Securing education for children in Tanzania

Good reading skills are necessary for learning, passing exams, and for further education and employment. All children in Tanzania take national exams after seven compulsory years of primary schooling. Unfortunately, many children fail because of weak reading skills. For some, this may be a result of vision problems that are not known due to a lack of vision screening of children. This means that parents, teachers, and even the children themselves don´t know if their vision is normal. In general, there is little insight into children?s vision even though reading starts as a visual process and a child?s vision develops throughout the years in school. Huge classes and a major lack of textbooks means that the board is the teacher's most important teaching aid. All texts are written on the blackboard and pupils must copy them into their notebooks. The lack of good visual inputs, through reduced vision and poor lightening, has serious consequences for learning, self-confidence, and motivation, and for managing tests and exams. The project focuses on how vision influences reading and learning. In two years, the project has educated 30 teachers in Tanzania in the Continuing Proffesional Development (CPD) course "Vision for reading and learning" (30 credits) at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL). Students learned to evaluate pupils' functional vision and to develop stimulating educational methods for strengthening the visual elements needed for reading. Six of them have completed a Master Degree in the topic at local universities with support from the project, and two are working towards a PhD. The long-term goal is for more students to receive a customized education, master their exams and have a better life. Activities related to the project objectives: * Innovation in relation to basic literacy and vision: We have assessed whether pupils' functional vision suits the visual requirements in school. New teaching methods have been tested and shown a positive effect on students' visual perception and reading. Sixty pupils have received individual lessons and an experiment has been conducted for a whole class. Master and PhD students are linked to this project objective. * Methods that expose students' visual challenges: At two primary schools, approx. 250 pupils have been vision screened using standardized methods. An eye-tracker developed by HVL has been further developed and used to detect eye motor activities during reading. Almost 40 percent of the students struggle with various degrees and forms of visual disturbance. Many require facilitation or vision stimulation. Teachers have increased their understanding of individual pupils' visual challenges, their consequences, and how to help them. Also, here the Master students were involved. * The CPD-course was completed by 21 educators at Patandi and nine teachers from primary schools. Primary school teachers now apply the knowledge in their schools, while teachers at Patandi arrange courses for authorities and implement the knowledge in their education of primary school teachers and special needs teachers. The local and national school authorities wish to implement the knowledge at different educational levels as well as in colleges and universities. MDs and international articles have been published on vision assessment and stimulation, reading in pupils with albinism, eye-tracking, and the need for vision competence among teachers. The international digital conference Securing Education through Vision was held at Patandi in April 2021. The work now is to secure that this new competence reaches out into the national education system. The goal is to spread vision knowledge all over Tanzania through the NORHEDII-project Learning is visual (2021-2024). Project partners: Patandi College of Special Needs Education, Tanzania; Koblenz University of Applied Sciences, Germany and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.

Outcomes Special needs teachers with CPD-course in vision, Masters and PhDs. Improved learning outcomes in primary schools. New teaching methods in primary-/special needs education. Higher competence in the special needs teacher's education. More focus on children's learning, their vision and viewing conditions in class. Established an assessment center. Improved the eye-tracking program. Better digital tools and digital education. Impacts Through the up-comming NORHEDII-project Learning is Visual: Curriculum changes in the education of special needs teachers. Mandatory vision screening. Implement vision competence in all teacher's education in Tanzania. CPD-courses in vision. Master's program in vision education. More PhD-students in the field.

Vision is a critical factor for learning in Tanzanian primary school where pupils lack textbooks and are educated in crowded classrooms were the blackboard is the dominant pedagogical resource. Teaching normally takes place by the students copying what the teachers write on the blackboard. The vision of this project is to reduce poverty through stimulating better reading capabilities among students and, consequently, increase the percentage of students passing the final exams in Tanzanian Primary Schools, based on better viewing conditions in the classrooms and improving vision functions among students with vision disturbances. The overall goal is to increase the efficiency of Tanzanian education addressed by four interlocking aims: * Innovation of new methodologies for teacher?s basic reading education and general teaching practice. This educational program is based on new insight into the influence of vision in learning and especially in pupils reading skills. * Introduce methods for identifying pupils with vision challenges, including eye motoric disturbances, reduced visual attention as well as pupils with a visual impairment. * Establish a continuing professional development (CPD) in special needs education of vision disturbances inspired after the CPD at Bergen University College (HiB 2016) where vision functions significance in reading are focused. * Carry out joint research concerning the conditions for large-scale implementation. a) Identify vision problem and grasp the relation between viewing conditions in Tanzanian classrooms and reading problems, as well as effects of the planned interventions. b) Identify contextual criteria for large-scale implementations through analyses of local customs and learning culture, organizational and governance facilitators and barriers.