A new generation of authors
In the past, boys as young as eight were believed to be better off taking care of a herd of animals than hitting the books. This is why many youngsters dropped out of school and went to the grasslands to watch over sheep, camels, cows, horses and goats.
At least that's the way it used to be.
These days though, those same boys, along with many other children in Mongolia’s countryside, are coming back to school and improving their reading abilities.
The reason?
Boys and girls across Mongolia are creating books. They’re telling their own stories, illustrating them and submitting them to school libraries. It’s part of a mass project to improve functional literacy levels across the country.
Last year, World Vision conducted a study on education and found that one in every five children was not functionally literate – unable to read and understand at a basic level, which would be a great deal of setback in their daily lives and future employment needs.
To address this, World Vision has worked with the provincial Ministry of Education to implement the ‘READ’ approach, helping children to read books creatively, engaging the students’ parents to help them with their reading, and for the students to create books of their own.
Badamtsetseg Tumurbaatar, 2nd school head master in Gobi-Sumber province, says, “When we heard about READ, we wanted to learn it but we couldn’t afford it. Surprisingly, World Vision gave us a hand in empowering school teachers in Ulaanbaatar. [They] brought the national facilitators from Ulaanbaatar and created an opportunity for parents to be part of their children’s books and correct the books’ mistakes.”
To create a small book children fold an A4 size paper six times. Then they draw the story and then add captions, usually about a funny experience. Once the books are made, they share them in class for their classmates to read. Next, the kids display the books in the school corridor for other students to read. Lastly, the books are sent to the school library.
It’s part of World Vision’s long tradition of endorsing reading programmes in Mongolia.
World Vision Mongolia started implementing education projects in 1997. We provided books and notebooks to children who dropped out of school and opened an opportunity for them to study at an informal education centre.
For the rural school dropouts, World Vision helped join the Herder Livelihood Diversification project, providing them with the opportunity to study while taking care of their animals as well.
World Vision’s most recent project, the READ programme, was implemented from 2005 until 2012. But Gantumur Luvsannyam, the Minister of Education and Science wants to continue this approach not only in rural areas but in urban ones as well.
World Vision worked with dozens of community based organizations [CBO] to implement this approach at the grassroots level across the country. And World Vision helps the CBO to run day schools for the children who aren’t able to do their homework at home. Material is purchased to make books.
World Vision is working as a bridge to introduce educational best practices, inspiring children’s voices and stories to be uplifted and promoting child protection at the national level. World Vision continues to improve the students’ reading and understanding level in 32 ADPs, with more than 200 schools and 6,000 students participating in the project.