International Projects

• International
• Affiliation with the International Reading Association
• Connections with the rest of Europe
• Books for Africa
  • Book boxes for the Gambia
  • Libraries for Zanzibar
• Volunteering to teach overseas
• Exchange Opportunities

Book boxes for the Gambia

In theory primary education in The Gambia is free, but each family must provide the uniforms, pens and paper, books, sometimes even desks and chairs – and when a child is at school s/he isn’t helping in the fields! All learning is through the medium of English - a foreign language to most children in The Gambia, who are already fluent in several tribal languages when they arrive in school. Alphabet and vocabulary are usually taught by rote from the blackboard; classes in the urban townships can have 50-60 children and many teachers are untrained. Read on…

Through one of our families, we got to know a teacher who was posted up country last year, to become Head of a small rural primary school, so naturally we went to visit. Killy Lower Basic School is off the tourist trail, about 40 miles from the coast. There are 6 classes, with some 90 pupils who come from poor farming families of the Djiola tribe.

Initially we took out pens, pencils, chalk, posters and footballs, but we noticed that the school had very few books, except some Government textbooks - and the reading ability was very poor. We realised that one of the best things we could do to help would be to provide lots of reading books.

So we conceived the simple idea of the Book Box, which could be filled with books and carried from classroom to classroom for reading sessions. At Easter this year, with the help of a grant from UKLA, we commissioned a carpenter to make our first box (complete with storage compartments, lid, lock, and rope carrying handles). We visited the Timbooktoo bookshop in Bakau and selected a range of publications - early years materials, storybooks, picture dictionaries, reference books - as many as possible with pictures and text relevant to African children.

On the appointed day we completed the dusty 2-hour drive to Killy and presented the Book Box to the Headteacher, who was amazed and delighted. Two boys carried the box into the Grade 2 classroom and the excitement was palpable. For half an hour the children selected books, looked at them together, and tried to read. This had clearly never happened before and some basic instruction in page-turning was required, (as well as some rapid teacher training)! We also realised that making the link between the ‘name’ of a letter and its actual sound was proving a great barrier to reading - no debates about phonics here!

Sharing a passion for books and reading with these children was delightful - and made us realise how much more there is still to do! We shall return to top up the Box at Christmas, but meanwhile we’ve come across a nursery school with 200 pupils, aged 3-5, and no books at all - any ideas?