The GBA shares the highlights of Books for Every Child: International Literacy Day Event Celebration 2024
Join the Global Book Alliance for the launch of its Open Book Partner Series with the first of two webinars that discuss the importance of literacy as a transformative experience for girls around the world. Please join us for this important conversation on Wednesday, May 26, from 9:00–10:15 a.m. EDT.
Literacy is the cornerstone of education, but for many children, developing literacy means learning an entirely new language, one they do not speak at home. There are reasons for this: some countries have hundreds of local languages -- making the cost of creating learning materials for all languages high. But Mother tongue-based (MTB) education, teaching children literacy skills in the language they speak at home, has been shown to have benefits which far outweigh the costs.
The Results in Education for All Children (REACH) Trust Fund carried out a project aimed to strengthen the South African publishing industry by 1) raising awareness of the critical need for storybooks to create a habit of reading in children, and 2) increasing the supply of quality storybooks in African languages.
On International Women’s Day, the Global Book Alliance joined government and multilateral organization representatives at the 2021 Annual Commonwealth Day Lecture. The talk, given by founding co-chairs of the International Parliamentary Network for Education, Senator Dr. Getrude Musuruve of Kenya and Harriett Baldwin, Member of Parliament (MP) of the United Kingdom, focused on action to deliver the global promise of quality education for all, and highlighted the importance of girls' education and reading.
In many countries around the world, children are struggling to learn to read. While there are many factors affecting this, such as overcrowded classrooms and lack of teacher training, one of the most significant obstacles is the lack of access to reading books with which to practice reading skills and learn new words.
GBA partner the World Bank recently released a report titled Realizing the Future of Learning: From Learning Poverty to Learning for Everyone, Everywhere. In it, the authors describe how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing inequities which they called a “crisis within a crisis,” because of the sharp increase in students now living in “learning poverty,” that is, without school and/or appropriate learning experiences.
