Promoting early literacy through mother tongue story books: evidence the Bangladesh Children’s Book Initiative

• In Event: Multilingual education in diverse contexts: reading, achievement, assessment, identity, and policy analysis

Proposal

Introduction
There is a growing awareness of the ‘double hurdle’ that minority language speaking children face when they enter primary school: that of learning a new language and learning to read simultaneously. In many contexts, minority language speakers additionally face social or economic disadvantages, making language of instruction a key issue not only for education quality (SDG4), but also for equity (SDG10). This purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of the Children’s Book Initiative in Bangladesh: an intervention designed to promote literacy of children in early primary school, particular in contexts where the mother tongue of some or all children is different from the primary language of instruction.

Intervention overview
The Children’s Book Initiative (CBI) seeks to address poor reading outcomes among girls and boys of primary age through addressing the challenge of access and availability to, and effective use of, quality appropriate bilingual and culturally relevant children’s books. CBI is a ‘whole book chain’ approach which seeks to address systemic issues and sustainability within the book chain. By engaging and strengthening the different stages and stakeholders in the book chain, as well as the linkages between them, CBI ensures the provision and effective use of these quality appropriate mother tongue children’s books. CBI does this by:
i) Developing the capacity of writers, illustrators, publishers and book sellers and improving linkages between these different stakeholders.
ii) Training & support of teachers (and school leaders) in effective classroom book management & use.
iii) Provision of books and bookshelves in classrooms.
iv) Community support for effective book use in the home.
v) Working with governments and development partners to influence policy, planning and resource mobilization towards provision of quality supplementary reading materials.

Research design
This evaluation has been designed with a quantitative and qualitative component. The quantitative evaluation is based on a randomized implementation of the programme, with 51 villages randomly selected to receive the intervention, and 53 villages followed as a comparison group. Individual-level data on students and teachers were collected at baseline (November 2016) and endline (October 2018), with the same individual students followed up in the two waves. Three tools were used for data collection: a child literacy assessment (CLASS); a classroom observation; and a teacher interview. At baseline, the student sample included 1,313 individuals (660 in intervention schools, 653 in comparison schools), while the teacher sample included 107 individuals (55 intervention; 52 comparison). Minority-language students were purposefully over-sampled (318 Chakma-speaking; 406 Marma-speaking; 184 Tripura-speaking; 403 Bangla-speaking – the language of instruction). Based on scoping in September 2018, an attrition rate of 5% is expected between the two waves. Quantitive data will be analysed using a difference-in-differences methodology, comparing changes in student outcomes between 2016 and 2018 across the CBI and non-CBI villages. A triple difference will be used to compare minority language speakers to Bangla speakers.
At baseline, the qualitative component was based on free-text questions in the individual and teacher questionnaires. As the data collected in this way were of low quality, endline qualitative data is being collected with greater care on a smaller scale, through focus groups with students, teachers and parents. Separate focus groups will be carried out in the different minority languages.

Expected findings
Endline data collection is currently underway in the study area, with an expected completion date of 27 October, 2018. This data will be analysed for the final project report, expected December 2018. Data from baseline indicated that reading abilities of first grade children in the study area were low, and mother-tongue literacy almost non-existent. While children could recognize on average 85% of Bangla letters, almost no minority-language speakers could recognize letters in their mother tongue. Significant differences in Bangla reading abilities were also recorded between minority languages groups: for example, Chakma-speaking children scored significantly higher at word recognition than Tripura-speaking children. Few children could read a short story levelled for first grade readers.
At endline, we expect to see greater improvements in literacy in those schools who participated in the CBI programme. While children’s reading level should have improved in both treatment and comparison schools over the intervening two years, we expect that the programme will result in more substantial reading gains in the CBI schools. Furthermore, we expect that minority language speakers in CBI will see greater gains due to the programme, as compared to Bangla-speakers.
Our analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from the two waves of the study will include a discussion of what could have been done differently, both from a programming perspective, and from a research perspective.


Conclusion
The provision of mother-tongue story books for speakers of minority languages is a low-cost intervention that has the potential to help young children bridge the gap between learning to read, and learning to read in the dominant language of instruction. The Bangladesh CBI study provides insights into the impact such an intervention can have: insights we are keen to share. Sharing the lessons learned from this pilot study also provides an opportunity for others to help improve the programme. We are particularly keen for advice on how to strengthen the production and provision of story books that reflect cultural and gender diversity, in a way that is meaningful and localized. We are also looking for input on how key elements of the CBI can be incorporated into existing, larger-scale, literacy programmes.

Authors

• Deba Chakma, Save the Children

• Kirsten Mucyo, Education Advisor, Save the Children

• Mo Mo Shey, Save the Children