Tikichuela – A bilingual math model
Teaching math at an early age paves the way for the development of many other skills and competences, fostering success in life. But in Paraguay, as in the rest of the region, major access and performance gaps remain in place in this area. Inspired by New York’s Big Math for Little Kids initiative, the Tikichuela program aims to close these gaps and totally transform quality early teaching of math, regardless of gender, income level, living area, or language. Lessons are recorded in Spanish and Guarani and emphasize play and interactive activities, not just memorization. Results have shown that this is an effective, low-cost innovation, and one that has begun to be implemented in other countries, like Panama.
Problematic
Although all boys and girls have the right to quality education from an early age, in Paraguay, as in the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean, there remain major performance gaps in terms of gender, socio-economic level, region, and language. This is particularly noteworthy in the case of mathematics – there are few initiatives to promote the development of these competences that are so important for the children’s future success in life.
Solution
Tikichuela’s interactive lessons are taped in Spanish and Guarani and have been designed so that teachers with different degrees of expertise and knowledge can deliver quality lessons, combining two languages in a single lesson so no student is left behind. Teachers are instructed to play the audiotapes in class 4 times a week. These tapes last 30 to 40 minutes, including experiments and research. The audios are complemented with textbooks that include exercises based on the lesson’s characters and include physical objects for counting and other support material for children. Tikichuela teaches us that it is never too early to have fun with math.
Evaluation and Impact
Conceived as a random allocation experiment, the program was evaluated in 2011 in 265 schools in Paraguay’s Cordillera region. Of these, 131 schools received the program, whereas the other 134 constituted the control group, carrying on with teaching as usual. The results were encouraging: the students from schools that adopted the program improved their math skills, with the biggest improvements found where they were most needed: those in rural schools where Guarani is spoken. While both boys and girls improved their performance, it was more noteworthy among boys, which led to introduce some adjustments in the program. It is important to note that the initiative has shown to be particularly successful in improving and supporting teachers’ work.