Creating high-quality, mother-tongue materials through LubutoLiteracy, a low-cost digital platform that used local teachers to build lessons in seven languages
Project Name
LubutoLiteracy: Zambian teaching and learning materials for the digital age
Location Implemented
Zambia
Technology Used
Hardware
Competition Entered
Grant Competition 2011
Reading Skill Targeted
Pre-Reading
Status
Winner
Collaborators/Partners
Ministry of General Education, including the Curriculum Development Centre and Zambian Library Service (ZLS)
The Challenge
In Zambia, large numbers of children are out of school and lack opportunities to acquire the foundational literacy skills that enable lifelong learning. Even children who are enrolled in school are typically educated in overcrowded, under-resourced classrooms, with limited or no access to quality local-language early grade reading materials.
The Big Idea
LubutoLiteracy created high-quality mother-tongue materials to teach children to read on an accessible, low-cost digital platform and sustainably deployed them at national scale in Zambia in partnership with government and other stakeholders. The interactive materials were developed locally by teachers and youth in line with the national curriculum and leverage the open access learning environment and outreach of Lubuto Libraries to particularly benefit highly vulnerable and out-of school children.
Results
A set of 101 lessons in Icibemba, Chinyanja, Chitonga, Silozi, kiiKaonde, Lunda and Luvale, approved by the Curriculum Development Center in 2017, have been used by over 6,800 children and youth in Lubuto Libraries. LLP plans to deploy the revised version of the lessons at scale in partnership with the Ministry of General Education and other stakeholders in late 2019.
Featured Innovation
ACR GCD Innovator Spotlight Webinar: Lubuto Library Project & Georgia State University
Learn from ACR GCD-funded innovators Lubuto Library Project and Georgia State University about projects to improve reading outcomes for children in Zambia and South Africa.
Blogs and Media
Research and Resources
ACR GCD Innovator Spotlight Webinar: Lubuto Library Project & Georgia State University
Learn from ACR GCD-funded innovators Lubuto Library Project and Georgia State University about projects to improve reading outcomes for children in Zambia and South Africa.
USAID All Children Reading Literacy Day Event
Learn from ACR GCD-funded innovator Lubuto Library Project about their creation of high-quality digital reading materials in local languages in Zambia.
Lubuto Library Project / Jane Kinney Meyers
Lubuto Library Project shares their ACR GCD-funded innovation to create high-quality books in underserved languages via an accessible digital platform to help children in Zambia learn to read.
