YEMEN

Early Grade Reading Approach

Youth aged 25 and younger represent nearly 75 percent of Yemen’s population, yet their education is failing them. A 2011 Early Grade Reading Assessment found that almost one third of third-graders are not able to read a single word.

Creative’s Yemen Early Grade Reading Approach—part of an integrated, community-based program designed to enhance education—introduces a new, phonics-based reading program to schools across the country. It is funded by U.S. Agency for International Development.

Together with Yemen’s Education Ministry, Creative is demonstrating to educators better ways to teach children Arabic reading and writing skills, as well as receiving ongoing training and support in effectively using teaching materials. The program was implemented in 310 schools during the 2011–2012 academic year.

The new approach worked so well that the government expanded it to more than 1,200 schools in the 2013-2014 academic year. It’s now being used nationally and has become part of the official first grade curriculum.

Creative’s program has trained 8,000 teachers and benefitted more than 250,000 students in first, second and third grades. And the program is working: 97 percent of first graders were able to read more than six times faster after using the Early Grade Reading approach for three months.

To expand its reach, Creative and the Ministry of Education launched a national reading campaign designed to promote a culture of reading—with radio and TV messages, a mini-documentary, print materials and SMS messages that reached an estimated 9 million people.

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