Fatou Lamin Faye, the minister of Basic and Secondary Education Thursday launched the report on the interventions of the Early Grade Reading Abilities (EGRA) at the Baobab Holiday Resort in Bijilo.

The launching was part of the closing ceremony of a two-week education survey training course for education officers, regional directorates, Gambia College, University of The Gambia (UTG) and UNESCO- NATCOM.

The EGRA provides comparative results of the first and the second series of national assessments on reading abilities of children in early grades (Grades 1, 2 and 3). The assessment was carried out by Gambian experts within the education sector. The report provides not only the findings on the impact of the interventions but also offers some useful insight into possible strategy for further improvement on instructional practices to enhance fluency in reading and comprehension.

Launching the report, Minister Faye said research on reading over the past several decades has consistently demonstrated the linkage between early literacy skills with future academic achievements. "Evidence from several countries indicates that children who are poor readers early on are more likely to struggle with reading and as a consequence with all of their academic subjects for the rest of their schooling years," she said.

She disclosed that concerns about children's ability to read have in the past few years been the focus of her ministry, saying that they made a great deal of effort on baseline  study of reading abilities in 2007 followed by material development, in-service training of early grade teachers, school heads and cluster monitors for the acquisition and application  of early grade literacy skills as well as monitoring  and supervision of the teaching and learning processes.

She noted that this impact assessment report provides a useful documentation not only for the classroom practitioners but also policymakers, curriculum developers, development partners and practitioners on the performances on early grade in literary skills. Minister Faye then observed that significant improvements have been registered for all the indicators and across the regions.

She said: "We have just noted that from one of the figures presented in 2007, 34 per cent of the children on Grade Three were unable to read a single word from a passage in the assessment. However, in 2009, this figure was reduced to 18 per cent indicating that the proportion of children who could not read a single word was reduced by about half. This improvement could be linked to nothing other than the numerous interventions the MoBSE carried between 2007 and 2009." She made it clear that to ensure The Gambia continues to produce such type of report, there is need for the ministry officials and the nation at large to develop and maintain capacity to conduct, analysis and interpret research proposals and findings.

For his part, Adama Jimba Jobe, the coordinator of the report provided a synopsis of the two-week capacity building for personnel of the ministry and it partners. He said the ministry in its drive to provide quality basic education to every Gambian and non-Gambian child, over the years has been putting a lot of resources and emphasis on EGRA with the objective of aiding children to be able to read at an early age. He explained that a total of 11 modules were covered of which nine were individualised interactive modules while two were taught.

Others speakers included Micheal Costello and Abhijit Nimbalkar, the RTI representatives; Baboucarr Bouy, the permanent secretary of MoBSE who presented the 2009 Impact Assessment Results. Certificates were awarded at the end of the closing ceremony by the minister of Basic and Secondary Education. Ida J. Sallah delivered the vote of thanks.