MANY TEACHERS KNOW LETTER SOUNDS, BUT WHY ARE CHILDREN STILL STRUGGLING TO READ?
Since 2015, through our work with over 5,000 schools across Africa, we have observed that one of the major challenges in improving literacy is not simply teachers’ knowledge of letter sounds, but the absence of a clear, contextualised, structured and consistent school wide reading approach.
Training teachers through workshops alone is not enough.
Whenever schools or governments organise teacher training sessions, they must ensure that teachers implement what they have learnt, while school leaders provide consistent support, supervision and follow-up.
When school leaders do not understand or embrace what teachers have been trained to implement, meaningful classroom transformation becomes difficult.
At school level, reading improvement must begin with committed school leadership. At national level, it requires deliberate government commitment and support.
READING IS THE MOTHER OF ALL SUBJECTS.
Reading is the foundation of learning across all subjects and a powerful driver of academic performance. Children who struggle to read often struggle academically, which can contribute to frustration, poor performance and even school dropout.
THE WAY FORWARD
Overcoming reading challenges at school and national levels requires more than organising workshops. It calls for the adoption and consistent implementation of simplified, contextualised reading approaches like RICA.
Developed in Africa for African schools, African teachers and African children, the RICA Approach seeks to address African reading challenges through practical, affordable and sustainable solutions.
Reading improvement should not be an occasional activity, it must become part of the education system.
CALL TO ACTION
To all school leaders and education stakeholders who genuinely care about improving learning outcomes, we encourage you to read our book, “Why Can’t Children Read?” and to use the RICA approach.
Understanding why children struggle to read is an important step towards finding lasting solutions.
RICA-Simplifying Reading
Make Reading a Human Right, Not a Privilege.
Kick Illiteracy Out of Africa!