Rwanda: Baseline survey tracking literacy knowledge, attitudes, and practices at the school and community level

Mureke Dusome (Let’s Read) is a four-year project that aims to improve children’s literacy skills by supporting reading outside of school. The project aims to create and strengthen partnerships between schools and communities, increase effective community and parental involvement in children’s reading activities, and, ultimately, foster a “culture of reading” throughout Rwanda.

As part of the project monitoring and evaluation plan, a knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) baseline survey was undertaken in July-August 2016. This study aims to provide empirical evidence about the current “culture of reading” in Rwanda.

The data confirms what has anecdotally been known to be true for many years—that literacy practices outside of school in Rwanda are scarce, although the benefits of literacy are generally known.This study identifies four key constraints to literacy practice: limited access and availability of storybooks, a perceived lack of time for parents to support reading, pervasive beliefs that only literate parents can teach children to read and that some children cannot learn to read, and lack of social support for literacy at the community level.