Literacy Boost. Yemen Baseline Report

The Literacy Boost programme aims to improve young readers literacy and is founded on the idea that reading is a key to unlocking further education and career potential. This programme starts implementing assessment of children’s literacy, followed by training teachers and community involvement. The present report outlines the findings from the reading assessment administered to 659 children from the three Yemeni governorates of Aden, Lahj, and Abyan in February 2011. Random samples of children from 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade were selected from each school. They were assessed on six reading skills components:1) understanding of concepts about print, 2) knowledge of the alphabet, 3) ability to read the most common words from their curriculum, 4 & 5) fluency and accuracy in reading a grade-level passage, and 6) either reading or oral comprehension of the same passage. This assessment also gathered information on the students’ socio-economic background and home literacy environment.