Policies

Providing reading material via text message

Context and Issue

Technology has been instrumental in driving inventive educational programs. Likewise, numerous countries have embraced storytelling techniques to enhance children's reading habits. For example, within the Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD) context, collaborative efforts have increased book utilization through technology-driven resources across multiple projects.

Solution 

The Makhalidwe Athu initiative in Zambia distributed 41 stories in the native language through text messages to caregivers so they could engage in reading sessions with their children. Before this program, only a few caregivers practiced reading with their children at home, but delivering stories through text messages helped lower the obstacles to such interactions.

Impact 

Based on the lesson learned from the evaluation reports on similar interventions, the key recommendation is to promote using books and encourage reading. Those implementing initiatives should consider the effective approaches to cultivating an environment conducive to books. One such prominent approach highlighted in the discussion is to embrace the practice of storytelling through text messages.

Analysis

An innovative intervention that motivates both parents and children to spend quality of time together through reading the stories. However parents level of literacy crucial to understand in order to implement the intervention effectively.