Materials Development

The National Numeracy Programme (NNP) is a Government of Malawi programme, led by the Ministry of Education and funded by UK aid from the UK government. The NNP aims to improve learning outcomes in mathematics by strengthening foundational skills in mathematics and will be rolled out during 2021-2023.

The programme is a response to a scoping study led by Aarnout Brombacher in 2018. The scoping study found that the Malawian mathematics environment is characterised by limited and limiting expectations of learners and that the focus of teaching is on form (rote procedures and knowing) over substance (knowing with understanding, application and reasoning). The full scoping study can be downloaded here: Scoping Study

Against the background of the findings of the scoping study, the focus of the NNP is on developing a vision for what it means to teach and learn mathematics in Malawi and to develop teaching and learning materials as well as a teacher training programme. The materials and training approach were piloted in 200 schools during the 2022 school year and were then refined based on the learnings from the pilot activity before the programme was scaled to all 5 700 primary schools in Malawi.

Aarnout Brombacher was the Technical Principal of the NNP and was responsible for leading the visioning, materials development and teacher training programme development as well as overseeing the pilot and scale-up activities. Aarnout’s leadership and passion for the improvement of learning opportunities and outcomes at classroom level, as well as the engagement and commitment of the writing team and teaching community are paving the way for materials, and teaching and learning approaches that promote a culture of mathematics that focuses on developing mathematics knowledge with understanding that can be applied in unfamiliar situations with reasoning.

The materials developed over the duration of the project included: 

Teaching and learning reference materials

• Revised mathematics curriculum for Standards 1 to 4.
• Revised syllabus documents for Standards 1 to 4.
• Learner workbooks for Standards 1 to 4 (three workbooks per standard – one for each of the three Malawian school terms). The workbooks provide comprehensive curriculum coverage and include all of the curriculum topics: Number, Operations & Relationships; Pattern; Space & Shape; Measurement and Data Handling.
• Teaching and Learning Circle (professional development and reflection) Activity Guide.
• Lesson plan booklet.
• Comprehensive Teacher Guide for Standards 1 to 4.

Training and support materials 

• Materials development and writing workshop materials (power point presentations, workshop handouts, workshop activities).
• Facilitator Manuals (one for each of the three Malawian school terms).
• Participant Workbooks (one for each of the three Malawian school terms).
• Demonstration videos to support the implementation of the learner workbook pages (activities) for all of the curriculum topics: Number, Operations & Relationships; Pattern; Space & Shape; Measurement and Data Handling.