Lessons Learned
Communities appreciate HIV/AIDS mitigation messages more when the messages are contextualized.
MESA is increasingly learning that rural communities take interest and appreciate HIV/AIDS mitigation messages more when such messages are carefully negotiated in the context of a utility rather than when they are simply judgmental as is generally the trend for many organizations. In other words, people seem not to care much if they are told: "Don't do this or that else you will perish, your family will suffer etc".
MESA is learning that by approaching the subject of HIV/AIDS through the school and teachers, parents' recognize the impact HIV/AIDS has for their children's success. Following this up by talking about a happier future for the pupils seems very logical to many of them. As a result, the parents' interest and commitment is captivated.
Youth involvement in HIV/AIDS message dissemination is powerful and sustainable.
MESA did not initially plan to build a strong youth involvement network in its HIV/AIDS mitigation interventions. Emphasis was on the adult community members: teachers, parents, traditional leaders etc. While this is in order, the need to deliberately encourage systematic youth interventions wherever the opportunity arises must be recognized. The youth, led by their teachers, have shown great enthusiasm and zeal to develop their own school TFD troupes with the goal of sharing HIV/AIDS mitigation messages not only amongst their own peers but into the surrounding communities as well. The results have been very encouraging.
MESA will also encourage peer outreach workers (POWs) among both pupils and out-of-school youth to ensure that all angles of the school community are mobilized in the fight against HIV/AIDS proliferation relative to MESA's effort to raise effective schools.
Improving pupils' level of mastery in English reading and comprehension can only be achieved through very intensive training of teachers in the teaching of English.
The teachers are either ill-prepared (trained) or not trained at all to teach English. The structure of the English Teachers' Guides limits the amount of class reading time so much that even the best of teachers have very little opportunity to give their pupils practice reading lessons, especially when most class sizes are greater than 60 pupils. In effect only a few pupils have any chance to be heard reading, to say nothing about receiving remedial reading lessons. As though this were not enough, most pupils have illiterate patents/guardians with little ability or interest to encourage children to read while at home, assuming they have anything to read in the home.
MESA was mindful of this situation in all of its impact districts. It re-defined its teacher training programs for intensity and thoroughness; it is approaching the Teachers' Guides more imaginatively to ensure that pupils are given time to practice reading; and it launched community reading campaigns to generate community support for teachers in this particular initiative. Meanwhile, the shortcomings of the Teachers' Guides are being brought to the attention of the appropriate curriculum developers.
Teachers' performance improves faster and more meaningfully when assessed through continuous assessment modality.
Continuous assessment is proving to be an effective means of assessing teachers. Teachers assessed in this way progress better through various levels of performance than they do when traditional methodologies of assessment are used.
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