HARARE – Phonics instructors have encouraged Government to make Jolly Phonics an essential component of the education sector as a means to resolve learning imbalances.
This comes as Jolly Phonics instruction is gaining momentum around the world, recognised as a fun and child-centred approach to teaching literacy through synthetic phonics.
Phonics, by their nature, are a vital part of an education system and educators are now working on better ways to introduce phonics to children.
Speaking ahead of the Jolly Phonics Annual Conference 2022 set for Saturday October 28 at Colne Valley Nature reserve in Harare, Jolly Phonics Zimbabwe director Shingi Benyu, said problems of imbalance learning can be fixed in Zimbabwe by the use of Jolly Phonics teaching programme, especially at the early learning stage.
“Jolly Phonics uses the synthetic phonics method of teaching the letter sounds in a way that is fun and multi-sensory, enabling children to become fluent readers,” Benyu told the media at a press briefing on Thursday.
Benyu encouraged education stakeholders to take advantage of the paradigm shift in the concept, purpose, and delivery of education.
She said, so far, the reception of the programme around the country “has been brilliant,” adding the programme had trained mainly private teachers, as well as some government teachers.
“…the reception has been very, very good. The momentum has picked up more since Covid-19, when learners lost out on a lot of learning time.
“So we have more people coming in because they understand that Jolly Phonics is fast paced. Our programme can be covered in 10 weeks and in those 10 weeks, you will have a child that can comprehend.”
International teacher trainer Corral George said Jolly Phonics is a tested and proven programme from the United Kingdom.
It’s been used in several countries and millions of children have used the programme successfully, George said.
“I’m a trainer in Spain and I’ve trained (teachers) in the five continents for the past 15 years,” George said.
“In 2011, I was privileged to give a TED talk on this, the only TED talk that was given on phonics and synthetic phonics…It doesn’t matter if you’re mega rich, there are people who are mega rich and they’re illiterate.”
“They can’t read and write in English because they haven’t been taught properly. So research says you only learn to read and write through sounds. So if we talk about sounds. You only understand the language because you hear sounds.
“I come from Spain, and I lived in England and I’ve traveled all over the world training only on this. I come from the most illiterate country in the world in English. I always start my training like and you know why? Because not once in the history of politics in Spain, the Prime Minister got into power knowing English, only Spanish.
“But my students at the age of five, were reading an average of 50 books fluently independently in English because they know the sound.
“In Spain we only teach English five hours a week. The rest is all in Spanish. My children in my classroom, you will give them a blank piece of paper and say to them, what did you do on the weekend? write, write it down. And the child is not copying from the board. (This programme) is a quantum leap, a quantum leap in education,” she added.
Under Jolly Phonics, children are taught 44 letter sounds, which is a mix of alphabet sounds and using a multi-sensory approach each letter sound is introduced with fun actions, stories, and songs.
Jolly Phonics is set to host its 2022 Annual Conference on Saturday October 29 at Colne Valley Nature reserve in Harare, aiming to impart effective learning and quality teaching.
The conference will be graced by officials from the Ministry of Education.
“What we’re going to do in the conference is obviously share our knowledge and share what we learned with many authors in England, what I learned in Spain while I was teaching my children in a country where everyone speaks Spanish no one speaks English,” George said.
“They will be other speakers who will talk about their experience.”
In Africa the programme is prominent in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.
“…most of the children in South Africa do Jolly Phonics in school and it’s paid for by the Government. That’s one hope that we’d like one day (for Zimbabwe) so many children can actually have the benefit of Jolly Phonics, because at the moment we work mainly with private schools,” George said.
