They can read... where are the books?
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Uganda is in a reading crisis. Children in Gulu and neighbouring districts in northern Uganda are reading an average of six words per minute in their national academic language – English – after three years of primary school. Three words per minute is significantly lower than international benchmarks of reading fluency expectations after three years of primary schooling.
READ for Life is a Ugandan-based charity which is working hard to flip these averages on their head. Specialising in teacher training and improving reading instruction through phonics, READ for Life works closely with 100 schools in Gulu. We train teachers, visit schools and regularly observe lessons and give feedback to teachers on how to improve. We test children’s reading annually, which informs our priorities for each school. We have seen children’s reading levels improve drastically from a northern region average of about 6 words per minute to now 55 words per minute (wpm) for our partner schools (after 3 years of schooling).
Although our work is going phenomenally well, with schools and teachers passionately implementing our programme and children now reading, we have one big problem: Gulu schools don’t have storybooks. READ for Life is planning to combat this problem by holding a one-day book fair in September. Ugandan authors, illustrators and publishers from across the country will showcase their books as well as inspire head teachers and directors on the importance of having books in schools.
In order to cover the costs of the day, we need your help! We have budgeted for £500 ($AUS 950).
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
READ for Life is a Ugandan-based charity which is working hard to flip these averages on their head. Specialising in teacher training and improving reading instruction through phonics, READ for Life works closely with 100 schools in Gulu. We train teachers, visit schools and regularly observe lessons and give feedback to teachers on how to improve. We test children’s reading annually, which informs our priorities for each school. We have seen children’s reading levels improve drastically from a northern region average of about 6 words per minute to now 55 words per minute (wpm) for our partner schools (after 3 years of schooling).
Although our work is going phenomenally well, with schools and teachers passionately implementing our programme and children now reading, we have one big problem: Gulu schools don’t have storybooks. READ for Life is planning to combat this problem by holding a one-day book fair in September. Ugandan authors, illustrators and publishers from across the country will showcase their books as well as inspire head teachers and directors on the importance of having books in schools. In order to cover the costs of the day, we need your help! We have budgeted for £500 ($AUS 950).
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Organizer
Jody Unterrheiner
Organizer
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