SMART Club

The General Secondary School named after A. Zhutakeev is located in Jan-Bulak village, Naryn District, Kyrgyzstan. The school serves 750 students, including 57 children aged 10 supported by the Schools2030 programme. Jan-Bulak is a remote mountain community where access to modern educational resources is limited. Teachers identified persistent difficulties in students’ reading comprehension and critical thinking, which affected learning across all subjects.

Many students struggled to define learning goals and lacked the ability to connect ideas or summarize key information. Teachers recognized that improving reading comprehension required not only stronger literacy instruction but also the development of goal-setting and problem-solving skills to help students take ownership of their learning.

Assessments and interviews with teachers and students revealed that weak reading comprehension was limiting progress in multiple subjects. Many students read texts passively without identifying main ideas or drawing conclusions. A lack of structured reading strategies and limited classroom engagement led to low motivation and inconsistent performance.

Observations confirmed that students with poor comprehension often struggled with science and mathematics, where understanding complex concepts relied heavily on reading ability. Teachers also noted that students rarely asked questions or discussed what they read, limiting opportunities for analytical thinking and deeper understanding.

SMART Club is designed to improve students’ reading comprehension and critical thinking skills through structured lessons and extracurricular classes. Teachers facilitate reading-focused activities tailored to the 10- year-old cohort. The club sets measurable and achievable learning goals for students, helping them develop reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.

📝 Lessons focus on reading comprehension, where students engage with scientific texts, and after reading interpreting and presenting information using diagrams, graphs, and summaries.

📚 Students are encouraged to underline or highlight key points while reading. This promotes engagement and helps them identify main ideas, supporting details, and unfamiliar vocabulary.

👩‍🏫 Teachers act as facilitators, helping students set and achieve personal learning goals.

Implemented during the 2023–2024 academic year, the SMART Club has produced significant gains in literacy and engagement. Students showed measurable improvement in reading comprehension, vocabulary development, and summarisation skills. They demonstrated greater confidence in interpreting texts and explaining their understanding across different subjects.

Teachers reported a visible increase in student motivation and participation, with learners taking more initiative in discussions and showing interest in reading outside class. Parents also noticed positive changes, describing their children as more confident, inquisitive, and eager to share what they learned.

The success of the SMART Club has positioned it as a model for strengthening foundational literacy through practical, goal-oriented approaches, with potential for expansion to other schools in the region.

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