The “Pedagogy of the Text” (PoT) approach focuses on the capacity of the pupil – child or adult – to master language. Right from the start, the learning process takes place during the active analysis of oral and written texts. The teacher urges the pupil to explain, describe, argue about, take a position on, and express his or her feelings about the text. The manner in which the language functions, its grammar, syntax, and orthography, are taken up later on.
The PoT method is the by-product of a critical analysis of the traditional literacy campaigns that were conducted in the 1960s in the countries of the “Third World”. Its objective is to develop autonomous thinking and a critical spirit. This method is also applied to disciplines other than languages, i.e., mathematics, social sciences, life sciences, and earth sciences. It promotes taking into account the student’s empirical knowledge, the systematic practical application of learned knowledge and a “balanced” bilingualism that uses and promotes the African languages as well as French during the entire learning process.
A Masters Degree programme offered in Ouagadougou since 2003
Despite significant progress, the educational systems in Sub-Saharan Africa continue to be confronted with enormous difficulties: a high drop-out rate, the low quality of the programmes, and a persistently low level of access. The SDC supports one effective response to this state of affairs: training the teacher-trainers. This approach is one way of sustainably improving education.
In 2003, the SDC decided to support the University of Ouagadougou in setting up a PoT Masters programme. The programme was established with the support of the Swiss non-governmental organisation Enfants du Monde. It is now part of the University’s programme for a degree in Development and Adult Education (DAE).
Two classes, with some 60 professionals trained from all over the region, have already graduated. Their Master’s degree in hand, they are now at work in the field.
With this project, the SDC does not limit itself to simply supporting the application of the PoT approach in community schools or in literacy centres. By training the trainers, it also intervenes“upstream” along the entire education chain. The programme has a regional impact since the graduates hail from Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali.
Keeping a budget, taking notes, and saving a corn field
Recent studies conducted in Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin, as well as in Colombia and Guatemala, have measured the effectiveness of the PoT approach. A few examples of the numerous positive results of the PoT include:
- rapid learning and good maintenance of the knowledge acquired,
- increased attendance at the literacy centres and schools,
- development of a critical mind and a sense of initiative,
- better hygiene and the prevention of illnesses,
- the schooling of young girls, etc.
An Imam from Daganzi, in the commune of Kalalé in north-eastern Benin, told the Cercle de Réflexion et d’Action pour le Développement de l’Education Non Formelle (Circle for Reflection and Action for the development of non-formal Education): “Today I can correctly read the dosages of the products I use to conserve the corn harvested. I note down my expenses and purchases. And during the meetings of the Parent–Teacher Association, I take notes in Boo.”
Thanks to the courses given using the PoT approach, this inhabitant of Gbassi, north-eastern Benin, has been able to increase his harvests: “During the literacy course, they taught us techniques for the correct utilization and conservation of the soil. I subsequently applied what I had learned to one of my sloping fields on the banks of the river which I had abandoned since the rain washed everything away. I constructed ridges perpendicular to the slope, and I had some very good harvests!”
Objective: continuous training
The SDC will continue to seek to reduce local actors’ dependence on foreign expertise to ensure the transmission and the sustainability of the PoT method. Toward this overarching aim, three objectives are being pursued:
- To increase the involvement of professors from the South and to enhance the autonomy of the University of Ouagadougou;
- To develop a strategy for continuous training; and
- To establish a political dialogue in order to disseminate the results of the PoT approach and to foster its inclusion in the education policies of formal education (schools).
Furthermore, a doctorate programme in PoT is scheduled to have been set up by 2014.
