OER contributing to early literacy in Africa: Evidence from Saide’s African Storybook

One of the major reasons for poor literacy levels among African children is the severe shortage of local language contextually appropriate materials for African children learning to read. To contribute to addressing this challenge, Saide’s African Storybook initiative is testing an alternative publishing model. The website www.africanstorybook.org provides not only openly licensed stories for use, but also the tools for the translation of stories, and tools for the creation of stories, which are in turn openly licensed. The paper provides evidence that ‘going the open way’ can produce the quantity of stories needed in the languages needed for young children to practise and learn to love reading. In addition, the publishing model both requires and stimulates teacher and community agency and encourages use. Why African Storybook? Children need to have lots of practice in reading text, so that decoding letters and sounds on a page can become as automatic as driving a car – freeing up children’s minds for the more complex tasks of comprehension (Abadzi, 2008). They need to have books in a familiar language, with stories that reflect their context and experience, as well as their hopes for the future, so that they can connect with them emotionally (Bloch, 2006). Finally, children need adults who are invested in these stories, motivated to use them, and talk about them and through them to their children (Bloch, 2006). But there is a challenge. There are not nearly enough books in African languages for effective early literacy development (Pretorius and Mampuru, 2007). The shortage of books means that too few African children learn to read well or enjoy it. This in turn means that there is such a small market for books in African languages that it is not cost effective to produce these books. As a result, few children learn to read well, and the cycle continues. There is clearly a need for an alternative publishing model that does not have to consider the size and buying power of the market, as well as distribution networks, when producing books for African children in a familiar language. Saide’s African Storybook initiative has responded to this challenge and is testing an alternative way of using ICT and the concept of open educational resources (OER) to produce and deliver stories for early reading in languages familiar to African children. Its website provides not only openly licensed stories for use, but also the tools for the translation and creation of stories, which are in turn openly licensed. This means that users of the website, wherever they are, can produce the quantity of good reading materials that young children and all first readers need to build up the fluency that neuroand cognitive scientists are telling us is essential to wiring the brain for reading and complex logical thinking (Wolf, 2007). To facilitate use in contexts where there are challenges not only with connectivity but also with electricity supply, the storybooks can be read online or downloaded onto a device and read offline, or printed on home/office printers or commercially. The initiative is summarised succinctly in the vision statement: Open access to picture storybooks in the languages of Africa, for children’s literacy, enjoyment and imagination. With a generous four year grant from Comic Relief, a British Charity, the African Storybook OER initiative was piloted in 2014 and 2015 in three countries, with 14 pilot sites carefully chosen to represent the target audience – the marginalised majority of African children who are not achieving levels of literacy they need to thrive and contribute in contemporary society. The pilots were located in rural and peri-urban primary schools, community libraries and early childhood development (ECD) centres in Uganda, Kenya and South Africa and in the mountains of Lesotho. (We had only one site in Lesotho – hence this country is not regarded as a pilot country). In 2016, four of these sites were selected to become ‘hubs’ for African Storybook work in the broader community with the brief to extend activities to further schools or libraries in the municipality or county. Much larger scale implementation has also been secured through partnership with government departments (both national and provincial) in Kenya and South Africa, as well as with a tablet-based initiative (iMlango) reaching 195 primary schools in Kenya. Efforts have been made to integrate use of the website and tools in teacher education institutions in Kenya and South Africa, and many translations and new storybooks have been developed by student teachers. Finally, African Storybook is expanding to new countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Zambia, and Rwanda), starting with commissioned translations into local languages, and following this up with story development and use in association with partners working in literacy development in these countries. Elaboration of the need Research is overwhelmingly in favour of mother tongue literacy, but the implementation of language in education policies that facilitate literacy in the child’s main home language (or even in a familiar local language) are difficult. In most countries in sub-Saharan Africa there are policies which support mother tongue literacy for the first three grades of primary school, with early transition to English, but many countries struggle with the implementation of this policy in similar ways. There is a shortage of material to support African language literacy (Bloch, 2006) as well as inadequate teacher training for the teaching of reading, particularly in the African languages (Akyeampong, 2011). This usually results in rote reading – children learning the few books they have by rote, rather than learning to read new books for meaning. Recently USAID commissioned research to determine levels of investment required to provide material in the quantities and languages required to support learning to read in a familiar language. A guideline of 42 book titles per school per year was given (Global Book Fund, 2016, page 22). Thus, for the first three grades of schooling, 120 storybooks could be taken as an approximation of a ‘critical mass’ of storybooks required for early reading. However, a USAID commissioned survey of early reading books in 11 African countries showed that production of children’s reading books in many countries is lacking in both quantity (number of available titles) and quality (alignment with best practice pedagogical principles). The findings of the survey were: Although materials in 200 African languages were found, most languages are represented by very few titles: 40 languages have only one title each, 42 languages have between two and five titles, and 59 languages have between six and 20 titles. (RTI International, 2015, page 5) This point was powerfully made in a recent presentation of the interim results of the RTI School Health and Reading Programme (Basic Education Working Group meeting in Kampala on 8 April 2015). Children learning to read in a language like Luganda, in which there are some local language storybooks and resource materials, do much better than those learning to read in languages like Ateso, in which there are no local language storybooks or resources in schools. Whereas 9% of Luganda speaking Primary Two can read 20 or more words per minute, 0% of Ateso speaking Primary Two children can read 20 or more words per minute. Even with an excellent reading intervention such as the School Health and Reading Programme, only 2.8% of Ateso speaking children reach the target for Primary Two, whereas 18% of Luganda speaking students reach this target (see USAID/Uganda School Health and Reading Program – Newsletter October 2014-January 2015, Vol 1 Issue No: 3). The need for supplementary local language resources is clear. In addition, the 2015 Survey notes that the vast majority of the material that is available does not serve the needs of early reading (too many words, language and sounds too complex): The findings also suggest a need for strengthening the capacity of local talent to produce developmentally appropriate supplementary materials that match early readers’ different skill levels (RTI International, 2015, page 7). One of the contributing factors to this shortage is that intellectual property arrangements do not facilitate content sharing – either within or across countries. Use of Creative Commons (CC) licensing is low, copyrights are often unclear or cumbersome to manage, which prevents titles from being translated and/or reprinted for wider distribution (Global Book Fund, 2016, page 29). Both studies point to the African Storybook initiative as the exception in this regard: However, SAIDE’s African Storybook Project stands out as a major innovator in supplying high-quality materials that can be easily adapted and shared through the use of Creative Commons. (RTI International, 2015, page 48). How has an open licence digital publishing model enabled the development of a critical mass of storybooks in local languages for early reading? Development of the African Storybook website and collection of storybooks started in 2013. The aim was to provide about at least 50 storybooks in each of the main languages of the 14 pilot sites and English. The website was launched in June 2014 with 120 picture storybooks and over 600 translations of these into 19 languages. By 31 August 2016, the site had 670 unique storybooks and 2545 translations/adaptation in 81 languages (including English, French, Portuguese). In addition, the following table shows that the goal of 50 or more storybooks in the main languages of the pilot sites was reached. Table 1: Numbers of African Storybooks per main pilot country language as at 31 August 2016 S African languages # Ugandan languages # Kenyan languages # isiZulu 180 Lunyole 144 Kiswahili 177 isiXhosa 116 Luganda 114 Ng’aturkana 113 Setswana 91 Lugbarati 89 Oluwanga 76 Sepedi 63 Lumasaaba 69 Maa 62 Sesotho