Building BRIDGES to success

UWTT launched the multi-year UWTT Building Bridges to Success Impact Programme in 2019, with our special focus on entry level Infants 1 and 2 classes to help build strong foundational skills to ensure increasing number of children reading to learn by age 8 or standard 2 as our target.  The super goal of the Programme is to improve childhood success and resilience so that the likelihood of completing secondary school successfully is increased.  It is clear that COVID-19 policies have amplified the inequity that already existed by community, gender and in our education and health sectors and there is need as well as opportunity to address these urgently and differently.  

The COVID 19 pandemic made 2020 an unprecedented year in many ways.  There is much work to be done to address the learning loss in our vulnerable communities.  While remote schooling allowed continuity of schooling during the lockdown, and despite the generosity of individuals and corporate sector in the form of devices and connectivity, lower income families struggle to sustain the effort needed for their children to keep up.  Globally, studies on learning loss in communities which already suffered from high levels of learning poverty calls for an acceleration and intensification of inputs for these children.  These children need accelerated input when they return.  We have a chance to reimagine and #BuildBackBetter in the recovery of our children.   Building Bridges to Success is a collective working advocacy through action Programme aligned to the Ministry of Education Guidelines for re-opening schools, September 2021.

We have started to adapt the Programme 2021-2023 to support blending schooling as part of the New Norm – which keeps our target on supporting schools to re-open in person schooling. Blended learning is an approach that leverages both digital tools and face-to-face instruction and is built on the premise that students will be attending classes in school buildings.  The Programme comprises a multi-component synergistic approach to reach the children by supporting parents, teachers, school leadership.  We are resolute that the Building Bridges Programme is even more relevant for COVID recovery in the communities we serve, there is much work to be done

The Components of the Programme include the following objectives:

1. Support parents to better engage in learning process of blended schooling and literacy
2. Provide teachers with support for language development and social emotional learning, small group learning and supervision during break time
3. Promote out of school time (OST) play opportunities (music and sport)
4. Provide support to school leadership to create a culture of shared responsibility
5. Strengthen capacity for blended schooling, including public health safety protocols and connectivity capacity of school as connectivity hub students and teachers

We use a set of basic selection criteria to help identify schools for the Programme:

• A high needs community
• Strong leadership and engagement of the Principal and senior staff
• Teachers interested in the importance of building early language and numeracy skills

For the longer-term impact of the Programme, UWTT is committed to creating and supporting an advocacy programme around what is really means for schools to be places for learning.  We also feel that there is a need that this can align to achieving the National Vision 2030 Theme I: Putting People First, Nurturing our Greatest Asset and to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) – particularly related to improving Quality Education (SDG4), reducing Inequity (SDG10) and eliminating poverty (SDG1).