Cubu (pronounced choo-boo) has been a common household name around the READ for Life office, as well as the ECD education community. Everyone has been talking about Cubu. For the entire year, Cubu was very popular and there was quite a buzz centered around Cubu. “Oh dear, that’s almost as poor as Cubu…” “Wow, they definitely pulled a Cubu.” “That’s like something Cubu would do.” “I bet even Cubu could do better than that!” All the fuss wasn’t good. In last year’s EGRA testing, Cubu placed 75^th out of 75 schools tested in the Municipal area. Cubu was dead last—the one true underdog. On average, P3 pupils were able to read 6 words a minute. P2 pupils achieved reading 1 word a minute. P1 managed to read a whole whopping zero words in a minute. Now, to be fair, Cubu teachers had never been trained by READ for Life or by our phonics program. They were among the control schools.

An assistant EGRA tester listens to a child reading under the refreshing shade.

When I began my time with READ for Life in January, I was privileged to observe and assist at my first in-school training, where Cubu teachers were among the trainees. One teacher in particular really stuck out to me. She struggled hard to understand and was clinging to every word spoken throughout the training. She asked question after question and practiced her sounds religiously. Unfortunately sometimes after training’s, this dedication and excitement for phonics can be easily squashed by many circumstances: head teachers, lack of time, curriculum conflicts, etc. But her bubbly personality and excitement were contagious, so I really hoped she continued to carry that fire with her back to her classroom and also inspire her colleagues to be dedicated phonics teachers.

P1, 2, & 3 teachers have made incredible progress through hard work and persistence to get these little guys reading independently!

I’m not even really sure how many observations/supervisions Read for Life was able to manage throughout the year for Cubu, but let us fast forward to the end of third term. Read for Life was back to the long slog of EGRA testing. This year, with the help of many volunteers, we managed to test 86 schools. Our supervisor, Beatrice, had done an incredible job organizing all of us into schools each day. After a couple weeks of long testing days, I had personally already been to 8 or so schools, only a couple could read well. I had drawn some short straws. The last straw was when Beatrice announced the next day’s schedule: Kelsey and an assistant Martin—off to Cubu! I will freely admit that I rolled my eyes and sighed out of defeat. The next day, I rolled up to Cubu and told my boda driver to come back in only an hour because I KNEW I wouldn’t delay. The children would read nothing, which makes my testing job easier for that day (but overall, READ for Life’s work that much greater!) I sorted all of the details with the headteacher and began testing the P2 pupils. The first pupil knew 25 sounds and could read 4 real words. The second knew 56 sounds and could read 33 real words and 24 made-up words! I legitimately thought this child must’ve transferred from another better school. But the positive results continued child after child! 38 words, 64 words, quick passage reading, comprehension questions correct! I immediately texted Jody and told her a was at Cubu and I was currently crying. (A little cheeky move on my part :)) She responded, “It’s that bad?” I laughed and responded, “Tears of JOY!” The children must’ve thought I was crazy, but I just couldn’t stop crying or contain my emotions. I happily called my boda and proudly told him NOT to come get me. I would be there all morning because these children were READING!

The P3 teacher with her three readers!

I moved around the school with plenty of smiles and high fives ready for distribution. I sat with the headteacher, deputy and P1, P2, and P3 teachers. I asked each of the teachers for their feedback and this is what I received, “Children are picked from deep in the village and education is a tug of war. You start building knowledge from zero with every child. We were training reading using the cramming method and that does not help the children. We were trained by you (Read for Life) and immediately, we started to work using phonics. That practice really helped us and the children! We work every morning because practice makes perfect!” I congratulated them all for wonderful progress and encouraged to continue with the spirit.

It’s always such a great feeling when we see the resources and teaching techniques we’ve demonstrated in training being implemented in the classrooms!

After only about 6 short months of phonics lessons:

P1 pupils on average went from reading zero wpm (words per minute) to 2.2 wpm.

P2 pupils on average went from reading 1 wpm to 17.7 wpm!!

P3 pupils on average went from reading 6 wpm to 51.5 wpm!!!

P1 pupils were giddy after we shared the excitement of how well they were doing in reading these days.

The evidence is loud and clear. We are beyond excited and grateful for all the children, teachers and education staff that have willingly jumped into the phonics boat! Once again, we hope Cubu will be all the rage and that everyone will continue saying, “Wow, they pulled a Cubu.” or “That’s something like Cubu would do!”

Local reading resources made by the very creative teachers!

–Kelsey