The two-year program, which is particularly concerned with the education of village women, also integrates elements of traditional culture into the curriculum and promotes community ownership and problem solving for improving living conditions in the villages. Each module requires approximately two months and is presented in 24 two-hour sessions. Based on their work schedules, the learners choose the days and time of the classes.
Most classes usually meet three times a week, every other day.
This schedule was recognized as essential to sustained learning because it gave learners the time they needed to assimilate the new knowledge. Earlier traditional methods of teaching, where long periods were spent on letter repetition and syllable combination, had failed. The educators found that women in particular had a great deal of trouble with the traditional method because they lost the meaning of the words while concentrating on the letters and syllables. The whole language approach exposed the participants to real texts. By the end of the first module, learners could read and write their names, the name of their village, and even write letters with the help of the facilitator.