School Principals Appreciated the New Literacy Course for Children

The directors of the pilot schools spoke about the effect of the new literacy course developed for foreign children by specialists from UNICEF, the Akelius Foundation, and the International Information Technology University (IITU).

The literacy course is designed for foreign children aged 5 to 17. Foreign children are children whose families have recently migrated from neighboring countries. As a rule, they do not speak Russian at all, since at home they communicate their native language. It is difficult for the children to adapt to the new conditions, so a special literacy course is needed for their integration and socialization.

Such a course is now available on the Akelius platform. The total number of levels is five: A0, A1, A1.1, A2 (basic) and B1 (intermediate). Literacy course for the children in Kazakhstan has been conducted since September 2021 in nine pilot schools.

Director of school-lyceum No. 53 in Nur-Sultan Zamzagul Kiyanova told why she and her colleagues decided to participate in the project and what results the children have achieved after half a year of training in a new mixed format.

“We learned about the work of the Akelius project from the Center for Modernization of Education. We decided to take part in this project because there is a demand for learning the Russian language. We have children who came from China, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan.

The importance of the project is that children who come to multinational Kazakhstan from other countries need to know Russian as it is the language of interethnic communication. We have a very good mission,” Zamzagul Yertayevna said.

To recruit students for the course, the school administration made an announcement. As a result, not only pupils of school-lyceum No. 53, but also children from other schools enrolled into the literacy classes.

“We made an announcement at schools in the city. Now, the course is attended by children not only from our school, but also from other schools, for example: the 22nd school, the 73rd school-lyceum. A mixed-age group of 16 students was created. We will gladly meet those who wish to enroll in the courses,” Zamzagul Ertaevna said.

According to her, the children are interested in completing tasks on the Akelius project. This helps them in language learning and in communication in society.

“Children study 2 times a week. The results of the students and teachers are commendable. The students are learning well, and the teachers are presenting the material correctly. Children feel comfortable to communicate freely in a group. The teacher always supports children in difficult times. The work of the Akelius project justifies our expectations,” Zamzagul Yertayevna concluded.

Director of the capital's gymnasium No. 67 Gulzhanat Abdramanova, also learned about the project from the Center for Modernization of Education. The management of the gymnasium school decided to join the project.

“When this project was proposed, we asked the question: “Do we need it? How is it different from other projects?” - Gulzhanat Asanovna recalls. – When discussing the issue, we considered the location of the school, the social status of students, their language proficiency, and especially the number of those who need to learn Russian. The school has children from other countries - Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Uzbekistan - they don’t speak and understand Russian, so our task was to develop oral speech through this project. Thus, we decided to enter the Akelius project.”

When creating groups during the project, the administration of the gymnasium school considered the possibilities of the school and, first, the desire of the children. It is too early to assess the effectiveness of the course, Gulzhanat Abdramanova says.

“Now it is difficult to speak about the effectiveness of the project, because the children studied online between the quarters. Every project has its pros and cons. Our teachers are working hard. More importantly, they have motivation and desire. I think our hopes will come true; we are not afraid of difficulties. Children should understand that now they can become fluent in Russian. We will really help those who want to study,” she concluded.

Director of the capital's school-lyceum No. 60 Aiman ​​Dyusenova immediately felt a desire to help foreign children in learning Russian when she knew about the Akelius project.

“The importance of the project is that Kazakhstan declares to the world its tolerance and readiness to support migrants in their historical homeland. This is the main mission of our country,” she said.

As Aiman ​​Zhumagaliyevna clarified, recruitment to the group is proceeding according to the data of the Center for Modernization of Education. The lists are formed on the basis of a database of migrants by schools. According to her, at any time, at the request of the children, they will be accepted into training groups. The joint participation of siblings is welcome: experience shows that it is more interesting for children to study this way.

“To date, the A0 level has been passed. The children are trained according to A1 tasks. They can express themselves in simple sentences, answer questions, participate in a dialogue, build sentences, build short stories based on picture plots. In each age group, the result is tracked individually. Children have certain achievements. The work of teachers is productive. Children love and have motivation to learn. The Akelius platform, which combines different types of tasks, is of great help in the work,” Aiman ​​Zhumagaliyevna emphasized.

The Akelius project also involves three schools in Almaty and three schools in Shymkent. Raushan Kuzhambetova, Director of the Almaty gymnasium school #78, explained how they became participants in the project.

“The school is Russian-speaking, so all children are fluent in Russian. Our teachers additionally work at the Center of Support for Children in Difficult Life Situations, where children coming from various regions stay and study,” Raushan Kakenovna explained.

Nazgul Karkimbayeva Russian language teacher has been working with such children in this center for several years. According to her, the Akelius platform made the teaching and study much more convenient.

“Before we got acquainted with the Akelius platform, we selected children who knew Russian very poorly and gave them extra classes, helped them learn words and grammar. But when we started working with the platform, it became much more interesting for the children and easier for us. The Akelius platform is a great help to us in this work,” Nazgul Duysentayevna said.

According to her, children who stay at the Support Center for a month or more are sent to the literacy course. Education begins at the level that the child can master. If the children do not know the Cyrillic alphabet, they start with learning the letters.

“We draw up a learning plan for children, we make a lot of visualizations by hand. The children themselves take part in their creation - they draw and sign the names. We use posters and additional material. Working with tablets is of great help to us, we have developed a big number of different interactive lessons. Firstly, it gives the children interest and passion. Secondly, the opportunity to better remember words and phrases and learn how to put them into sentences,” Nazgul Duysentayevna said.

As the teacher notes, the basics of the Russian language are easy to master for many children: they already speak, make up sentences and even whole stories. The emphasis in the classroom is on speaking practice: teachers play out all sorts of scenarios with the students, for example, in a hospital, at the doctor's, in a store, in a market, in a library; they discuss topics such as my family, my friends, and so on. However, not all children have breakthrough results.

“It cannot be stated that after the lessons, absolutely all children master the Russian language. It's very hard. Especially with those children who had never ‘sat at the desk’ before – some of them never went to school. Nevertheless, we have achieved some success. This project gives good results especially with those children who stay with us for a long time - 3-6 months. However, even the children who study only for a month and have little time, acquire some new knowledge,” Nazgul Duisentayevna concluded.

The work plan for the Akelius project for the second quarter (February-April 2022) includes training on blended learning and student assessment, development of methodological recommendations and a system for monitoring the process and learning outcomes, and a number of other processes. It is expected that by the end of the project (February 2023), 250 children will have completed this course.