In this reading group meeting we focussed on the following article:

READING: Sherris, A., & Peyton, J.K. (2023). The power of multiliteracy in The Gambia and Ghana. In A.C. Hager-M’Boua & F. Jaumont (Eds.), A bilingual revolution for Africa. New York, NY: TBR Books. [You can download the article below]

This meeting was based on the discussion of a book chapter that Joy Peyton wrote with Ari Sherris about a project to promote and develop multilingualism and multiliteracy in The Gambia and Ghana. One of the reasons that we wanted Joy to present her work is because of her significant role (with Carolyn Adger) in developing materials for national language literacy lessons in The Gambia.

The Gambia Read Program: During the presentation, Joy emphasized that the Gambia Read program was developed by the MoBSE, in collaboration with the World Bank and the Global Partnership for Education. The program ran between 2008 to 2013, and the main goal was to develop materials in students’ mother tongues. The idea was to engage them in confidently speaking and reading their mother tongue(s) both individually and in groups. The seven most widely spoken national languages (to various extents) were chosen. These are: Jola, Mandinka, Manjaku, Olof, Pulaar, Seereer and Sarahule. Other languages were not part of this initiative, as they are either spoken only as a second language or not spoken widely at all.

Curriculum Development: The team working on the Gambia Read project comprised different experts from different languages and backgrounds, and Momodou Jeng (director of national language program) was the principal education officer. The project focused on grades 1 to 3 and its purpose was to review and update the curriculum and develop national language literacy lessons in all seven national languages and English for these grades. As part of this project, they also developed books for these grades (using Bloom software), which were later distributed to different schools in The Gambia.

Joy highlighted the challenges of writing books for grade 1 students, as most of these students had not yet learned or did not have a clear understanding of the letters. However, there was a need to figure out what words to be used for their understanding.

Below were some of the challenges they face in using these books in schools:

1. Printing of the books
2. Getting the books to different schools in The Gambia
3. Having storage for the books in the schools
4. The time allocated for the teaching of the national language
5. Teachers’ knowledge and skills with teaching the national language

In response to these challenges, the World Bank recommended that there should be a plan and a structure for continuing to develop materials in the national languages. Regarding the levelled readers, they suggested that these should be evaluated. They also acknowledged that this can be difficult because of the financial and administrative challenges, even if the key stakeholders support it.

A warm thank you to all attendees.