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SMS brings local tales to Zambian school children
[/vc_column_text][/columna_vc][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_columna ancho=»2/3″][vc_column_text]A mobile reading project that will bring reading to Zambian children who often have no access to books at home is one of 14 winners of a literacy innovation competition under the U.S. Agencia para el Desarrollo Internacional Todos los niños leyendo: Un gran desafío para el desarrollo, Creative Associates International anunció hoy.
Developed by Creative Associates International and called Makahalidwe Wathu, the mobile storytelling project will complement its current Read to Succeed program in Zambia.
“Winners [of the competition] represent the most promising, creative and impactful solutions in literacy innovations and were chosen from a competitive process that elicited 213 proposals from 50 países," de acuerdo a a USAID press release.
Makahalidwe Wathu, which means “our way of staying” in the local Chinyanja language, will use crowdsourcing to collect local stories, folktales and original content from community members in Zambia and the diaspora using cell phones, voice messages and a web-based submission form.
From this story bank, 54 selections will be edited to be language and age appropriate and sent via SMS to the parents of 1,000 estudiantes de escuela primaria, lo que aumentará la capacidad de los niños y mejorará sus actitudes hacia la lectura..
“En Zambia existe una pasión por contar historias., y un fuerte deseo de ayudar a los niños a preservar su herencia lingüística mientras aprenden a leer.," dice verdaderamente Zewdie, quien dirige el programa Read to Succeed de Creative en Zambia. "Esta innovación brinda a los jóvenes sus propias historias atemporales mientras capitaliza sus vidas digitales".
(Lea más sobre el programa Leer para tener éxito)
Pocos recursos significan un rendimiento lector deficiente
En Zambia, acceso limitado a materiales de lectura, especialmente en idiomas locales, ha inhibido la capacidad de los niños para dominar las habilidades fundamentales de alfabetización.
Con tan pocos libros y materiales en lengua materna en casa, parents and community members rarely find ways to support children in reading outside of school. Como resultado, children do not have adequate opportunities to practice reading.
It shows: The South African Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality noted in 2010 that only 27.4 percent of sixth graders could read at a basic competency level.
“Where children’s books are rare, it follows that literacy is low,” says Creative’s co-founder and CEO Charito Kruvant. “But we can look beyond these old limitations and innovate to bring reading to children and communities. That’s what Makhalidwe Wathu is doing.”
Although literacy is low in Zambia, rates of mobile phone usage are quite high. Makhalidwe Wathu capitalizes on this mobile technology to create and disseminate recreational mother tongue reading materials to families with early grade children in Zambia in a way that is community-based and scalable.
Local language, local stories, local partners
Creative is piloting Makhalidwe Wathu in cooperation with Read to Succeed, a USAID-funded program already working with Zambia’s government to improve early grade reading through more effective teaching and school-community partnerships.
Along with community mobilizers and Parent Teacher Associations, formal local partners are taking a leading role in implementing this innovation and ensuring Zambian ownership over the process and results.
In addition to Zambia’s Ministry of Education, Ciencia, Formación Profesional y Educación Inicial, associates include Lubuto Library Partners, the University of Zambia, centro tecnológico BongoHive, estación de radio comunitaria BreezeFM y proveedor de educación basado en tabletas iSchool.
Recopilando estas historias de miembros de la comunidad y enviándolas por SMS a padres de niños en edad escolar., Makhalidwe Wathu Crea conciencia sobre la importancia de la alfabetización en los primeros grados., y fomenta una cultura de narración y lectura en la lengua materna que entusiasmará y energizará a los estudiantes..
El tiempo adicional dedicado a leer con miembros de la familia también crea un sistema de apoyo más sólido para que los estudiantes jóvenes continúen practicando la lectura fuera de la escuela..
El modelo rentable para Makhalidwe Wathu eventualmente podría poner materiales de lectura en manos de más de 8 millones de hablantes nativos de chinyanja y, en última instancia, el hogar de todos los escolares rurales y urbanos de África.[/vc_column_text][/columna_vc][vc_columna ancho=»1/12″][/columna_vc][vc_columna ancho=»1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=»barra lateral-primaria»][/columna_vc][/vc_row]