Books for All: How to Ensure Every Child Has the Texts They Need to Learn to Read (Event resources)

To teach young children to read, teachers and students need textbooks, lesson plans, and reading materials that are aligned with each other and with the science of reading. Books should also be procured at reasonable costs, and delivered to every classroom before the start of the school year.

Meeting these requirements can prove challenging not only in terms of ensuring that the materials contain effective, evidence-based content but also in terms of coordinating the logistics. In lower-resource settings, it can be surprisingly difficult to get the technical details right, from copyright terms, to procurement guidelines, to book production specifications, to transport and delivery.

This second Foundational Learning Knowledge Café shared practical solutions developed by World Bank experts and partners, including the Global Book Alliance, to overcome these common obstacles. Lead Literacy Specialist Penelope Bender and World Bank teams from Mozambique, Niger, and Rwanda discussed how they have successfully tackled challenges at each stage of the book chain to generate thousands of new titles in hundreds of languages, at dramatically lower prices, and many more books in the hands of children and teachers.