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This Guidance Note is designed to support government and World Bank teams in preparing accurate and complete bidding documents for books, evaluating proposals, and awarding contracts.

Access to books (textbooks, teacher’s guides, and materials for reading practice) is key to addressing learning poverty. Children need to be exposed to sufficient and appropriate text, and they need to be afforded the time and opportunity to practice reading in school and at home. Appropriate design of reading books will facilitate learning, support instruction, and promote independent learning.

Education projects funded by The World Bank procure textbooks and other teaching and learning materials through national and international tenders (bids). Documents for the tenders describe the purposes of the procurement, the qualification requirements for potential bidders, and the technical specifications of the education materials to be procured.

The World Bank’s Read@Home initiative is an unprecedented effort to get reading, learning, and play materials into homes to address the learning loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread, pre-existing "learning poverty". Connected to the distribution and use of these materials is the question of copyright.

This Guidance Note was created for the Read@Home project to help writers, illustrators, and designers create books for young children to share with their families at home. Of course, such books may be used in schools as well. In either case, these will be enjoyable books that children will want to read, so they will learn to love reading and develop the life-long habit of reading.  

Low-cost, high-quality printing of teaching and learning materials (TLM) requires well-designed and highly competitive procurement. Since 2010, Mozambique has implemented a range of measures to reduce costs over time, making its printing procurement possibly the most competitive in Africa. As a result, printed pages purchased by Mozambique cost less than half of those purchased across the channel in Madagascar.

This report is a brief introduction to the Republic of the Marshall Islands Book Supply Chain, focusing for practical reasons on the National capital, Majuro. The initiative began through the lens of human rights and particularly a child’s right to literacy in a language they understand. It was sparked by the lack of children’s books in the Marshall Islands.

As schools in Uganda closed down in late March 2020 due to Covid-19, Mango Tree Literacy Lab (MTLL) had to reconsider its 2020 work plan.

These First Books templates are square books. The square size mimics the format of most board books for this age group. This resource contains InDesign Master Templates in the proper trim size, with pre-created parent pages for ease of use and a PDF Users’ Guide to aid designers working with the templates.

This template is available only in portrait trim, and at a smaller size than a picturebook. The size is standard for leveled readers in the children’s book industry. This resource contains InDesign Master Templates in the proper trim size, with pre-created parent pages for ease of use and a PDF Users’ Guide to aid designers working with the templates.

This template includes nonfiction features such as a table of contents, captions, sidebars, and bibliographies.This resource contains InDesign Master Templates in the proper trim size, with pre-created parent pages for ease of use and a PDF Users’ Guide to aid designers working with the templates.

This template is fairly large, in order to give space for interesting images and engaging design. This template can be used for fiction or nonfiction. It is available in both portrait and landscape trims. This resource contains InDesign Master Templates in the proper trim size, with pre-created parent pages for ease of use and a PDF Users’ Guide to aid designers working with the templates.

This template includes panel layouts for sequential storytelling. Its user guide also includes more detailed information about developing comic books, as their process is more complex than standard narrative books. This resource contains InDesign Master Templates in the proper trim size, with pre-created parent pages for ease of use and a PDF Users’ Guide to aid designers working with the templates.

The Reading Comprehension Group developed this interactive guide to promote uptake of literacy activities that strengthen children’s social-emotional learning skills and listening/reading comprehension skills, in the heart of communities through community libraries. The objective of this guide is to help teachers, volunteer teachers and librarians, and community leaders set up libraries where there are none and promote the use of community libraries that already exist via activities that engage the full community.

In recent years, several textbook distribution and track and trace systems have been piloted to assist local supply systems in ensuring that education materials reach schools at the last mile. Through this World Bank-funded initiative, John Snow, Inc. (JSI) and subcontractor World Education, Inc.

In recent years, several textbook distribution and track and trace systems have been piloted to assist local supply systems in ensuring that education materials reach schools at the last mile. Through this World Bank-funded initiative, John Snow, Inc. (JSI) and subcontractor World Education, Inc.

Ces dernières années, plusieurs systèmes de distribution et de suivi des manuels scolaires ont été mis à l'essai pour aider les systèmes d'approvisionnement locaux à garantir que le matériel pédagogique parvienne aux écoles jusqu'au dernier kilomètre. Dans le cadre de cette initiative financée par la Banque mondiale, John Snow, Inc. (JSI) et son sous-traitant World Education, Inc.

In recent years, several textbook distribution and track and trace systems have been piloted to assist local supply systems in ensuring that education materials reach schools at the last mile. Through this World Bank-funded initiative, John Snow, Inc. (JSI) and subcontractor World Education, Inc.

The Enhancing Caregiver and Community Support for Children’s Reading Development Outside of School report provides evidence-based interventions that engage caregivers and community members to support children’s reading development outside of school. Some interventions work directly with caregivers in their home, while others use community spaces to promote reading skills.