International Literacy Day was actually a very busy literacy week with events all over the world. The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) was part of a wonderful event in Washington DC on September 7, with our co-sponsors USAID, and the Brookings Institution. The three organizations sponsored the “All Children Reading” event in Washington DC. It was a great opportunity to listen to leaders in education speaking about the importance of literacy. Kid-friendly characters like Elmo from Sesame Street were there to draw greater attention to the fundamental importance of reading and education to development.
Starting the day, prizes were awarded to some amazing innovators in education, as part of the Australian Aid, World Vision and USAID, Grand Challenge for reading. We’ll tell you more about this later, but for now take a look at their innovations here and get involved in the discussion about how to accelerate progress in reading through game-changing new processes, lesson strategies and technologies. GPE also launched our ReadingChangedMyLife.org photo and video contest, now with 82 co-sponsors!
At the panel discussions we learned about the state of the art knowledge in promoting reading. Lant Pritchett from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, for example, talked about how better education outcomes are not reached by simply ‘speeding up’ or increasing standard input. We have to have innovations to help us increase student performance, since just teaching too much too fast leaves kids behind and generally decreases good outcomes. Have a look at his full presentation here (PDF).
Shahinaz Eldesouki, Under-Secretary for Basic Education in Egypt’s Ministry for Education showcased an early grade reading program that the Egyptian Government along with district teams, schools and teachers rolled out to 3 million students in grade 1 and 2 in 17,000 primary schools. As a result, oral reading fluency increased between 2008-2012 by 68% in grade 2 students. What helped was a comprehensive strategy that included better text books, increased phonics instructions, better individual support and smaller groups. See the presentation here (PDF).
Cory Heyman, Chief Program Officer at Room to Read spoke about how best to leverage NGO support to promote sustainable literacy systems. He highlighted five strategies: work the system, get the program right, ensure accessibility content, track improvement and use short-term strategies to support long-term goals. More here (PDF).
If you’d like to have a look at these presentations, I invite you to visit our newsroom where we have created a page with these and many other interesting presentations from the DC Literacy Day event.