
Are you a change-maker in education in South Africa? Partner with Youth Impact!
Join us in expanding Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) in South Africa. TaRL is a catch up program that focuses on building foundational skills in literacy and numeracy for children in grades 3-5. It’s proven to reduce illiteracy and innumeracy by up to 50% in just one term, through targeted instruction and engaging teaching methods.
Youth Impact is looking for partners to expand the TaRL approach in South Africa.
Fill out this brief survey about your interest and we will reach out about next steps. Youth Impact has funding to support a limited number of partners to start or expand efforts to bring TaRL to more locations.
What is Teaching at the Right Level?
Teaching at the Right Level is a 30-hour targeted instruction education program designed to ensure every child achieves basic literacy and numeracy. TaRL was developed by Pratham in India and rigorously tested by J-PAL and affiliated researchers for 15+ years across a series of randomized trials. TaRL takes place within the regular school day, groups students by learning level rather than age or grade, and teaches using fun and interactive activities. Learn more about TaRL, and see its results, here.
TaRL in South Africa
To date, Youth Impact works in 20 schools in Mafikeng in partnership with the Government, achieving remarkable results. Currently, TaRL numeracy is delivered by Youth Impact-trained facilitators and mentors, with plans to roll out TaRL literacy and A/B testing to continuously iterate and improve TaRL’s scalability and cost-efficiency. The goal is to reach many more children with sustained impact, beginning in North West Province and a second province in 2025.
What is the role of a partner?
Ensuring all children learn foundational skills takes an ecosystem! We are looking for partners to collaborate on delivering TaRL in South Africa, including:
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Participate in a 3-5 day training on delivering, mentoring and monitoring TaRL.
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Train and support facilitators, teachers and/or other educators to deliver TaRL.
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Develop and use data systems to share timely results and improve delivery.
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Engage with Government at various levels.
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Share and contribute to national and global learning.
What support does Youth Impact provide partners?
We will offer technical and financial support for early-stage TARL development – establishing implementation fundamentals and contextualizing the approach in new locations. This includes:
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Technical support for TaRL training, mentoring and monitoring systems.
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Material support, such as TaRL lesson plans, assessment tools, and monitoring instruments.
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Initial seed funding to pilot and adapt TaRL, ensuring program fundamentals are in place.
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Potential for longer-term support depending on partner capacity and interest.
The intention is for partners to gradually assume ownership of TaRL, taking a staged approach to scaling and sustaining impact. Youth Impact will support partners through a four-staged process:

Is this right for you?
We are seeking partners (organization, provincial government or individual) to deliver TaRL in the North West Province
after school and in a second province during or after school with the following characteristics:
✅ Action-oriented
✅ Willingness to experiment, iterate and learn, with an appreciation for evidence and data-driven decision making
✅ Focus on education in South Africa, along with an opportunity for TaRL to fit into the organization's longer-term strategic plans
✅ Strong relationships with government stakeholders involved with primary education in South Africa
✅ Identification of a program lead to serve as liaison with Youth Impact with support from senior management
Sounds interesting?
If interested, please fill out this brief form by March 7th. We will follow up with more details. Any questions? Contact jperlman@youth-impact.org