Our littlest learners!

When our classrooms opened for the 2022 school year, our Katete West schools welcomed nearly 200 Grade 1 pupils who had previously attended preschool classes. This is a first for our schools and is the result of our addition of 14 early childhood education (ECE) classes for three to six year-olds in 2021. We are excited to track the growth and progress of these young pupils and have high hopes that their participation in the ECE program will accelerate their progress as they transition to primary school.

In adding ECE programs to our schools, we also needed to establish a way of measuring the learning and impact of the ECE instruction. Using established research on the essential domains for early childhood education, our team developed and piloted a contextually relevant performance-based assessment for regular use in our ECE classrooms. The assessment encompasses ten domains of child development that allows us to guide and monitor each child’s progress during their first years of school.

Assessment is conducted through the teachers’ careful observations and documentation of the pupils performance with key tasks and routines. These situational assessments allow the teacher to see the authentic performance of the pupil and eliminates any burden or stress traditional testing can cause for young pupils. To create a safe and non-judgmental learning environment, the rating system for the assessment tool uses positive, child-centered language. A score of “Green” indicates that the pupil can regularly perform the designated skills with little or no help from the teacher. “Yellow” indicates that the pupil generally and consistently needs some mild to moderate help or guidance in order to perform the skills in question. A score of “Red” indicates that the pupil consistently needs more significant help to complete the skill being measured.

For example, in the domain of “self-help”:

• GREEN: Pupil A may nearly always be able to put on their shoes correctly after leaving the mat at the end of circle time. The same pupil is able to fasten and unfasten their clothes without help when coming and going from the toilet.

• YELLOW: Pupil B may put their shoes on but sometimes need reminders or help getting the shoes on the correct feet. The child may still need help some days with a button or zipper when coming and going from the toilet.

• RED: Pupil C may need help with their shoes nearly every day at the end of circle time – needing the teacher to hold the shoe while they guide their foot into the shoe. The child may need to come to the teacher each time before going to the toilet for help with buttons and zippers and need help re-fastening afterwards.

Lack of access to early childhood education opportunities has long been considered an influencing factor in lower school performance of pupils in rural communities in Zambia. By adding these ECE classrooms we are taking one more step to close the opportunity gaps that exist for rural learners and ensure our pupils have a strong foundation on which to build their education and their life!

Thank you to Addax & Oryx Foundation, Comundo and the International Foundation for supporting our ECE program!

-Annabelle