Leaving no one behind: Community-based literacy skills development

• In Event: Improving education outcomes and mitigating shocks through an integrated literacy and school feeding program

Proposal

The limited exposure time to reading activities is widely acknowledged as a root cause of low reading fluency (Abadzi, 2011). Early graders who have limited opportunities to practice reading at school while also lacking literate family members and a culture of reading at home are at a double disadvantage, particularly if the language of instruction is not their mother tongue. In rural and remote areas of Timor-Leste, the exposure to reading activities at school is further reduced by student absenteeism and late arrival to school, particularly during the rainy season (Burton, 2020). As of 2021, the average first grade attendance rate during the rainy season in targeted rural and remote schools was only 63 percent (Consilient, 2021). Since 2020, the Ministry of Education of Timor-Leste and an education project have collaborated to increase exposure time to reading by reactivating reading corners at schools. To maximize exposure outside of school, respond to persistent absenteeism, and build broad community support networks to promote reading and learning, the project has mobilized and trained volunteers to implement structured community-based reading clubs using borrowed books from school. The presentation will discuss the impact that community-based reading clubs on reaching marginalized students with additional literacy-focused activities, the use of reading materials at school and at home, and how community literacy levels and languages affect their implementation and use.

Author

• Maria Imaculada Conceicao, CARE International in Timor-Leste