Improving foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) with effective school leadership
Lead FLN: Our guide for school leaders on supporting foundational learning
Observing a language and numbers class, Telangana, India
Context
Foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) are essential for success in school and beyond. Children who acquire foundational skills are set up well to read, understand numbers, and access and enjoy everything that school has to offer. However, millions of children do not attain FLN at the right time. Without the basics of reading, writing, and maths—they fall further and further behind, with some children losing out on education altogether.
We believe that school leaders have an important role to play in supporting teachers in teaching foundational literacy and numeracy effectively and confidently.
Currently, however, there is a gap in provision - school leaders generally receive no training on FLN. We’re working to change that, by supporting school leaders to learn about FLN, strengthen FLN in their schools, engage the community, and more.
Lead FLN
Lead FLN is our guide for school leaders on supporting foundational learning. Lead FLN is the first collection of evidence-informed FLN guidance made for school leaders in low- and middle-income countries, and it attempts to fill the gap between the support that is needed and provided to school leaders. Lead FLN is a series of written guides that provide the following to school leaders:
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An overview of what FLN is
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How school leaders can support FLN programs
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How school leaders can systematically improve FLN without a special program
Lead FLN in Sierra Leone
We are exploring this in a program and research collaboration with EducAid and the National Youth Awareness Forum (NYAF) in Sierra Leone, where we are assessing the effectiveness of adding school leader training onto existing teacher-focused FLN programming, and to learn more about different ways of supporting school leaders. Learn more about the program here.
At the Lead FLN training, Sierra Leone
The next steps for our work in FLN
​We will continue working towards enhancing FLN through strengthened school leadership, and we continue to seek more opportunities to design, develop and evaluate more context-specific learning offerings for school leaders.