Savemore Foundation
When people hear that a foundation supports learners, they usually picture a fee being paid. That happens, and it matters. But it is not the part of the work that decides whether a child finishes school.
Our programme is called School Monitoring for a reason. Monitoring the academic progress of our students is written into what we said we would do, and it is the half of the work that is easiest to skip and hardest to replace.
A fee solves one moment
A learner who is helped at the start of term and then not seen again can still be out of school by the end of it. The reasons are rarely dramatic. A guardian falls ill. An older sibling leaves and the household work shifts. A child falls behind in one subject, then stops wanting to walk into the classroom at all.
None of that shows up in a receipt. It shows up when somebody asks.
What monitoring looks like in practice
- Sitting with the learner and their guardian at the end of each term
- Speaking with teachers about how a student is really doing, not only what the results say
- Watching attendance, because it slips before results do
- Adjusting what we provide when a household's situation changes
- Following up quickly when a learner starts missing days
The cost of noticing early is a conversation. The cost of noticing late is a child who has already stopped going.
It is slower work, and that is the point
Monitoring means fewer learners can be carried than a fee-only approach would allow. We have made that trade deliberately. A smaller number of students who are genuinely accompanied through school is worth more than a longer list of names attached to a single payment.
Supporting and promoting education is one of our four objectives. We do not think that objective is met by a transaction.
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