Scaling Access and Learning in Education (SCALE)

02 Sep 2026

3 min read

African schoolchildren in blue uniforms sit together in a classroom, smiling and listening attentively in a warm, joyful scene.

Challenge

In 2025, the Malawian Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) redesigned its national school curriculum, moving towards a Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). Traditional time-based learning advances learners through the curriculum based on the time spent in a grade, regardless of whether they have mastered the material; CBC instead advances them based on demonstrated mastery of specific, measurable skills, knowledge and behaviours. With this redesign, the government aims to equip its learners with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes needed to thrive in an increasingly complex world. Despite the ongoing literacy and mathematics reforms, many learners in Malawi still struggle to master foundational skills in the early grades, limiting their ability to benefit from the wider curriculum. MoEST therefore seeks evidence on whether structured remediation can be integrated into government systems and delivered cost-effectively at scale.

To improve foundational literacy and numeracy outcomes for primary school learners, the MoEST is partnering with VVOB – education for development, Teaching at the Right Level Africa (TaRL Africa) and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA). Together with TaRL Africa, VVOB has over 10 years of experience in remedial learning with Catch Up in Zambia and UCatchUp in Uganda, ensuring that learners who have fallen behind in literacy and numeracy can catch up to grade-appropriate levels. The Teaching at the Right Level method is based on regularly assessing and grouping children by their current learning level, rather than by age or grade, and using engaging, level-appropriate activities to build foundational literacy and numeracy skills. As the research partner of the project, IPA is responsible for conducting an impact evaluation.

Goals

Teachers, mentors and education officials are able to identify learners who have fallen behind in literacy and numeracy and provide effective, level-appropriate remediation through existing government systems, supporting more children to acquire foundational skills.

Project Partners

Approach

MoEST, VVOB, TaRL Africa and IPA are collaborating to implement the programme, putting a strong focus on strengthening government systems and generating data to support a national scale-up. The programme will reach 300 schools across three districts, building on a successful pilot in Mchinji District, while gradually handing over training, mentoring, monitoring and review responsibilities to MoEST structures.

The programme aligns with Malawi's national literacy curriculum and the National Mathematics Curriculum Reform (NMCR), ensuring that remediation strengthens existing reforms rather than creating parallel teaching, assessment, training or monitoring systems. MoEST structures serve as the basis to build and validate teaching and learning materials, training packages, assessment tools and mentoring systems.

Teachers, mentors, school leaders and district officials will be trained and supported to identify learners who have fallen behind and provide level-appropriate literacy and numeracy instruction. At the same time, district and national education officials will strengthen their capacity to use assessment and monitoring data to assist during implementation, mentoring and decision-making.

The programme’s combined approach includes large-scale implementation, independent research and continuous learning. MoEST will generate evidence on learning outcomes, implementation quality, cost-effectiveness and scalability through an independent impact evaluation and Test-Learn-Adapt (TLA) cycles facilitated by IPA. The findings of these evaluations and the TLA cycles, which are regularly reviewed through government-led structures, will be used to refine the model and inform decisions on future national expansion.

By the end of the programme

The MoEST will have a tested and government-owned remediation model for foundational literacy and numeracy that has been implemented across 300 schools and embedded within existing government systems. Teachers, mentors and school leaders will be equipped with practical tools and skills to assess learners, group them according to learning level, and provide effective remedial instruction and support.
Education officials at the district and zonal level will be better equipped to mentor schools, monitor implementation and use assessment data to support decision-making. Within the new government-led TaRL remediation model, national directorates such as the Directorate of Quality Assurance Services (DQAS), the Directorate of Teacher Education and Development (DTED) and the Directorate of Basic Education (DBE) will have hands-on experience overseeing essential functions such as training, quality assurance, monitoring, data use and materials validation.
Through routine monitoring, Test-Learn-Adapt (TLA) cycles and an independent evaluation led by IPA, the programme will also have generated robust evidence on learning outcomes, implementation feasibility, equity, cost-effectiveness and scalability. This evidence will inform MoEST's decisions on national adoption and future financing through government and development partner programmes.