Teaching Literacy

As schools in Uganda closed down in late March 2020 due to Covid-19, Mango Tree Literacy Lab (MTLL) had to reconsider its 2020 work plan.

Quality education should be delivered in the language spoken at home. However, this minimum standard is not met for hundreds of millions, limiting their ability to develop foundations for learning. By one estimate, as much as 40% of the global population does not have access to an education in a language they speak or understand.

In 2006, when the Hewlett Foundation started the Quality Education in Developing Countries initiative, one of the initiative’s goals was to help answer precisely this question. From 2007 to 2013, combining resources with co-funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Foundation supported eleven school-level approaches to improving early learning, accompanied by ten rigorous evaluations.

This report assessed school- and community-based reading. The Stanford-led team conducted a randomized control trial of a literacy intervention in Rwanda to determine whether programs aimed at families and communities had an impact on children's reading --above and beyond-- the traditional approach of training teachers.

The African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA) and NBA developed a short online course for African librarians and library staff, based on the findings of a survey conducted in 2021. The main course objectives were to:

Mango Tree Literacy Lab (MTLL) is a Ugandan NGO that believes that African children have the right to read, write and engage with ideas in a language they know and understand. Since 2010, Mango Tree has been supporting early primary literacy in the Lango Sub-region of northern Uganda.

The Enhancing Caregiver and Community Support for Children’s Reading Development Outside of School report provides evidence-based interventions that engage caregivers and community members to support children’s reading development outside of school. Some interventions work directly with caregivers in their home, while others use community spaces to promote reading skills.