literacy

The situation is grave: 12 million children in Pakistan have never attended school (two-thirds of them girls), Pakistani teachers killed for educating young women, and the bombing of girls’ schools. Female students have been targeted for attacks including the well-known shooting of Malala Yousafzai and her peers. That’s why hundreds of youth from around the globe are taking over the United Nations on July 12 to advocate for their right to safe education. 

I am a teacher of teachers, living in Tanzania. I came six years ago to work with primary teachers, teaching them how to use a comprehensive literacy instruction approach and to integrate literacy strategies into content instruction.  Tanzania is an interesting country, balancing between a traditional subsistence farming culture, and a 21st century future.  It is rich in resources, and poor in economy.  Typical of most developing countries, it has huge potential and big problems.  Education is at the core of both the potential and barriers here.

Two-dozen children welcome me into the school's library - a rare space in most Ugandan primary schools. But this is no ordinary school, and their headmistress, Olivia Muhumza, no ordinary individual.