of November, and almost everyone in Kenya takes two weeks off during Christmas and New Year’s we are left with almost no time to conduct this program. We are still brainstorming how we might be able to fit it in, but more than likely we will use the few weeks at the end of the school year to plan and develop lessons for outreach during the first month or so of the 2013 school year.

Other News

In other news, we have successfully completed the collection of the Uwezo literacy assessment follow-up exam data in all nine of our schools in Isisbania Division. We had taken a baseline assessment of literacy levels in our schools in February of this year and want to see the change over time while pupils were in our programs. Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) did a tremendous job over the past two weeks of working with Vicky, our Program Leader, and our Field Managers to coordinate schedules with schools and make sure everything went smoothly during the testing of the pupils. We were extremely impressed by M&E’s work and efficiency. Both Vicky and Rogonga, the Program Leader for M&E, deserve a lot of credit for dealing with challenges and making sure everything ran smoothly.

Outreach for Term three started well and our new Education Coordinators for Isibania and Mabera divisions are getting the opportunity to give lessons in the our schools for the first time. We’ve almost completed our search for a new District Manager and Training Manager for our program. We’re anticipating a great finish to this year and expansion and growth for the coming year. In my November blog, I’ll highlight some of the things we can look forward to in 2013.

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