1 GVI Fiji Yasawas 2014 Achievement Report

GVIs First Term at Nasomolevu School

Yasawa Hub Achievement Report August 2014 Education Enrichment Through the implementation of a new support program at Nasomolevu Catholic School, an understaffed primary school on the island of Matacawalevu in the Yasawa Island Group GVI has focused on improving students literacy and numeracy in preparation for national Literacy and Numeracy Assessment tests.

About the school As of 2014, Nasomolevu Catholic Schools teaching staff dropped to just four teachers for eight classes. Each teacher is now responsible for teaching two classes and age groups. The syllabi for their two classes are not combined and so the teachers simultaneously teach two lessons. This doubles the teachers workloads and reduces the amount of time children have with their teachers, which has had a negative impact on student performance.

Nasomolevu School and Global Vision International (GVI) have worked together in the past when the GVI community team helped to make various infrastructure improvements at the school. The GVI education team also placed an education intern at the school for three months. Because of their situation and previous work with us, Nasomolevu contacted GVI in February 2014 in request for assistance.

Implementing the Program In the school committees annual plan and three year strategy, they had identified a goal of increasing Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (LANA) scores by twenty percent. LANA is a national test for students in years four, six and eight. However, as the teachers are already teaching two classes they have little time to commit to extra work with these students.

It was decided that GVI volunteers would attend the school one day a week and create extra lessons, workshops and individual work to reinforce the literacy and numeracy skills they were to be tested on in the target group. Working in smaller groups allowed the students to ask more questions and receive extra practice.

The resources created include worksheets, games and activities. By building up the resources and keeping them at the school we allow the children to use them for extra practice when GVI is off-site Fig.1.This board game, made from up-cylced

materials, is designed to increase vocabulary.

2 GVI Fiji Yasawas 2014 Achievement Report

(see fig.1).

The library facilities at the school had been unused for so long that the books and the room was covered in rat and lizard excrement, some of the books were ruined due to mold and there were so many books that the useful ones were lost amongst the out of date/damaged ones.

The GVI team worked to remove hazardous material (fig.2.), clean the room and books that remained and lay new flooring (fig.3.). Through the classification of sections the books were made more accessible to the students and teachers. The students and teachers were involved throughout the refurbishment process in order to establish a sense of ownership.

The completion of the work was celebrated with a tea attended by teachers, students and GVI staff and volunteers (fig.4.).

To encourage the use of the library, GVI conducted workshops with the older students on how to find and select books, locate information and relate findings to their studies (fig.5.).

The younger students have enjoyed story time and individual reading sessions in the library (fig.6.).

Next Steps The Education project will continue to work with years 4, 6 and 8 in line with the LANA criteria until the results from the exams are determined. At which point, the results will be analyzed and those students who need extra support will be selected to work with volunteers.

Preparation for next years LANA exams will be informed by the new games teaching methods introduced by GVI volunteers for classes 3, 5 and 7.

Use of the newly refurbished library will be incorporated into daily lesson plans to ensure that students learn how to research information and comprehend and analyze text.

For more information on GVIs projects in Fiji please visit www.gvi.co.uk

For more information on our global impact visit www.gviworld.com

Library Improvements

Fig.2.

Fig.3.

Fig.4.

Fig.5.

Fig.6.

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