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NABOTU NewsAugust 4, 2009: READING TENTS BRING HOPE TO SCHOOLSREADING TENTS BRING HOPE TO SCHOOLS By Lillian Nakiwala Nyakana
The quality of education offered by Universal Primary Education (UPE) has frustrated many parents in Uganda. The debate appears to resurrect every time PLE results are released and gets quite emotional for many families unsure of their children’s future. During periods of budget reviews and as Parliament pores over ministerial budgets and policy statements, the debate shifts to guarantees that the executive arm of government promises to put in place to boost education quality. Whatever measures have been promised, UPE schools both in rural and urban poor settings continue to suffer from the impact of high enrolment with few teachers. This combined with other factors make the teaching and learning environment un-favourable for both the child and the teacher. Learning is also hindered by limited exposure to books and other reading materials. The only available books are text books which are not only few in terms of books to learners ratios but also biased towards the school curriculum and passing exams. Poor school performance is partly attributed to lack of or limited access to supplementary reading materials that would aid pupils in the acquisition of language skills. Studies by the Uganda National Examination Board and the Education Standards Agency point high failure rates to an inability on the part of the pupils to interpret examination questions which is linked to lack of a reading culture. This therefore means that leisure reading which is necessary for developing a culture of reading holds the promise for boosting the quality of education especially for the rural and urban poor schools. For over a decade now, actors in the book sector and a few educationists have been innovatively engaging school children and their teachers to embrace a culture of reading through the school based Children’s Reading Tents (CRTs). The CRTs target teachers and school children in a school setting and are intended to increase exposure to interesting children’s reading books and introducing school children to the habit of leisure reading necessary for long term benefits of reading. Teachers are trained in skills of teaching and promoting reading as well as taking care of book collections. They are encouraged to come up with practical ideas for reading promotion within their school contexts. Children are engaged in two days of reading promotion fun activities such as silent reading, reading aloud, book discussions, book making, debates, spelling exercises etc and the best children in each activity are rewarded. Story books are donated to the participating schools at the end of the event to contribute towards stocking the school libraries. There is evidence beginning to emerge that schools that have embraced the culture of reading perform very well in the national examinations. One such school is an urban poor Primary School called Railway Primary School in Kampala.
Each year, 12 CRT events are organized in two districts targeting about 120 schools, 2,400 school children and 240 teachers. The targeted districts and specifically Sub-counties are usually those with very poor performance in national examinations. The facilitators of CRTs are individuals with vast experience in teaching and promoting reading from the National Book Trust of Uganda (NABOTU) member associations which include; the National Library of Uganda (NLU), the Literature Fraternity of Uganda (LIFU), Uganda Women Writers Association (FEMRITE), and The Reading Association of Uganda (RAU).
The CRT interventions are always timely and welcomed in all the places that they have been implemented. Teachers and children show gratitude for the reading skills gained. Teachers understand that there is great need to promote a culture of reading but many of them do not have any idea on how this can be realized. They therefore find the workshops and CRT activities very beneficial and indeed an eye opener. 90% of the schools in the beneficiary districts have reading lessons only for lower classes. In some schools reading lessons are provided for on the time table but they teach examinable subjects during this time.This implies that little attention is paid to reading in many schools. However, by the end of the three days CRT activities, teachers are able to appreciate the importance of reading and always pledge to have reading lessons for all classes using the skills gained.
There is a lot of enthusiasm for books and reading among teachers and children. The children are always very eager to participate in the CRT activities. This is evidenced by the excitement they always exhibit when they are given books. Even those who can not read well are fascinated by the pictures in the books. Children are happy to learn to spell and pronounce new words correctly. It is fun to listen to the interesting stories told by the children.
The HIV/AIDS sessions where HIV/AIDS Readers are discussed provide an effective avenue for creating awareness about HIV/AIDS among the children. When asked to comment on the HIV/AIDS books, children admit that the HIV/AIDS book discussions and readers are very useful because they teach them how HIV/AIDS is spread and how it can be avoided. Below are some of the children’s reactions to the HIV/AIDS Sessions and books.
- “I enjoyed a Book called, ‘Love lasts forever’ because it taught me to abstain and how to take care of HIV/AIDS patients”. Ssekanjako Paul, P.7 – Butangasi Primary school, Masaba Sub-county, Busia district.
- “I learnt that HIV/AIDS has no cure and I can avoid it through avoiding early marriages and bad groups”. Makokha Leah, P.7, Magale Primary school, Masaba Sub-county, Busia district.
Apart from the interesting activities, the CRT event is un-forgettable to many children because of the food provided, many schools do not provide food to children and therefore such an opportunity is always welcome.
The locally published book donations are popular among children because they can relate to the experiences in these books. Some books have traditional folk stories which children have heard of before and get excited to read about them in the books. For example; the stories about animals like the Hare. They also find it exciting when a book has a character with a familiar name. These books also use a language appropriate for the levels of the children. However, these books are usually paper backs that are easily damaged.
The main challenge facing many schools remains inadequate books compared to the high levels of enrolments due to Universal Primary Education. Many of the teachers acknowledge having had very limited book collections before the NABOTU intervention. Lack of training opportunities for teachers in library management skills as well promoting and teaching reading also hinders School Library development. Lack of storage facilities for the reading materials leads to early aging of the available books. Many schools lack proper library facilities, books are often kept in school stores together with other school supplies such as food, fire wood and can easily get damaged.
Despite of the challenges, the CRT programme is making significant improvements in school performance as well as realizing the much desired culture of reading in Uganda.
The Writer is the Reading Tents Programme Officer, National Book Trust of Uganda.
17th National Book Week Festival, 14-19th September 2009
lnakiwala@nabotu.or.ug |
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