Help us rebuild schools in Nepal

A final government assessment of our teacher training program promoting children’s literacy and reading aloud found that over the course of a year the reading fluency of the children had improved along with their access to books and reading materials.

The assessment, conducted by the Social Welfare Council, showed the program had achieved all of its objectives:

• Create a reading corner for students in first through fifth grades in each of the partner schools, with age appropriate reading materials.
• Train teachers to encourage their students to read more books and effectively use children's books for literacy instruction.
• Provide teachers with classroom management techniques appropriate for implementing such instructions.

A survey of a handful of students from each school found that almost all of them had improved their literacy capability. Eighty per cent of classrooms from kindergarten to fifth grade had engaging book corners.

More than 70 per cent of students had access to extra reading materials in school, but only about one-fourth of the students had books to read at home. More than 90 per cent of the students through grade 5 acknowledged using the reading materials inside their classroom.

One of the highlights of the training program was a two-day literature festival that attracted 625 participants, including students, teachers, parents, school management committee members, local representatives and others. The purpose of the festival was not only to promote reading habits in children but also to encourage schools and their communities to sponsor their own literature festivals in the future.

One element of the program that we plan to continue in a new round of training is routine monitoring of the teachers in their classrooms. In the program just completed, trainers observed children and teachers reading aloud in class, students creating stories and sharing them with their peers, teachers establishing a library routine for their class and teachers planning future workshops.

As an added benefit, trainers found that student attendance also improved.