Lesotho

Jolly Phonics has a promising future in Lesotho.

Project Start Date

2021

Implementing Partner

Dolen Cymru

Government Partners

Lesotho Ministry of Education and Training, Lesotho National Curriculum Development Council

Dolen Cymru Wales Lesotho Link are a small Welsh charity that have been twinned with Lesotho for over 35 years. Part of their education work, funded by the Welsh Government is to support teachers in literacy and numeracy. They have been using the Jolly Phonics programme since 2013 when the new Integrated Primary Curriculum was introduced across Lesotho. This asks teachers to specifically teach the letter sounds during each Unit from Grade 1 through to Grade 4. Teacher knowledge and skills in this area was very low.

Dolen Cymru has been focusing its work in the rural town of Thaba Tseka since 2016 by providing teaching placements for Welsh teachers in Basotho schools and Basotho teachers placements in Welsh Schools. This collaboration has led to many changes in teacher knowledge, understanding, attitude and behaviour on both sides. The school selected for the Pilot Project have all been part of this work and are familiar with the synthetic phonics approach. Each school has engaged in training and teaching over the years but major disruption has occurred in 2019 and 2020 due to teacher strikes and the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting a Jolly Phonics Pilot is essential in order to meet the academic gap for students who have missed so many days of school during this time. The Pilot schools have been trained and Grade 1 teaching has begun with great enthusiasm and support from our Lead Literacy Teachers and Education Officials.

1Pilot

6Teachers

480Pupils

Number of projects, teachers and pupils that have benefitted from Jolly Futures donations.

There is currently a pilot being implemented in 6 schools in Thaba Tseka.

Pilot phase

Rollout phase

Sustainability phase

Take a look at the project in action...

Project Reports and Documents

Pilot_Training_Report_Lesotho_June_2021.pdf

Pilot_Report_Lesotho_2021.pdf

Project Contacts

Sharon Flint

Education Officer, Dolen Cymru

Projects: All nationwide

Project Partners

Dolen connects two small countries at opposite ends of our world – Wales and Lesotho. They bring people together from both countries who want to make lasting positive change in their communities.