Perivoli Schools Trust

Client: Perivoli Schools Trust

The Perivoli Schools Trust runs a nursery schoolteacher training programme in five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is funded by the Perivoli Foundation, a UK charity. The Trust employs only local people. Its aim is to reduce dropout rates at primary school by helping nursery schoolteachers to focus on play.

The two-year training programme shows teachers how to organise their classrooms and how to make stimulating activities and games form clean recyclable waste materials such as bottle tops, yoghurt cartons, loo rolls etc. It has been described as “Blue Peter on steroids”.

Perivoli Trainers address up to thirty teachers at a time with sixteen Modules, regular support groups and monthly class visits. The programme is free to the teachers and costs the Foundation about USD 3 per child per annum.

The programme has reached over 11,500 teachers and an estimated 250,000 children and has a target to reach 200,000 nursery schoolteachers and 5 million children over time.

It is recognised to transform the nursery school teaching experience for teachers and children alike. Conversations are now taking place with local Ministries of Education for it to be formally adopted for state funded primary schools.