End of Impossible: Inviting All Children into Reading

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go.

—Dr. Seuss, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!

As citizens of a global, interconnected community, we use literacy every day. We use words to express our joys or sorrows, exchange ideas, or debate different points of view. Literacy is the framework through which we communicate, connect, and expand our shared existence. Yet, nearly a billion people are unable to join the conversation because they cannot read or write. Globally, 750 million adults lack basic reading and writing skills. A staggering 124 million children and adolescents are not in school, and one in four children in low-income countries cannot read. Almost 40 percent of all primary school-age children in the world still lack basic reading, writing, and numeracy skills. UNESCO estimates that nearly half of these children will never reach fourth grade (UNESCO Institute of Statistics). When children reach the third grade without basic literacy skills, it is virtually impossible for them to catch up (Snow et al.). The challenges of illiteracy and its repercussions are enormous; by reaching even one child, we can catalyze social impact far into the future.

In 2000, Room to Read was founded upon the belief that "World Change Starts with Educated Children." We work, in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations, and governments, across sixteen countries of Asia and Africa to transform the lives of millions of children in low-income countries through education. We envision a world in which all children can pursue a quality education that enables them to reach their full potential. Reading opens doors to knowledge and education. It is an important means of introducing the child to the world that surrounds him or her and is also the very foundation on which the edifice of the child is to be built. It is also is one of the most important components of our language acquisition and an essential tool for lifelong learning. Reading as a lifelong habit can be sustained only by a love of reading, which has to be nurtured. When children read for pleasure, without conscious effort, they achieve a good level of development in language, communication, and literacy skills. An early exposure to an affective literature-based program with a variety of rich reading materials seems to give children reason, meaning, and pleasure for the process of reading. It supports them not only in how to read but also in what to read.

Room to Read India was launched in 2003 on a small scale, with a library program in primary schools, to provide high-quality books in underprivileged and underserved communities. The aim was to transform schools into child-friendly, print-rich learning environments, where libraries were full of diverse books that engaged and inspired children to read. Though initial interventions were focused on school libraries, over time it was quite evident that primary-grade children lacked basic reading skills, and it was also clear that children can only benefit from a school library in meaningful ways if they have the skills to read. There was a strong need for a focused reading and writing skills intervention in the communities where we worked. In 2008, Room to Read decided to make reading and writing skills acquisition a priority, not just in India, but in all the countries of its operations.

We believe that "reading well" is not just the effective mastering of text decoding and comprehension skills. There is a need for a stronger focus on affective reading processes—motivation, enjoyment of books, and engagement with language and stories—if we are to make a substantive long-term change to children's reading and make them independent readers and lifelong learners. Hence, the Comprehensive Literacy Program evolved, focusing on acquiring literacy skills in the classroom, paired with strong library interventions to strengthen both reading skills and reading habits among children in the primary grades, across low-income communities.

Whereas early efforts focused substantially on establishing thousands of libraries and creating and publishing children's storybooks in local languages...