While we have heard comments throughout the year about the education program, we wanted to know in detail how Nuru’s Education Outreach Program was perceived by teachers in the schools we work with over the course of the 2013 school year. In the last week of October, at the end of the 2013 school year teachers at schools Nuru works with in Isibania and Mabera Divisions were given a brief annual survey. In these surveys, participants were asked if they observed any positive changes in the school as a result of Nuru’s education program, what they thought of Nuru’s teachers and program, and if they had suggestions for improvements.
We were very happy to see a response from 50 teachers from 11 of the 12 schools that Nuru works with, and it was overwhelmingly positive. When surveyed about the progress that they saw specifically resulting from Nuru’s interventions, teachers gave a number of responses. Here is a sampling of responses from the surveys, in their own words:
In reading,
- “There is proper pronunciation of words in reading loudly, proper spellings and use of parts of speech. Many pupils have improved in comprehension reading and answering questions properly.”
- “They [pre-unit] have improved in reading sounds and writing them.” They have also improved on how to pronounce the sounds and words starting with sounds.”
- “Pupils are able to pronounce words clearly and correctly.”
- “Pronunciation has improved. Pupils have become articulate.”
- “Most learners in standard one are able to read simple three letter words without any difficulty.”
- “Pupils especially 1-3 can read most three letter words in English.”
- “A good number of pupils are able to read faster and pronounce words correctly.”
- “They have increased their reading speed.”
- “They can now read, understand and answer.”
- “Class one pupils are able to read passages on their own and answer correctly.”
- “Most of the pupils [in standard 4] do get good marks in passage part. Answering passage questions is improved.”
- “Pupils in standard four to seven have improved greatly in their reading skills and can now answer correctly questions on comprehension.”
- “Listening skills have been developed, learners are able to listen to a story and answer questions from the same.”
- “They always come to borrow story books from the library.”
In writing,
- “Their handwriting is changing positively. Pupils’ way of writing letters is clear.”
- “Pupils can spell words well.”
- “There are positive changes in English language. There is good sentence structure. Great improvement in composition writing.”
- “They [students in class 4] can even write a paragraph.”
- “The learners are trying to improve in writing difficult words but simple ones, they do write them well.”
In other areas,
- “Pupil (learner)-teacher relation has been greatly improved.”
- “Pupils are able to communicate and express themselves in English without fear.”
- “Teaching-learning techniques applied are learner centered hence increasing the learning interest.”
- “The mode of communication between the teacher and the learner is quite mutual [encouraging] participation in most pupils.”
- “They [the pupils] have changed in thinking and reasoning logically.”
- “The Nuru team teachers are friendly to learners. Having attended their lessons, learners really enjoy their service.”
- “The Nuru teachers are very friendly to pupils and self-motivated to their work. They are able to appreciate learners efforts.”
Suggestions for improvements to Nuru’s program were also listed by teachers and included increasing the amount of days during the week that Nuru teachers come, producing more materials for students to use and take with them, creating and giving storybooks and other materials for schools to use, teaching other subjects besides English, and following the Kenyan syllabus more closely at the upper levels.
We really appreciate all of the feedback from teachers at the schools we work with. We are happy to see such a positive response with progress being noted, but will be taking the suggestions for improvement into account as we continually try to improve Nuru’s Education Outreach Program to achieve our goal of raising literacy to a Std. 2 level.
We are very thankful to the administrators, teachers, students, and other stakeholders that Nuru works with and look forward to another great year in 2014!