Strengthening literacy and attitudes towards equality
Laughter, singing, and shrieks of excitement ring out from a small clearing where a group of twenty children sit in the shade of a tree. The game they are playing requires concentration, coordination, and a little bit of rhythm. One by one each child takes a turn placing their letter of the alphabet, which is hand scrawled on a small cardboard cutout, in the box at the center of the circle before they dance back to their seat. One child tries to place his letter in the box before its place in alphabetical order, and his peers gently sing him back to his seat so the correct letter can go in first.
Watch to learn more about Reading Clubs in Mozambique
In Mozambique, only 4% of children in third grade read at a grade-appropriate level. But in Namaacha, where this Reading Club operates, things are changing. After school, Reading Club Instructors use games and play-based activities to help children strengthen their understanding of core literacy concepts and practice their reading skills. They also learn about the importance of treating all children equally, regardless of their gender.
“I think it is very important to use games with children because it encourages children a lot and they learn more,” says Aventina, a Right To Play-trained Reading Club Instructor. “There’s a big difference between children who have participated in the club and those who have not participated in it. We see that those who have participated in the Reading Club are more open-minded and the results they get in quarterly testing are good.”
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This Reading Club is part of the Gender Responsive Education and Transformation (GREAT) program, which is made possible thanks to the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through Global Affairs Canada. Active in Ghana, Rwanda, and Mozambique since 2018, the GREAT program uses Right To Play's play-based learning approach to remove barriers to education, especially for girls, and to build teacher capacity to improve learning outcomes.
