Photo credit: Vincent Reynaud-Lacroze
Faced with the risk of dropping out of school, Aide et Action and its partner Plan International Benin, propose the implementation of innovative and adapted monitoring tools allowing for practising an inclusive teaching strategy.
Carried out in consortium by Aide et Action and its partner Plan International in Benin, the AGIR project is being developed in the Atacora and Atlantic departments with the aim of increasing and strengthening children's access to and retention in school. To achieve this, monitoring tools based on appropriate and adapted methods are implemented.
These innovative tools, such as correspondence books, absence monitoring sheets, school violence monitoring sheets, observation grids, etc., aim to help teachers to better monitor children and to practice an inclusive teaching strategy in their classrooms in order to promote inclusion and build confidence in students. All teachers involved in the project are of course trained in the objectives and use of the tools.
A correspondence book adapted to illiterate parents
The carnet de correspondance is a basic document that serves as an exchange between parents and school officials. However, in the villages, it is not always understood because not all parents can read or write. To communicate effectively with them, the booklet is therefore adapted and contains illustrative colours (green colour confirms good performance and yellow colour means that performance is not good) to enable everyone - literate or illiterate - to follow the performance level of their children without difficulty. Based on the colour identified by the teacher, the parent understands the level of skill acquisition of their child. If this is not satisfactory, they are then able to seek solutions to remedy the situation.
An absence tracking sheet to ensure attendance
The Absence Tracking Sheet is a tool that allows teachers to understand the causes of children's absences so that all school stakeholders can ensure their attendance. It is filled in every Friday on the basis of the call register. This allows, at the end of each week, to count how many times and how many pupils have been absent and if their absences were justified or not. In both cases, the teacher is obliged to alert the parents' office, to summon the parent and, depending on the case (chronic illnesses, vulnerabilities of all kinds), to refer the matter to Aide et Action.
The school violence monitoring form for reporting abuse
Unfortunately, there are still many cases of violence in schools in Benin. The main reason for this is that there is no anonymous mechanism for reporting cases of violence in schools, where the teacher is all-powerful and often feared by the pupils. The establishment of suggestion boxes allows children to denounce abuses by teachers and also those committed between students. A committee composed of the school administration, parents and student representatives will periodically review the contents of the boxes and make decisions on the further investigation and sanctioning process.
