Dates: 2013 – 2014
Nepal has made great strides with the numbers of children attending and staying in school in the past ten years, which is largely the result of the successful Welcome to School Campaign, in which World Education played a major role. The country still faces serious challenges to improve the quality of education for 7 million students. Initial research on reading skills in West Nepal’s Terai region (Save the Children 2009) found more than 50% of Grade 3 students unable to recognize letters or read a single word per minute. To change this situation a whole new ‘Culture of Reading’ needs to be promoted within Nepal, both at home and at school. There is a severe lack of reading materials available in the majority of government schools, especially in more remote areas where access is difficult and the cost of reading materials high.
The Reading Brings Rewards pilot project, implemented by World Education and local partner Rato Bangala Foundation, will work in 28 schools across three districts to improve the reading level of school aged children, foster a culture of learning among families, communities and in schools, and create a reading program model which can be replicated nationally in the future.
The main components of this pilot will:
1. Increase the quality of reading materials available for use in the junior grades
2. Train teachers to increase the use of reading materials, engage parents and communities in their children’s efforts to learn to read
This program will help substantially advance existing work undertaken by both World Education and Rato Bangala to improve the quality of education in public schools while also providing useful information to replicate the program nationally.