Lesotho

Jolly Phonics has a promising future in Lesotho.

Project Start Date

2021

Implementing Partner

Dolen Cymru Wales Lesotho Link

Government Partners

Lesotho Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), Lesotho National Curriculum Development Council (NCDC)

Dolen Cymru Wales Lesotho Link are a small Welsh charity that have been twinned with Lesotho for over 35 years. Part of their education work, funded by the Welsh Government is to support teachers in literacy and numeracy. They have been using the Jolly Phonics programme since 2013 when the new Integrated Primary Curriculum was introduced across Lesotho. This asks teachers to specifically teach the letter sounds during each Unit from Grade 1 through to Grade 4. Teacher knowledge and skills in this area was very low. Dolen Cymru has been focusing its work in the rural town of Thaba Tseka since 2016 by providing teaching placements for Welsh teachers in Basotho schools and Basotho teachers placements in Welsh Schools. This collaboration has led to many changes in teacher knowledge, understanding, attitude and behaviour on both sides. The school selected for the Pilot Project have all been part of this work and are familiar with the synthetic phonics approach. Each school has engaged in training and teaching over the years but major disruption has occurred in 2019 and 2020 due to teacher strikes and the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting a Jolly Phonics Pilot is essential in order to meet the academic gap for students who have missed so many days of school during this time. The Pilot schools have been trained and Grade 1 teaching has begun with great enthusiasm and support from our Lead Literacy Teachers and Education Officials.

Behind these great results were passionate and dedicated teachers who found joy teaching reading and writing with Jolly Phonics. Dolen Cymru recognised these talented teachers and invested in their professional development journey to become official Jolly Phonics trainers. Lesotho has 12 local Jolly Phonics trainers who have been busy building up to the long awaited National Jolly Phonics Rollout.

Jolly Futures CIC have worked closely with Dolen Cymru to nurture this team. It is the first national rollout for Jolly Futures that is being managed and delivered by an entirely local team. This is something that all parties, including MoET, are proud of. The team are experts in their own context and are best able to navigate the challenges teachers face in the classrooms of their mountain kingdom.

1700+ Grade 1 teachers from every government primary school in the country are now being trained how to implement Jolly Phonics in their classrooms as well as how to use the donated materials. Classroom materials and Pupil Books for 80,000 pupils have been donated by Jolly Learning Ltd, the publisher of Jolly Phonics.

The Jolly Phonics National Rollout was officially launched on Thursday 17th February at Lesotho High School, Maseru. Key influential figures from the MoET attended the opening ceremony. Words of encouragement, gratitude and hope were delivered in moving speeches from Honourable Professor Ntoi Rapapa (Minister for Education), Harry MacDonald (British High Commissioner for Lesotho), Dr.Dira Khama( Principal Secretary of Basic Education) and Ms Thuto Ntsekhe-Mokhehle (CEO of Primary Education).

Following the exciting launch of the National Jolly Phonics rollout the training team trained all the grade 1 teachers in Maseru district. They continue to move out across the country training teachers in all 10 districts. 30 Senior Education Officials, representatives from districts and members from the National Curriculum Development Centre were also sensitised in the programme and shown how to monitor and mentor teachers using the revolutionary smartphone application, the Jolly Monitor.

1Pilot, National Rollout

2211Teachers

72153Pupils

Number of projects, teachers and pupils that have benefitted from Jolly Futures donations.

There is currently a pilot being implemented in 6 schools in Thaba Tseka.

Pilot phase

Rollout phase

Sustainability phase

Take a look at the project in action...

Project Reports and Documents

Lesotho 2023 Rollout Report.pdf

Pilot_Training_Report_Lesotho_June_2021.pdf

Pilot_Report_Lesotho_2021.pdf

Project Contacts

Sharon Flint

Co-Executive Director, Dolen Cymru Wales Lesotho Link

Projects: All nationwide

sharon@dolencymru.org

Project Partners

Dolen connects two small countries at opposite ends of our world – Wales and Lesotho. They bring people together from both countries who want to make lasting positive change in their communities.