Program Summary

The TaRL Namibia program was approved by E.D. Sanet Steenkamp as a pilot by the Ministry of Education Arts and Culture on the 19th of March, 2020. We began TaRL classes as a young, 4-person team of unpaid volunteers teaching TaRL classes at our pioneer school M.H. Greef in Windhoek. Teaching classes ourselves to master the TaRL approach, we self-funded our small program and even implemented innovative phone-based lessons during the pandemic. The TaRL approach is so simple, low-cost and effective that we achieved outstanding results even during the pandemic! In just 60 days of TaRL at M.H. Greef working with Grade 3 learners, we achieved 90% of learning to read. In math, 82% of learners learned a new math operation.

Due to the efforts of three highly pro-active and efficient government departments—The Division of Special Programmes and Schools (DSPS), the National Advisory Service (NAS), and the National Institute for Educational Development (NlED), the Teaching at the Right Level programme quickly grew. Policies, tools and guides were developed in a few months to integrate TaRL into the national learning support and inclusive education frameworks. The basics of the TaRL approach, as part of learning support policy trainings, has been delivered in 6 regions: Khomas, Kavango East, Kavango West, Kunene, Zambezi, Omaheke.

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The TaRL programme is much more than teacher training! The TaRL model aligns teachers, schools and government officials to ensure all children master foundational skills. TaRL requires leadership at regional level to use ongoing numeracy and literacy assessments to support teachers and officials in improving learning levels.