Ms. Tabitha Mutinta Ng’andu is a Grade 3 teacher at Beliya Community School in Solwezi District of North-Western Province in Zambia. A strong advocate for literacy in her community, Ms. Ng’andu was concerned that over the years, teachers had not received adequate support to deliver quality literacy lessons. According to her, this is due to several interconnected reasons, among them being limited opportunities for training and lack of reading materials.
However, things are changing both for students and teachers in the classroom. With the introduction of the USAID Let’s Read Project, Ms. Ng’andu explains that she has seen improvements in her teaching practice as well as among her colleagues. “Thanks to the teacher training and reading materials delivered to us by the USAID Let’s Read Project, my interest in championing literacy has been strengthened.”
Her students are equally excited. “We used to learn to write in Grade 1 but the teacher never told us stories in class. Now, our teacher gives us words to read and copy in our books. She also tells us stories, making reading more fun,” shares Tabitha, an 8-year-old Grade 2 learner at the Beliya Community School.
Not only is a teacher like Ms. Ng’andu inspiring her children to read and succeed, she serves as a powerful role model for young girls.
Ms. Ng’andu’s literacy advocacy is stronger than ever. With support from USAID Let’s Read, she has recently been trained as a primary literacy Master Trainer who will support her colleagues to improve their literacy instruction. Champions like Ms. Ng’andu are crucial to supporting literacy and improving education outcomes for children, and particularly for young girls.
The USAID Let’s Read Project supports the Ministry of General Education (MoGE) in implementing the Zambia Primary Literacy Programme, by providing evidence-based reading instruction to teachers and teaching and learning materials in Eastern, Muchinga, North-Western, Southern and Western Provinces. The project expects to improve literacy outcomes for 1.4 million children in Zambia over five years.
USAID Let's Read Project