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The
THRASS pilot literacy project has now been running for six months, during which
time there has been a THRASS training course for teachers and a follow-up
workshop. The Project Co-ordinator, Dr Nkechi Christopher of the University of
Ibadan, tells us how impressed everyone is with what is happening but also that
they have experienced a slight problem, in that they have not been able to
maintain a conventional control group for the project.
The
intention had been to have children in an experimental group learning THRASS and
others in the control group not doing so. But there has been an influx of other
children wanting to join the children doing the THRASS programme. In one school
in Oko the parents and the teachers association insisted that all the children
in Primary One must do the THRASS programme and some parents who previously
hadn’t even been sending their children to school suddenly started to send them.
Some parents even withdrew their children from others schools and brought them
to the pilot school, with the result that one class that previously had 45
pupils suddenly had 78, with more and more coming every day!
The
phoneme songs are really popular with the children and, as we see in the video,
can be sung very successfully without the vocal or instrumental soundtracks on
the CD. Only one of the schools had electricity and many of them had problems
re-charging the 12-volt battery with which they were supplied. As a consequence
they were unable to use the CD players and the children were not able to hear
the soundtracks as much as had been hoped.
Professor Soji Adejumo, Chairman, Oyo State Universal Basic
Education Board (SUBEB) tells us that everyone is happy with the project so far
and by extending it to other schools, and involving more teachers and empowering
them with the THRASS resources, they will be able to improve the delivery of
languages amongst their pupils. The teaching is impressive, the teachers and
pupils are enthusiastic, and they are already beginning to see results. They
feel that THRASS is the right approach to teaching English and is enabling
pupils to pronounce the words correctly and as they would be pronounced in an
English-speaking country, which is most important.
Subuola Nursery and Primary School in Ibadan is the only private
school in the project and, amazingly, we even see some six-year-olds there
presenting a 90-minute demonstration of SING-A-LONG! The teachers tell us how
much the children love the SING-A-LONG songs, which they can sing without the
book and which they sing everywhere. They are very proud of them. Dr Christopher
tells us that the children in the experimental group there have performed beyond
expectation. They were taught using THRASS for just two hours a week for 16
weeks but already their perception of sound is fantastic and their reading and
spelling ability is far higher than that of the children in the control group
who were initially more advanced. She is so glad that THRASS UK agreed to
extend the pilot to include the school.
Other teachers tell us how much the children’s pronunciation and
writing have improved with THRASS, and they are also able to better express
themselves. We also see groups of children working with the THRASS Picturecharts
and phoneme-grapheme cards, tracing letters on their overwrite charts and
singing SING-A-LONG songs.
Dr
Christopher feels that the really good thing about THRASS is that it takes
little or no persuasion to get teachers to use it. The teachers who are doing
the THRASS programme are really envied, even though they are having to do a lot
more work. THRASS is enabling teachers to realise their inadequacies and the
shortcomings in their training but they always willing to listen to suggestions
on how to improve.
The
THRASS programme allows for independent study by teachers who are able to pursue
their own personal development. They are prepared to do anything to help make a
success of the project and it has really improved the state of teaching, with
the children being happy to learn.
THRASS
UK would like to thank all the learners, teachers and educators involved in the
video.
 Watch the videostream
by just clicking on the link.
THRASS in Nigeria
Part 3
or Download the WMV
Right
Click and Save Target As.
THRASS in Nigeria Part 3
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