Community Action to Promote Literacy: – Educating Children Together (ECT2) Mozambique –

As part of our efforts to improve reading skills for school-aged children, the ECT2 will both  acquire and produce a total of 15,000 short story titles for distribution  in 150 target schools. So far, 9,227 short stories (61.5%) have been distributed. Now children, teachers and community members will have access to these short stories and enjoy them in schools, reading camps and at home. Children will read these books alone or with the support of friends, brothers or sisters, parents and other caregivers. The stories as well as structured reading in schools and reading camps are triggering Actions are being triggered a culture and habit of reading that still needs to be nurtured and developed.

 Therefore, awareness raising initiatives on the importance and use of these didactic materials has also been part of ECT2’s work. In the recent supervision visits conducted at the target schools, the team discovered highly positive initiatives led by school teacher Carlitos Jorge of the EPC of Tacaliene (Nacaroa) who is also the School's deputy director. While in other schools there are challenges  around using story books and other reading materials, in the Tacaliene EPC the scenario is very hopeful and totally different. As Mr. Jorge tells us: I learned some strategies during the training sessions that we have received from the project, one of the activities that I put into practice was using books so children can have visual and physical contact with different types of titles and so that they can borrow books for the to read at home and school.... Of course, we first register students with a library card to know who is borrowing what books and when”. This strategy is working and it supports students and teachers.

 Teacher Jorge informed us that after several discussions with the project staff about the operation of mini-Libraries in schools, he decided to pilot a strategy to increase access to books by building a small counter out-of-Although the strategy is delivering promising results, he said that awareness raising exercises should continue at various levels (school and community) so that reading is a daily practice and enjoyment for students—and improves their reading skills. He stated that, The teacher should be aware of showing the books and using htem in the classroom as additional didactic material, making a connection with the thematic content of the day…… another challenge is with students who cannot read. For these children, we insisted that they participate actively in the reading camps so they have additional support from promoters. In this way they will at least learn how to handle a book and learn from the stories told in the sessions.

This teacher’s example is just one positive practice that ECT2 and Ministry of Education must capitalize on continuously and share with other schools so they can be inspired and see practical activities and solutions to promote book use and foster a culture of reading. 

Although the strategy is delivering promising results, he said that awareness raising exercises should continue at various levels (school and community) so that reading is a daily practice and enjoyment for students—and improves their reading skills. He stated that, The teacher should be aware of showing the books and using htem in the classroom as additional didactic material, making a connection with the thematic content of the day…… another challenge is with students who cannot read. For these children, we insisted that they participate actively in the reading camps so they have additional support from promoters. In this way they will at least learn how to handle a book and learn from the stories told in the sessions.

This teacher’s example is just one positive practice that ECT2 and Ministry of Education must capitalize on continuously and share with other schools so they can be inspired and see practical activities and solutions to promote book use and foster a culture of reading.