Guinea-Bissau pilots a new model for early grade teaching

In March 2026, during a World Bank mission to a school in Morés, 100 kilometers outside of Bissau, a teacher pointed to an object in a classroom, said a word out loud in Guinea-Bissau Kriol, and then in Portuguese. Thirty children seated in a circle around the teacher repeated these words, their voices echoing against the walls and high ceiling of the classroom.

While this may come across as a simple or obvious task, for many 5- and 6-year-olds in Guinea-Bissau, this kind of simple task has long been out of reach. Too many classrooms lack lesson plans, learning materials, and the active teaching methods that research shows make the difference.

This school, Escola Pública de Morés, is one of 25 institutions benefiting from a World Bank-financed structured pedagogy initiative under the Guinea-Bissau Human Capital Project. The pilot aims to strengthen the teaching of Portuguese and math to children in Oio, in the north of the country. The government of Guinea-Bissau partnered with Effective Intervention, an NGO, to manage the pilot. 

Structured pedagogy: Empowering teachers to ensure students are learning

Structured pedagogy is a proven approach to enhancing learning outcomes in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). The What Works Hub defines structured pedagogy as “a teaching and learning approach centered on a well-sequenced and scoped progression of competencies for children to master and an aligned package of detailed lesson plans, student learning materials, introductory teacher training, ongoing coaching and/or supervision for teachers, and other forms of support.”

Government teachers deployed under the program receive intensive training that reshapes how they approach the classroom. Rather than relying on rote instruction, where a teacher lectures while students passively copy from the board, they are trained in active pedagogy: a method where children are consistently engaged as participants, not spectators. This means asking questions, using hands-on materials, working in pairs, and checking for understanding throughout the lesson rather than only at the end.

A central focus of the training is ensuring that students spend as much of the school day as possible actually learning. In many under-resourced classrooms, a significant portion of instructional time is lost to transitions, off-task behavior, or a lack of materials. The pilot addresses this directly by equipping teachers with structured lesson plans that map out every minute of a class period, minimizing downtime and keeping children focused on reading and math tasks. Teachers also learn formative assessment techniques. These are simple, in-the-moment checks such as asking a child to point to a picture, repeat a word, or solve a problem on a small whiteboard. They allow teachers to adjust their instruction in real time rather than waiting for a test at the end of the term.

To make sure the training sticks, coaches visit classrooms regularly to observe lessons and provide feedback. Annual assessments at the start and end of the school year measure whether student learning is actually improving, holding the initiative accountable for real changes in learning, not just for activities completed.

​ The training resonated deeply with teachers like Famata Dabó, who had taught for five years before joining the initiative. "You cannot be in the classroom without a lesson plan. You should always try to use images," she says, describing practices that, while foundational, remain far from universal in Guinea-Bissau. Classroom observation across the country has consistently found that many teachers arrive without lesson plans, rely almost entirely on oral instruction, and have little access to coaching or feedback. The consequences show up in learning outcomes: a learning assessment conducted among children aged 7–14 (MICS 2018–19) found that only 17 percent could correctly read 90 percent of a basic text in Portuguese, and fewer than 1 in 10 had basic numeracy skills.

Building the evidence and systems to reach every child

The Oio pilot is, in part, a response to this reality. By embedding lesson planning, active pedagogy, and regular teacher coaching into the daily fabric of school life, the initiative aims to demonstrate that these practices can take root even in resource-constrained settings. The longer-term ambition is not simply to improve outcomes in 25 schools in the north of the country. It is to build the evidence and systems needed to make these fundamentals standard across every school in Guinea-Bissau, reaching every classroom, and every child.

In addition to teacher training, the initiative also provides learning materials to all students in a 1:1 ratio. Children utilize several resources, including the Vamos Aprender, a textbook aligned with the curricular reform supported by the World Bank PRIEQT  (Projeto de Reforço Institucional e Educação de Qualidade para Todos - Institutional Strengthening and Quality Education for All Project) project. Importantly, class sizes are capped at 30 students per cohort. The pilot, which began at the preschool level, will add a grade every new academic year, reaching grade 2 in 2028.

Structured pedagogy pilots are not new in the region; in the Gambia, under the World Bank-financed The Gambia Resilience, Inclusion, Skills, and Equity Project (The Gambia RISE Project), the government has partnered with Effective Intervention to scale structured pedagogy nationally.

Other education activities under the Human Capital Project are expected to complement the Oio pilot. These include the development of a national app for teachers, the acquisition of learning materials for all Grade 1–4 teachers, and support to teacher learning communities.

In a world that is increasingly knowledge-driven, reading and writing are not just nice-to-haves, they are fundamental to ensuring young people can thrive. And by giving children in Oio the foundations they need, this pilot is building a bridge to a future where every classroom in Guinea-Bissau sounds a little like that classroom in Morés.