FastTrack

Technology enabled foundational literacy and numeracy skills program for out-of-school children

Apart from having the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, Nigeria is currently facing a huge learning crisis. 46% of grade 3 children cannot read a word, and 31% of grade 3 children cannot complete a one-digit addition problem. Leveraging a tri-dimensional model, our solution addresses this learning crisis by providing alternative accelerated education for out-of-school children

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Overview

Information on this page is provided by the innovator and has not been evaluated by HundrED.

Updated May 2023

Web presence

2019

Established

8K 2024

1

Countries

Students basic

Target group

According to UNICEF, the number of children in school who are not learning outnumbers the number of children who are out-of-school. With FastTrack, we want to see an educational system in which children are kept learning in school and those who are unable to attend school due to contextual factors have access to alternative learning opportunities to acquire foundational literacy and numeracy skill

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

Data from countries around the world shows that learning poverty is disproportionately distributed and children in developing countries, particularly those living in emergency contexts are most affected. Therefore, we have designed FastTrack to provide foundational learning for out-of-school children whose education needs remain largely invisible due to insufficient data, resources, and support.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

Our tech-enabled foundational learning innovation called FastTrack combines 3 proven independent teaching and learning approaches, including the Teaching-at-the-Right-Level (TaRL) methodology, a bilingual instruction model, and the talking book and pen; a specially printed book with unique dot patterns and a digital pen with audio capabilities that aids the bilingual model of instruction. Over a 6-month period, learning is facilitated by community-based facilitators/teachers and this model means that the ripple effects continue even after our work has ended, because the expertise and knowledge remain in the local community. An impact evaluation conducted in 2022 using quasi-experimental evaluation shows that the treatment group had an overall 76% increase in the number of children who made significant progress across different levels of literacy and numeracy, while the control group did not show any significant improvement even though they were exposed to other learning programs.

How has it been spreading?

From winning TheirWorld's first ever innovation in education award to being selected as one of the 10 winners of the Jacobs Foundation and MIT Solve LEAP challenge, and now a semi-finalist for the Recoupling Awards, FastTrack has been recognized as a proven and sustainable intervention for improving foundational learning. Since the first pilot in 2019, we have deployed FastTrack to reach 12,000 children, improving foundational skills in literacy and numeracy 2 times faster than conventional classrooms. We are starting a new partnership with Theirworld to reach an additional 10,000 children across 2 years. By 2030, we plan to scale FastTrack to reach 1 million children across five African countries, including Rwanda, Kenya, Congo, Uganda, and Ghana.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

The first step an organisation or individual need to take is to contact us to work together to conduct a contextual analysis survey to understand if our innovation is appropriate for their context. If the analysis result reveals contextual appropriateness, we will train the entity on how to implement our innovation and we give them our standard operating procedure (SOP).

Implementation steps

Recruitment and Training Phase

This first phase involves recruiting and building the capacity of lesson facilitators, learning mentors, lead trainers, enumerators and project supervisors as a community of practice that will ensure the successful delivery of the program.

Enumeration, Pre-testing and Grouping Phase

This phase is characterised with learners enumeration, baseline assessment and grouping learners according to their unique learning level as identified through the baseline assessment using standard assessment tools such as EGRA.

Learning Phase

At this phase, children will be grouped into learning clusters and a facilitator will be attached to each cluster. Each cluster contains a minimum of 10 children and maximum of 17 children. Through the use simple, targeted learning materials and fun activities, children will lead their own learning sessions with the help of a facilitator to guide and monitor learning sessions.

Continuous Monitoring and Evaluation

This a core component of our innovation. Periodic and continuous monitoring and evaluation activities will be conducted to track learning progress, document learnings, and ensure that all indicators for success are in check.

Post Testing and Support Phase

This final phase of FastTRACK is an evaluation process. This is particularly important to assess the children’s performance with literacy and numeracy checkpoints identified prior to the start of the intervention. It is expected that the beneficiaries will be engaged in a play-based final assessment built on real life scenarios to evaluate the reading, writing and arithmetic abilities.