Beyond School Walls: A boost for readers

While more children are in school today than ever before, many are not learning basic skills like reading once they get there. Save the Children’s Literacy Boost Program is helping to change that by creating a culture of reading both inside and outside the classroom.

Save the Children’s new report ‘Beyond School Walls: A Boost for Readers’ shows that teaching children early on how to read not only in school but also through activities outside the classroom effectively boosts reading ability. In its report, Save the Children reviews results from the first year of its Literacy Boost program in seven participating countries : Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. The program helps improve children’s reading ability by measuring their skill level, training teachers and engaging communities.  The findings show that Literacy Boost program participants demonstrated significantly greater growth in reading ability than students not enrolled in the program. Additionally, Literacy Boost students were much more likely to stay in school than their peers who did not attend the program.