Abenezer's Journey to Reading, Under the Open Sky

In a small rural primary school found in South Omo, Ethiopia, a ten-year-old boy named Abenezer found reading to be a hard battle for a long time. He couldn’t identify letters and words like many of his friends could. “I didn’t understand the words, and I couldn’t read fluently as my peers do,” Abenezer recalls. According to the Ethiopian Education Assessment and Examination Service’s Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) 2023 report, about 56% of grade two and three students in Ethiopia couldn’t read words fluently.

To tackle this challenge and support children like Abenezer who struggle with reading, World Vision provided capacity-building schemes for school leaders and teachers. Then, the school established a reading park in the school to support children who are low readers in the classroom, and they bring those students to the parks, and Abenezer was one of them. 

These reading parks are not a classroom or a library, but an open, welcoming space shaded by trees, filled with storybooks provided by World Vision and surrounded by benches where students gather after regular class hours to read, learn, and support each other. The children sit under the trees and read different storybooks to boost their reading skills. The introduction of the reading park at Abenezer’s school has brought a remarkable change in his reading ability and confidence.

With encouragement from his teachers and the relaxed atmosphere of the park, Abenezer began attending regularly. Abenezer’s teacher, Ms. Burtukan, noticed that he was struggling with reading “He was a quiet boy,” she says. “Every time we had a reading session, he would lose focus, and reading was very hard for him.” 

There are two reading parks in the school. Abenezer attends the sessions after regular classes in one of the reading park groups. Each park brings together a group of 12 students who sit in a circle, holding a storybook they like and reading aloud one by one. “We support each other,” Abenezer says. “We read different storybooks in the park, and our teachers support us.”

Once struggling to recognise letters and feeling anxious about reading, Abenezer now reads independently and with passion. He has started recognising letters, sounding out words, and finally reading whole stories. “After I started attending the reading park sessions, I changed a lot. Now I can read different books on my own.” Abenezer says proudly. “I’m happy to come to school.”

Ms. Burtukan, the reading park facilitator and language teacher in the school, is one of the witnesses to the change of Abenezer. She supports children in the reading park to read words and books. “I am amused by Abenezer's change, he is one of the transformed students from non-reader to active reader within in short time”, she says with a smile. “Abenezer is now one of the best readers in his class. The reading park helped him so much.”

The reading park does not limit the students to staying at the park to read, but it also provides an opportunity for children to borrow books. “I borrow books to take home to practice in the evening with the help of my family,” Abeneze says. While Abenezer asked about his aspiration, “I want to be a doctor,” he says with determination. 

The reading park for students like Abenezer is more than just an outdoor classroom. They are places of transformation where fear gives way to confidence, and where a love of learning takes root under the open sky.

By Samuel Zerihun, Communications Coordinator (Education), World Vision Ethiopia