Jugar, Zambia—Chiyanjamo Nyirenda, de tres años, ha dado grandes pasos desde principios de marzo, cuando cruzó por primera vez las puertas de El lugar de Mimi, el primer centro de educación infantil de su tipo que utiliza la metodología The Creative Way.
El niño alguna vez tranquilo que no sabía inglés ahora balbucea en inglés con sus compañeros de clase y su hermana de 5 años., escribir números y colorear dentro de las líneas, dice su madre. Además, está emocionado de ir a la escuela todos los días.
“Después de un mes, noté muchos cambios. Ahora parece un hombre adulto.. Él hace todo por su cuenta.,” says his mother, Barbara Banguna, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for USAID’s Read to Succeed project, que es implementado por Creative Associates International.
The Creative Way is designed to build children’s self-confidence and utilize their innate predisposition for learning. The methodology provides guidelines for the physical space of the learning environment, así como la enseñanza de la pedagogía, evaluaciones del currículo y del aprendizaje.
“When we were told how [El lugar de Mimi] would develop children I became interested, especially with my three-year-old,” says Banguna. “He has been helped a lot and we are talking about just one month. If he does six more months, there will be a lot of changes.”
Providing quality education close to home
En su fase piloto, Mimi’s Place provides learning opportunities for 3 a 6 year olds of Read to Succeed project staff, which will boost the chances of their children’s success in school. The center is part of a larger strategy and commitment by Creative to recognize and support local staff and families. Mimi’s Place is not affiliated or endorsed by the U.S. Agencia para el Desarrollo Internacional.
“I’ve never heard of anything like this before in the places I’ve worked. Never,” says Banguna.
Wamuki Imasiku, Procurement and ICT Officer for USAID Read to Succeed and father of 3-year-old Catherine, has seen Creative’s literacy education transformation efforts across six Zambian provinces. Based on that programmatic work, he was confident in the quality of education Creative’s Mimi’s Place would provide his daughter.
“When they talked about opening a school here for the Read to Succeed staff’s children, I knew it would be an example of what Read to Succeed has been doing," él dice.
Playing & learning for school readiness
The Creative Way methodology aims to prepare young learners for entering first grade. Pre-school is now a national requirement in Zambia, but the quality of that education varies, say Mimi’s Place instructors.
Within the colorful walls of Mimi’s Place, sin embargo, instructors emphasize problem solving and independent thinking, so these curious young minds can learn through exploration and play.
“Mimi’s Place methodology is quite interesting in that children can express themselves…they do that critical thinking,” says Assistant Teacher Yvonne Sakala, who is trained in the Creative Way methodology. “It’s so exciting that the children have an interest in learning.”
Using resources like puzzles, educational tools, outside exploration and asking children questions, the educators guide their students through a hands-on engaging learning process where they discover new things on their own and begin to find solutions to problems.
“Here we use a lot of resources to get them to start thinking,” explains Head Teacher Gertrude Chitanda, pointing out colorful puzzles and educational toys around the classroom. “Now they are thinking on their own.”
She says her young learners have already progressed from knowing no English, en algunos casos, or hardly recognizing letters to sounding out words. They are making great strides and are on their way to being very well prepared for primary school.
“This is giving me more hope that by the end of the next term they can read a sentence, and by the time they go to grade one they’ll be able to read," ella dice.
