international literacy day 2014

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International Literacy Day


Can you read this? Lucky you. People who can read have, on average, better health and less poverty. They are more effective at serving their communities and creating stable democracies.

But many children face huge obstacles on their path to becoming literate adults. Worldwide, 250 million primary school aged children can neither read nor write, according to UNESCO.

Creative is passionate about bringing the transformative power of reading to children. Its programs provide better methods to teachers, create exciting materials for classrooms and show parents how they can be involved on their child’s journey.

Creative partners with governments, local and international organizations, the private sector and civil society to create materials that will inspire young students—and their communities. The ones pictured on the following pages are just a few examples.

So in honor of International Literacy Day 2014, read on.

Introduction


Tanzania

Renuka Pillay, who directs Creative’s program in Tanzania, says that reading to unveil the word leads to reading to unveil the world. But for many schools here, reading materials are scarce. Creative partnered with a local organization called the Children’s Book Project to help. It ended up distributing 75,147 books—including eight new titles—to primary schools in Mtwara and Zanzibar. And to make sure there was never a shortage of books again, they showed teachers and children how to make and illustrate their own.

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Tanzania

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Yemen

Creative developed this giant book so that parents could learn how to support their children in reading. With illustrations especially helpful for parents who are illiterate themselves, the pages encourage parents to sit with their children while they read, send them to school on time and with breakfast, and visit the school themselves. It’s part of the USAID-funded “Yemen Early Grade Reading Approach,” which, with Ministry of Education support, introduced a phonics-based reading program to schools across the country and provided 8,000 educators with more effective ways to teach Arabic reading and writing. After it saw 97 percent of first graders improve their reading after three months, the government made the program part of the official curriculum nationally.

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Yemen

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Zambia

Many children in Zambian Government Basic Schools graduate primary school still unable to read and write. They underperform in secondary school and are more likely to fail or drop out. But with a new phonic approach to reading instruction, more of them are gaining the literacy and confidence they need to succeed in their education from the start. Books like this one, part of the Government’s Primary Literacy Programme, help young pupils identify the sounds in words as building blocks. Teachers in Creative’s Read to Succeed Program, funded by USAID and active in six Zambian provinces, also learned how to use a new step-by-step teaching process to help kids read better and faster.

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Zambia

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Jordan

A brightly colored booklet, issued by Jordan’s Ministry of Education for parents of pre-kindergarten aged children, explains how age-appropriate education can help their children learn and develop. It also provides information about children’s rights and parents’ health, and includes songs and educational games to play at home—even a few “knock-knock” jokes. Beyond raising awareness among parents, Creative’s USAID-funded Education Reform Support Program fully renovated and furnished 394 Jordanian kindergartens and provided educational materials for 150.

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Uganda

Storybooks like “Vumi sees it all” do more than provide entertaining tales to young readers. They impart essential lessons on how to prevent against HIV/AIDS. In this book, young Vumi’s trip the market leads him to taste beer, go to a film hall, fall prey to an attack and finally return home with his younger sister, who is living with HIV. At each chapter’s end, activities, lessons and questions draw attention to key takeaways—like the importance of recognizing and avoiding risky behavior. This book was part of a series produced by the USAID-supported UNITY project in Uganda, which distributed 600,000 guides for addressing HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination and more than 230,000 local language books to schools.

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Uganda

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international literacy day 2014

Documents

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new titlesto primary

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secondary school

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