The journey to scaling the Learner Guide Program in Tanzania - Video Transcript
Student To me the Learner Guide program is the key to a better future.
Stumai, CAMFED Association member and Learner Guide Learner Guide program provides life skills training in schools it was established in 2013. The content within this book is life changing for the students. This book has many motivational stories that encourage us to keep on striving for success and that everything is possible.
Lydia Wilbard, National Director, CAMFED Tanzania This program has been very beneficial because having a dedicated person who comes at least twice a week or once a week dedicating around two and a half hours to work within the school and work with the children, support the learning groups and deliver this curriculum. The Learner Guides are peers, they relate to children easily because they are of the same age group.
Makuru Petro, Assistance Director Policy and Planning (MoEST) Learner Guides are a link between teachers and the society. Teachers get to monitor their students while in school and the parents monitor their children while at home. But in between school and home it is usually difficult to monitor the students because they are a part of the school and the community that the students come from.
Eliakim Mtawa, Assistant Director Youth Empowerment Learner Guide program is mostly done by youth volunteers.
Student This program instils self-awareness skills in students and enables them to achieve their life goals. It nurtures young people to be kind and respectful. A respectful person can easily grab opportunities.
Student I aspire to be a nurse. This book will nurture me towards attaining that goal.
Eliakim Mtawa, Assistant Director Youth Empowerment The program has been highly successful in Tanzania. You can see the difference between the schools that run this program and the ones that do not.
Furhaha, CAMFED Association member and Learner Guide The Dunia Yangu Bora program has instilled self-confidence in me. It has also instilled trust on others towards me. That is why I have been entrusted with a leadership position in my community. I urge the government to scale up this program because it is very helpful to the students especially those who come from poor living conditions.
Student I wish ‘Dunia Yangu Bora’ would reach all secondary in Tanzania. So that all students would become better citizens of the world.
Student I urge the government to scale-up this program to more schools. Currently this program is only available in few regions. If it reaches more regions more students will become self-aware, and absenteeism will drop down. Eventually they will be helpful to their communities.
Lydia Wilbard, National Director, CAMFED Tanzania So the Real Time Scaling lab, it’s a process. It has been a process. And this came about after this program won an award. So in 2017, the program was recognized internationally as one of the program that has multi-impact, like it touches different areas in addressing education challenges and youth challenges. But also it was a program that was viewed as if it can be scaled easily because it is built within an existing system.
So from that award, this program was identified to participate in the so-called Learning Lab, which is conducted by Brookings Center for Universal Education. So Tanzania, we were identified also we got an opportunity to participate in that. And on a Tanzania version now that’s when we developed a real time scaling lab. And this was meant to be a process of dissecting the program, to be able to look at it closer together with the different expertize, to see the potentiality and the process of which the program cannot be mainstreamed in the government system.
Eliakim Mtawa, Assistant Director Youth Empowerment The government should find a way to scale-up this program to more regions drawing experience from the ones that already implement it. This is because this program has notable impacts which necessitate a scale-up to those regions that haven’t yet been reached.
Lydia Wilbard, National Director, CAMFED Tanzania I would wish this to happen in every corner of Tanzania because, come on, we are currently working in 404 secondary schools in 27 districts. And Tanzania is over 186, I think districts and over 5000 secondary schools. So if we have this program in every secondary school and probably later in other levels, actually, this will bring in tremendous results that we have seen in other districts in terms of reducing dropouts, enhancing transition from one class to another of every girl child, but also improving performance.
And most importantly, also, it will help transition in your youth, especially young women, because young women face a lot of challenges as they transition from school to community. So having a very well-organized sector of giving back, of volunteering to the system that have supported them through, I think this is an important thing. And volunteerism skill is very key in any person.
Makuru Petro, Assistance Director Policy and Planning (MoEST) Real Time Scaling Lab is a way to make sure that what is done as a pilot should be scaled-up to the whole country.
Ochola Wayoga, Coordinator -TENMET The Real Time Scaling Lab was a multistakeholder approach to redefine CAMFED engagement and the intervention on Learner Guide in terms of its future sustainability, but also in terms of mainstreaming to the educational sector.
Dr. Sempeho Siafu, Institute of Adult Education I am excited to be part of the Real Time Scaling Lab. After being familiar with the Learner Guide program we know that it is an agent of change. We hope that many elements from the Learner Guide program are going to be copied and adopted nation-wide. This will bring huge transformations in our country.
Makuru Petro, Assistance Director Policy and Planning (MoEST) Scaling Lab has been inclusive. It contains various members including the beneficiaries, the government and other experienced stakeholders from various countries. All these efforts are directed towards bringing impact to the nation. I urge countries that implement this program to cooperate with various stakeholders so as to continue getting their constructive input. That will be useful to their entire countries.
Dr. Sempeho Siafu, Institute of Adult Education They should come and learn from us. On how their countries should bring together multiple actors in their discussions.