CCIH 2015 Paul Frank Opening Plenary

Reading in the Mother Tongue

Paul Frank Executive Director, SIL LEAD, Inc.

Christian Connections for International Health Annual Meeting 2015

Benefits of Education for Development

• One additional year of education for the female population can avert six deaths per thousand in child mortality rates

• Educating girls for six years or more drastically and consistently improves their prenatal care, postnatal care and childbirth survival rates

• A country’s performance on international learning assessments…accounts for 64% of the variation in economic growth

• 10% increase in students reaching basic literacy translates into 0.3% higher annual growth rate for a country

Educational Access and Quality

USAID’s Reading Agenda (2011)

• In Mali, Pakistan and Peru more than 70% of children in primary grades could not read at grade level

• In Mali, 94% of children at the end of grade 2 could not read a word in a simple sentence

• Goal 1: Improved reading skills for 100 million children in primary grades by 2015

• “This strategy recognizes the importance of educating children in their native languages where possible in the earliest grades”

SIL LEAD—Reading in the Mother Tongue

• SIL International: searching for a way to become in international development projects

• Formation of SIL LEAD (Language, Education and Development) in 2011

• SIL International and SIL LEAD became sought-after for our mother tongue expertise

• Large projects: Uganda (12 languages), Ethiopia (7 languages), Nepal (4 languages) plus a variety of smaller language and education-related consultancies

Mother Tongue Learning Materials

Results to Date: Good News

• Done together with the National Curriculum Development Centre and Primary Teacher Colleges—systemic change

• Building capacity within the government and communities

“My learners are so excited when they see the books—they want to take turns in collecting and distributing them.” “It is overwhelming to see the upper class students lining up to borrow our P1 and P2 books for reading during their free time.” “Now each learner has a book. They adore these books and seem to have a longer attention span.” “I never imagined I would teach a class where every learner has a text book…I must say I am proud. 2014 (when these books arrived at our school) is by far the best year in my teaching career. I pray to be alive to see how my learners will perform in the P[rimary] L[eaving] E[xams] in 6 years.”

Results to Date: Not so Good News

• Though improvement in reading ability mid-term is statistically significant, far too many students still cannot read at all

• Inadequate attention to “reading readiness” and pre-reading, pre-writing activities

• Children come to school never having handled a book or been read to at home

• Also a need for more fidelity in implementing the new practices in the classroom

Why are We Doing This?

• Deep concern for minority language communities • Language is identity, not just a neutral tool for communication • Mother Tongue and other languages; multiple identities • Educational outcomes are better overall when first learning is in the

Mother Tongue • Kom longitudinal mother tongue instruction research, Cameroon:

• Children receiving instruction in Kom scored better, even when tested for their English ability

• Children in the Kom-medium schools scored 22 points better on average on their primary school leaving exams

What does the Future Hold?

• USAID projects that include Mother Tongue instruction in Ghana, Liberia, Uganda, Ethiopia, DRC, Philippines, Nepal

• More such programs expected over the next several years • Hope to see Mother Tongue instruction in the early grades

become firmly established in international education “best practice”

• Hope to see the overall quality of life in these communities improved as a result

References • Gove,A and P. Cvelich (2010). Early Reading: Igniting education for

All. A report by the Early Grade Learning Community of Practice. ResearchTriangle Park, NC: ResearchTriangle Institute.

• John Peasbody, et al. Policy and Health: Implications for Development in Asia, 1997, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press

• http://www.unicef.org/mdg/ • Hanushek, E. and L.Woessmann (2009). Do Better Schools Lead To

More Growth? Cognitive Skills, Economic Outcomes, and Causation. NBER Working Paper 14633. National Bureau of Economic Research