Blog

By Christine Earnshaw, Program Manager, CODE

Zawadi Omary is an 11 year old girl in standard 5 at NDC Narco Primary School in Kongwa, Tanzania.  I would not be surprised if one day she became a famous Tanzanian author.  I met Zawadi today when the training coordinator for the Children’s Book Project (CODE’s Tanzanian partner), Marcus Mbigili and I visited her school and toured classrooms meeting teachers and talking to students.  To understand students’ interest and familiarity with the reading materials supplied by CODE/CBP’s Reading Tanzania project, we asked questions about what books they like reading from the library.  “Babu Ne-Musa” offered the first student to respond.  “Why,” asked Marcus.  “By the end of the story the father believes his daughter should go to school, not just his son”, responded the student.  “Alright, what’s another book you like?”, he asked.  After listening to several responses and seeing nearly all hands shoot up to get noticed, it was clear not only that the students were familiar and appreciative of the books in the library, but they also enjoyed being asked to express their opinions, a rare thing in most Tanzanian schools, where teachers tend to dominate the class by lecturing.  

Following the discussions about books, Marcus reminded students of the importance of writing.  Hearing that their teacher has begun encouraging them to write stories in their Kiswahili class, Zawadi told us that she is writing not just a story, but a book.  “Ah”, said Marcus,  “vizuri sana, can you show us? “.  Zawadi opened her notebook, which was filled —page after page —with her neat handwriting.  She shyly read out the chapter names and when asked, described the storyline.  It was called ‘The Twins’, a story about a brother and sister who were very different and had great adventures.  I could tell Marcus was impressed.  He asked Zawadi if he could read the beginning of her book out loud to the class.  She agreed, but while Marcus read, she kept her eyes lowered.  At some points a sly smile was apparent.  From the reaction of the other students, I could see that she had written something that was thoroughly engaging and interesting to them.  After reading the first chapter out loud and gathering predictions from the students on what would happen next, Marcus enthused to me, “She’s a very talented writer.”  He commended the teacher who has clearly encouraged reading, writing and communicating in the classroom. 

It was a perfect, spontaneous moment capturing the power of the comprehensive readership initiative CODE and CBP have been implementing to develop children’s literacy skills and harness their creativity and potential.  As one teacher who is going through CODE/CBP’s Reading Tanzania teacher training program put it, “I truly believe children have a lot to say and a lot of good ideas.  With these new teaching strategies, we are able to appreciate children’s own experiences and knowledge”. 

Top Left: Students listen as their teacher reads part of a book written by their classmate.

Top Right: The author, Zawadi Omary

Bottom: Marcus Mbigili, CBP's Training and Monitoring Coordinator, reading part of the book to the class