We teach children to read in their mother tongue first — for most of our students, that is Malagasy. Once a child has truly mastered the skill of reading in their L1, they transfer that ability rapidly to other languages. We see it happen again and again: a child who has learned to read in Malagasy picks up a book in English or French and begins reading almost immediately.

We use the Sounds & Shapes Reading Curriculum, a structured, phonics-based method we implement when the child is ready and asking. Even our three-year-olds are beginning to learn letter sounds — on their own terms, at their own pace.

Many families in Fort Dauphin believe that French-medium schools offer the best education. We understand that belief — but the research is clear, and our results confirm it: children learn to read most effectively in the language they already speak. When a child is simultaneously learning to speak a language and learning to read in that same language, neither skill develops as well as it should.

We also see the consequences of this in older students who arrive from other schools — children who were taught to read in French by teachers who are not themselves fully fluent in French, and who have ended up neither reading well nor speaking the language confidently. Our remedial reading work with these students — meeting them where they are and building from there — is some of the most meaningful work we do.

In Madagascar, the minimum qualification to teach preschool is a BEPC — the diploma awarded at the end of lower secondary school, around age 15. The minimum to teach primary through middle school is a high school diploma. These are not the qualifications of people trained in child development, pedagogy, or curriculum design.

This is not a criticism of individual teachers — it is a structural reality. Many educators in Madagascar are doing their best with what they were given. But the system has not given them enough. And in some cases, those who have gone furthest in the formal education system have been trained primarily to memorize and reproduce information, not to think critically, analyze deeply, or reflect on their own learning.

Sekoly Kintana takes a different approach. Rather than simply hiring the most credentialed candidates available, we seek out the sharpest, most curious, most emotionally intelligent people we can find — and we invest in building their expertise from the ground up, under our roof.

Our five-year goal: every member of our teaching staff will hold a university degree and a Montessori certification. More than that — they will be trained to train others. The knowledge we build here will not stay here. Our staff will be capable of going out and helping build quality education in other schools across Madagascar.

This is a capacity-building project as much as it is a school. Your donation is not just helping one classroom — it is helping build something that will multiply.