By Merritt Frey, Executive Director

As the new school  year got underway in Mali this month, we started gathering groups of our partner schools’ principals together to share ideas and energy. The first such meeting was hosted in the Ouelessebougou area, which is home to the majority of partner villages. It was an energetic meeting and the principals really took ownership of how to help each other in the coming year.

The goals of the Principal Peer Meetings are two-fold. First, we use the meetings as a chance to hear directly from partners about their needs, concerns, and successes so that our work for the year is grounded in the local reality. Second, the gatherings allow principals to get to know each other and decide how they want to help each other out.

The first meeting was a success on both counts. We learned a lot from the principals about their challenges and solutions related to everything from working with their school committees (kind of like a school board in the US) to promoting gender equity in schools. Even more exciting, the principals took the lead for their own network – deciding on “captains” for the principals WhatsApp group we host and agreeing to meet on their own each month to share ideas and support!

The principals also shared really specific strategies that everyone could benefit from. Some were simple. For example, Mr. Cissé, the principal at Pete Harman Middle School, shared that to encourage girl students at his school he provided the top girls with certificates of honor last year. He reported that continuing students now tell him they are going to study harder so they can receive a certificate too!

Several principals also shared their success with hosting extra classes on the weekend to help students in need of extra time. Teachers volunteered their time out of a desire to help students. Several schools reported great success with this idea, citing improved reading scores as proof of the value. Several other school reported that they had a hard time getting students to attend the weekend classes however.

School committees were also a big topic of discussion. Several principals – such as those from Tamala, Beneko, and Kafara – reported their committees were very helpful. Other schools reported problems. In the end, all of the principals felt that training for their school committees would be a very helpful addition to Mali Rising’s work, and we agreed to consider this idea.

Other intense topics of discussion included core challenges such as a teacher shortage at many schools, a lack of engagement from parents, and the weak language skills of many students….wouldn’t those challenges sound familiar at any school here in the United States?

The brand-new principal of the brand-new Harman Family School, Mr. Coulibaly, was particularly glad to attend the meeting and be connected with his peers. He said, “I am very delighted [to be here] and I hope to be a great peer with other principals and share many things with them in the future.” Even at his first meeting, Mr. Coulibaly shared a new and exciting idea – he has recruited three volunteer teachers that help out at his school, which is something that isn’t happening at any of the other schools.

In the end, the day was a valuable one for the principals and for Mali Rising’s grounding in our partner villages. The greatest value is probably in the connections made among the principals – although many of them are in remote villages and can feel very alone, they are now better connected with peers who can share in their pain and celebrate their victories with them. We hope this helps our principals keep on keeping on with their tough but incredibly valuable work.