Six ways that The Book Bus is innovatively tackling the global literacy crisis

Three children reading a book
The Book Bus supports local literacy projects.

Since 2008, The Book Bus Foundation has supported child literacy projects in Zambia, Malawi, Ecuador and India. The historically low learning outcomes in these countries is largely due to their lack of educational innovation. Various development agencies have provided new classrooms, book drops and limited teacher training but despite these interventions, the problem persists. There is clearly no “one size fits all” solution to the global literacy crisis.

The Book Bus approach to tackling the global literacy crisis is to introduce educational innovations that create successful and sustainable change to all of its stakeholders. Each project adopts a blended approach that employs multi-channel and multi-dimensional programmes to meet the needs of our beneficiary groups. We build this approach on six pillars of innovation which are:

1. Book Bus Outreach programmes – identifying the need:

Tackling the global literacy crisis - The Book Bus works with local teachers to craft programmes that work for local children.
The Book Bus works with local teachers to craft programmes that work for local children.

Our Outreach team works in collaboration with the local education authorities to identify literacy needs within the community. A Book Bus and its team is designated to a cluster of schools and develops a programme of reading, writing and story-telling sessions. 

Crucially, the programmes developed are PROVEN to be successful in teaching children how to read; and developed WITH LOCAL TEACHERS to work alongside the school curriculum. This means that we know we can get results, and that those results will carry through into those children’s school life – thus equipping them for more educational success.

2. Creating Secure and inspirational Reading environments for children:

The Book Bus helps schools, communities and local authorities create spaces where children want to read; these include school and community libraries, council library children’s sections and even home book corners.

3. Providing children with books and reading resources that are engaging and relevant:

Tackling the global literacy crisis - A December 2020 book drop delivers the books that children want to read in Lusaka, Zambia.
Tackling the global literacy crisis: A December 2020 book drop delivers the books that children want to read in Lusaka, Zambia.

The Book Bus does not source just any books – it sources books that the children want to read, the books that we know work in remote rural learning environments, that teachers ask for and that the children they teach love to learn from. We know that the children learn from these books – they are not just any books.

4. Mobilising support from the community to help children as they learn to read through fun out-of-school activities:

Local volunteers provide mentoring and encouragement to the children as they improve their reading and writing skills. Mentoring is the key to help children get from the stage of “Learning to Read” to the stage of “Reading to Learn”. 

5. Monitoring and evaluation processes to measure children’s reading levels and identify their learning needs:

Happy learners are guided to better literacy by local mentors and trained staff.
Happy learners are guided to literacy by local mentors and trained staff.

Our staff are trained to quickly identify successes and failures so they can adapt programmes promptly as a result. This means that they always know the impact they are having on children’s abilities, and can fine-tune our activities so that the children get the best out of the scheme.

6. Securing the Future:

We believe in project sustainability. We do not come and go – we build a presence, work carefully with local communities and then develop within them the skills required to run programmes.

Help tackle the global literacy crisis:

To support The Book Bus in our mission to tackle the global literacy crisis, please consider donating or gift us an item from The Book Bus Virtual Store.