While many school children in the U.S. are starting their summer vacations, Kenya’s schools are in the middle of the 2014 school year. Nuru’s Education Program has been working with 17 schools across two divisions with almost 6,000 students for the last 6 months.
In Mabera Division, the team has welcomed a few new facilitators who have grown very quickly in their ability to engage the children. Richard, an Education Coordinator, (see above) has become one of Nuru’s most engaging facilitators, always asking children questions and making lessons fun. The children have really responded by raising their hands and actively participating.
Ambrose Maroa, Training Coordinator for Mabera, demonstrates how Nuru facilitators using the environment around them to deliver lessons to the children. Nuru facilitators take children outside to provide an open and dynamic learning environment where they feel free to participate and have fun while learning.
Another technique that has really increased student learning is breaking children into groups of two or three to read stories or talk about literacy concepts (see above). By working together, children are able to teach each other words and reading strategies, in addition to the instruction they receive from the Nuru facilitator.
Finally, children in Nuru’s program are constantly praised when they try to answer questions and participate. The young children especially like when the Nuru teachers give them stickers for participation (see above). Usually, the children wear the stickers on their face for the rest of the day with pride!
We are excited about how the children are progressing this year and the dynamic instruction being delivered by our facilitators. Step by step we are moving towards our goal of raising child literacy.