By Merritt Frey, Executive Director

Way back in the early days of the pandemic, we — like everyone else — were scrambling to find ways to keep our kids connected to school as things shut down. School closures in Mali were total…there is no online learning in our remote, rural villages! One tool we decided to test was incredibly simple, but turned out to also be incredibly engaging.

That tool is a set of simple, photocopied workbooks we distributed in our villages. The workbooks focus on French and English skills, along with critical thinking fun and games. Each workbook has 14 lessons and the students can take them home for 14 days before returning them to their (closed) school.

We had no idea what would happen. Would students even take the workbooks? Would they possibly return them (or would they just be lost at home)? Would the students be able to struggle through alone?

We were so pleasantly surprised! We found that the vast majority of students picked up workbooks, and 70 to 80% of the workbooks were returned for grading. The student’s scores weren’t great, but they struggled through and practiced. This was our actual goal — we can’t replace in-classroom learning with a little workbook, but we can keep children using their language skills and connecting to the idea of education.

In fact, the workbooks were so popular that the teachers in participating villages asked us to continue the campaign even once schools reopened in January! You can check out some photos below from The Mindful Bunch Middle School in Kafara. These photos show students who completed their workbooks receiving soap to take home, and the high-scoring student receiving bags of rice and sugar to bring home to her family.

Over the summer we will evaluate this campaign and improve it for the coming school year. We believe it will be particularly important during Mali’s instable periods and times when the teachers go on strike. By keeping kids engaged with their learning, we aim to help them get back in the classroom anytime there is a disruption…because those happen far too often!