English

Across Senegal and the Sahel, many children are taught in a language they do not understand, from their first day of primary school. Under Mamadou Amadou Ly’s leadership, Associates in Research and Education for Development (ARED) supports schools in Senegal, Mauritania, and Gambia to deliver teaching in a language children already know and the language they need to learn — an approach that’s leading to dramatic improvements in literacy levels and promising improvements in math.

Access to quality education in languages children know is transformative for individuals, families, and communities. As well as improving learning outcomes, it fosters inclusivity by making education more accessible to children and facilitating family participation in their children’s education. For Mamadou and his colleagues, this approach supports ARED’s broader goal of developing capacity in African communities so they can contribute to the continent’s equitable sustainable development. 

To scale ARED’s work, Mamadou develops and sustains close working relationships with teachers, communities, governments, and development partners. Communities support children through school management, funding community teachers, recruiting at-risk students, and supporting children’s reading development. 

ARED also ensures that its quality, culturally relevant teaching and learning resources are widely available to the global education community. Its textbooks, teacher guides, and storybooks are openly licensed on the Open Education Resources (OER) World Map and Early Learning Resource Network (ELRN). ARED also partners with the World Bank’s Read@Home initiative to get engaging learning content in many languages into children’s hands. 

ARED is also the lead technical partner of Senegal’s Ministry of Education, supporting the government to scale bilingual structured pedagogy to all Senegalese primary schools. In addition to Senegal, ARED supports national policy development and large-scale bilingual programs to improve foundational learning in The Gambia and Mauritania.