Room to Read uncovers key findings on global trends in early grade literacy

Probak Kareem

Shevanthi Jayasuriya with guests

Room to Read, a global organisation focused on literacy and girls’ education, publicly shared the trends and evaluations of early grade Sinhala and Tamil literacy to distinguished guests in the educational sector from the national level to the school level, in Sri Lanka last week. 

These findings are part of a two year released external evaluation commissioned by the organisation to determine the impact of the program on children’s reading skills. 

According to data collected at the conclusion of the evaluation in October 2015, it was revealed that the program had a large impact on the development of pupil’s reading skills after two academic years. 

The findings are indicative of Room to Read’s effective program design, which is founded upon the evidence based approach. 

The summary of the findings are; children read faster and with greater comprehension when they benefit from systematic reading instruction that focuses on phonics, children on the Sinhala Literacy Program made 1.7 times the progress in reading fluency and 1.4 times the progress in reading comprehension as their peers in comparison schools. 

By the end of Grade 2, pupils from Room to Read supported schools could, on average, read 51 words per minute, while pupils from comparison schools could read only 31 words per minute, and children on the Tamil Literacy Program performed significantly better their peers in comparison schools. 

Probak Kareem, former Literacy Director of Room to Read, Asia, said: “The human brain was not designed for reading. The human brain evolved to learn to read. Therefore, there are scientific approaches to reading. Of these approaches, evidence based approach has been proven to be the most effective and most influential across languages in ensuring children in Grades 1, 2, and 3 (the most crucial stages for language fluency) become fluent readers. Room to Read’s Literacy Program is founded on this scientific principle.” 

In Sri Lanka, Room to Read is currently working in Anuradhapura, Monaragala, Badulla, Vavuniya, Nuwara Eliya, Matale, Colombo, Mannar, Puttalam and Trincomalee and has had significant success in improving the quality and accessibility of education for hundreds of thousands of children.

“The goal of the conference was not only to present our findings, but also to find a way for better collaboration with Government institutions which develop educational policies, curriculum and teacher training,” said Shevanthi Jayasuriya, Country Director of Room to Read Sri Lanka. 

For more information, visit www.roomtoread.org.

Room to Read is a global organisation transforming the lives of millions of children in low-income countries by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children, its innovative model focuses on deep, systemic transformation within schools in low-income countries during two time periods which are most critical in a child’s schooling: early primary school for literacy acquisition and secondary school for girls’ education. 

It works in collaboration with local communities, partner organisations and governments to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children and ensure girls can complete secondary school with the skills necessary to negotiate key life decisions. Room to Read has benefited 10 million children across 17,500 communities in Asia and Africa, and aims to reach 15 million children by 2020. Learn more at www.roomtoread.org.