Introducing the Soroano Book Box Project

GHEI is proud to announce that the Soroano Book Box Project is officially in motion! Headed by Summer Serve and Learn 2012 Alumni John Schaidler, this unique pilot program is designed to improve literacy in the GHEI community by targeting young readers.

Yesterday John, Happy and Shantie traveled to Soroano to propose the idea to the Chief. Moving past the regular proceedings, John and Happy explained the plan: conduct an outreach program and then donate a set of carefully chosen books to each primary school classroom. Making culturally-appropriate, high-interest books available will improve students’ reading abilities by keeping them engaged in the material. Once students learn to read, they can read to learn and continue to expand their education.

 The Chief was immediately receptive. “You see for education, I take it as very important in my life. Though I could not go as far as I wanted, I want my children to go even further than is necessary. Without education, no country and no village would be able to develop. With education, you see that the town develops rapidly; so I am very interested.” In Returns to Investment in Education: A Global Update, George Psacharopoulus of the World Bank concludes that primary schooling remains “the number one priority.” For each additional year of schooling in developing countries, a student’s lifetime earnings are increased by 12.4% for girls and 11.1% for boys (Psacharopoulos, 1994).

With the Chief’s blessing, we made our way to Soroano’s schools to discuss the project with their teachers. The team explained that the donation would be comprised of all new books- mostly Junior African Writers Series and some useful textbooks. Passing around a few example JAWS books, one teacher admitted that he was so engrossed he had to read the whole thing through.

Soroano Head Teacher and Primary Teachers, John, Soroano Cheif and Elders, Shantie and Happy

JAWS books are unlike many of books that make their way to libraries in rural African villages. Children see themselves in JAWS characters, and can relate to them, their settings and their experiences. There is plenty of research showing that if children can imagine themselves in a book, they are going to spend more time reading it. So, if you want to teach a child to read for pleasure and instill the value of reading, that child needs a book that they can relate to. As John explained afterwards, “If you’re sitting here in Humjibre and everybody is White and drinking tea and playing croquet and doing things that have nothing to do with your life- of course you’re going to feel not engaged and not pay that much attention to that book.” These JAWS books however, will be cherished.

Sorting Some of the Books for Donation

This isn’t a concept that is new to John. You may recall his guest blog “They Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham” about his failed attempt to introduce Dr. Seuss to Humjibre children last summer.

This time around will be a “step forward.” The Book Box Project was created specifically for the Soroano Community and they are excited about it. At the end of the presentation for Soroano’s schools, the one question the head teacher asked was “So when can we begin?”

“Monday.” The pilot will begin with a baseline survey to assess students’ current literacy levels and an outreach program using songs and other activities to teach them about proper ways to use and care for books. Once this has been completed, the book boxes will formally be presented to classrooms and the evaluation phase of the project will begin.

Be sure to check back in a few weeks to see the presentation ceremony!

Sources:

Psacharopoulos, G. (1994). Returns to Investment in Education: A Global Update. World Development, 22(9), 1325-1343. Retrieved June 7, 2013, from http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1222150.files/Session%207/PsacharopoulosGlobalUpdate.pdf

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