Wasana rekindles her hope
Wasana is 13 years old and lives in a village and studies in a rural school in north Thailand. The villagers here grow a lot of potatoes and sweet corn.
At one time Wasana abandoned her dream of being a mathematics teacher. Today she is rekindling her hope once again. She has joined the elementary school peer reading programme and, as a result, her reading and learning have improved according to her level of education.
“I’m very glad that I can now read easily. I even practice reading hard words. I passed a reading test. I have the right to continue my education and become a teacher. I want to be a mathematics teacher,” Wasana says.
Wasana comes from a poor family. As her school is scarce in library books, the students do not have books to practice reading. As a result, Wasana and her friends did not have the skill to read Thai and English.
What’s worse, Wasana has a problem with her eyesight.
When she was just a little girl in kindergarten, Wassana was playing with her friend. The friend didn’t know about safety and was playing rough. Wassana’s friend had a pencil and stuck it in Wassana’s right eye. Ever since then, Wassana couldn’t see clearly.
Still, Wassana loved going to school very much. She loves reading and loves spending time with her friends there. But because of her bad eyesight, Wassana’s grades were low and she wasn’t able to do very well in school. Her parents decided to stop her education after she finished Grade 6.
Her marks have improved due to the elementary school’s peer reading program, introduced by World Vision. With better results, her parents changed their mind and supported her education. They agreed to continue to send her to secondary school.
Wasana and nearly 2,000 other grade 4-6 students from 17 schools in World Vision programme areas are fortunate to have the opportunity to join in the peer reading programme.
The programme has sparked interest in reading in children and parents. Children have the opportunity to enhance their reading skills through various activities, such as children’s camp, Thai and English camp, slogan competition to challenge everyone in villages and schools to see the importance of reading. Children learn to practice reading their school textbooks, newspapers and Thai literature.
They practice reading on Saturday together with their teachers and friends, and create colourful and interesting pop-up materials ready to be picked up and read, and produce their own mini storybooks according to their imagination.
World Vision supports the printing of English and Thai textbook materials for schools that do not have them, and the teachers have used these in the library.
Sawitri Worapitbencha, the teacher in charge of the elementary school peer reading programme says, “This project has done well. In the past, the students’ marks were low. Now their reading score has passed the standard and their O-NET [Ordinary National Education test] exam score has improved. What is important is that the children are happy. When they can read, they have the opportunity to pursue higher education.”
Today, Wasana and her friend Nareerat, along with the others, have improved in their reading skill. They have satisfactorily passed the reading test. They enjoy reading newspapers and all kinds of available reading materials that enable them to gain knowledge, technology and vital news. They also continue to improve their skill in producing pop-up storybooks that contain colourful pictures and read them to kindergarten children with great delight. They also teach the younger children to have a love of reading.
By Somluck Khamsaen, World Vision Thailand