Better Education through Teacher Training, Evidence and Research (BETTER) Zambia is experiencing a severe learning crisis. By the end of primary education, many learners perform at or below grade 1 level, showing that they acquired few skills and competences during their years in primary school (SACMEQ, 2011; CU, 2019). Learners’ lack of foundational skills threatens their overall academic performance and increases their likelihood of dropping out of school (Evans et al., 2019). One of the root causes of this learning crisis is that primary teachers are not well equipped to teach foundational skills in grade 1. In subsequent grades, Zambian teachers tend to strictly follow the grade-congruent syllabus. Yet, not having acquired the basic skills to follow that syllabus, many learners fall, and stay, behind.

Remedial teaching is needed to provide those learners with an opportunity to catch up. Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) is a highly effective, evidence-based remedial teaching methodology that offers learners in grades 3, 4 and 5 the opportunity to acquire basic skills in literacy and numeracy (Banerjee et al., 2007). Instead of grouping learners by grade, learners are grouped by level in literacy and numeracy – with separate groups per domain. Per group/level, teachers use learner-centred, level-appropriate, playful activities to help learners progress to higher levels/groups until they master basic literacy and numeracy skills. In 2016, the Ministry of General Education (MoGE) partnered with VVOB and others to pilot TaRL in Zambia, aptly naming it the ‘Catch Up’ project (CU). From 80 schools in 2016-2017, CU is now successfully implemented in six out of ten Zambian provinces. In view of significant progress in learning outcomes, MoGE plans to scale up CU to the whole country, requesting technical assistance in doing so. The proposed activity therefore aims to support MoGE in expanding CU to Central province, fostering the basic skills of an estimated 300.000 learners, and in developing strategies for nationwide reach.
 The current programme aims to improve Early Grade Math (EGM) teaching – and thus learning – in Cambodia by simultaneously strengthening pre- and in-service teacher training on maths pedagogical content knowledge, as well as on level appropriate gender responsive teaching and classroom management – such a holistic approach does not only improve learning outcomes, but also learners’ wellbeing.

By building the capacity of teacher trainers and other relevant staff of the provincial teacher training centres of Kep, Kampong Thom and Kampot, student teachers in the targeted provinces will graduate with the skills to provide high quality, gender responsive and level-appropriate EGM teaching in their future classrooms. Concurrently, VVOB will strengthen the capacity of the in-service teacher professional development structures to train grade 1 to 3 teachers on gender responsive and levelappropriate EGM teaching. Since teachers flourish in an enabling environment, the programme also
provides professional development to school leaders and school-based mentors to support teachers in the implementation of EGM.

Whereas the implementation of the intervention focuses on the provinces of Kep, Kampong Thom and Kampot, VVOB will also partner with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) and one or more research institutions to foster a climate of collaboration, dialogue and adaptive learning aimed at
collecting evidence on the cost-effectiveness of the programme, which in turn will inform the design of a nationwide scaling strategy. Language-rich learning environments and improved teaching practices in preschools will help children to develop behavioural and language skills that will better prepare them to enter primary school, ready for learning. 

When preschool teachers acquire the foundational skill to observe children’s wellbeing and involvement in class, they will be able to reflect on the effect of their teaching approaches. This has been proven in Vietnam during the BAMI programme to positively impact the socio-emotional and cognitive development of preschool children. Adding a comprehensive understanding of how a child develops his/her language skills and honing the teacher’s skills to create a language-rich learning environment, each child will be stimulated to enjoy and playfully interact with language, taking his/her first steps in literacy. This will particularly benefit the most vulnerable children who are (with few exceptions) members of ethnic minority communities where Vietnamese is not spoken at home.

If school leaders have the competencies to create an enabling, collaborative and reflective professional environment for all teachers, in which each teacher’s professional development needs are identified and addressed as part of a continuous growth process, teachers will be able to learn and apply new skills, improving their teaching practice. If school leaders further have a basic understanding of how language is developed at the ages 3 to 5 and how teachers can be supported to create a language-rich learning environment in which a child’s language development will flourish, they will be able to lead, motivate and capacitate their teaching staff to turn the classrooms and schools into language-rich learning environments.
 The Learning Entrepreneurship and Agriculture Practically (LEAP) programme constitutes VVOB’s commitment to the realisation of Target 4.4. of SDG4 and Goal 1 of the Uganda Joint Strategic Framework (JSF). Indirectly, the programme also contributes to the achievement of JSF Goal 5.

More specifically, LEAP aims to improve the quality of agriculture and entrepreneurship teaching – and, hence, learning – in Uganda’s lower secondary (O-level) and secondary business, technical and vocational education and training (BTVET) schools. The programme introduces a model of effective, gender-responsive agriculture and entrepreneurship education that combines study and career guidance, project-based learning for agripreneurship, and work-based learning and that links schools to the agriculture world of work for the delivery of these three components.

Over the course of the programme, 250 pre-service BTVET (assistant) instructors, 1,770 pre- and in-service O-level teachers and 250 in-service school leaders in the catchment areas of  the National Instructors College Abilonino (NICA) and National Teachers Colleges (NTCs) Kabale, Mubende and Unyama will be equipped with the competences to do so, reaching 628,460 O-level learners and 13,715 learners in secondary BTVET. Thanks to LEAP, these educators will benefit from quality pre-service and continuous professional development (CPD) opportunities provided by NICA and the three NTCs.

While the programme focuses on strengthening the capacity of these selected professional development providers, VVOB also supports the Ministry of Education and Sports and the Uganda National Institute for Teacher Education (UNITE) to foster collaboration, dialogue and adaptive learning aimed at designing a nation-wide scaling strategy. This strategy will be informed by evidence about the pre- and in-service professional development programmes offered by the colleges and about schools piloting three-component model.  Tous les enfants – filles comme garçons – ont le droit à un accès égal à une éducation inclusive et de qualité qui leur donne toutes les capacités dont ils ont besoin pour valoriser au mieux leur potentiel humain, pour pouvoir subvenir à leurs besoins de façon durable, pour pouvoir contribuer à une société harmonieuse et démocratique, et pour améliorer leur bien-être individuel et familial. Les défis à relever pour atteindre l’ODD4 en 2030 sont multiples. En Belgique, des dizaines d’organisations travaillent dans le secteur de l’éducation et de la formation dans la coopération internationale. 
Comme il existait peu de concertation et de dialogue structurel entre tous ces différents acteurs, Educaid.be a été créé en 2010. La