The Librarians now teach only the lowest two Literacy groups: Green and Blue classes. The higher level groups Red and Yellow colour, are being taught by a temporary teacher who is doing a placement from her Gender Development course.  The Librarians say there is not enough difference in the level of their English and the students in Red and Yellow groups for them to be able to teach these groups effectively.  The Gender Development student has been welcomed by Red and Yellow groups who were lacking direction before her arrival.  She has been teaching them to teach themselves and they have prepared a timetable to follow so that when her placement ends they will be able to continue.  Grammar, Verb and vocabulary books, which contain exercises with answers, have now been provided to assist these groups in self-study.   The College has been informed that future placement students would be welcome to work with Kabubbu Community Library Service. 

  Red and Yellow groups have asked for a teacher once the placement student leaves.  It is currently Kabubbu Community Library policy to only provide teachers for those groups in the community who are unable to access the information in the books independently i.e. those who are illiterate and children.  This will help maintain the concept of the project as a Library rather than a college and keep running costs to a minimum assisting the project in achieving sustainability.  All possible encouragement to Red and Yellow groups and the wider community is being offered, along with promotion of self-study techniques and group support.

  An evaluation was carried out with each of the 4 levels of Literacy Class, to identify the benefits / problems that had been experienced as a result of 14 months of literacy teaching and establish priority learning outcomes for the future.

Literacy Group Statistics:

Group  Initial no. registered No. attending regularly now              Group Representative

Green       60                          68                                            Nankya Lukiya

Blue          54                          37                                            James Nsereko                    

Red           32                          20                                            David Ssekandi

Yellow      24                           8                                              Remeha Lule

UNESCO National Commission in Uganda has welcomed the role of Kabubbu Community Library Service in empowering local women.  The Literacy classes are composed of 66% women (approx), for whom access to education is often limited by caring for relatives, marriage and lack of use.

Advice from VSO shows that to sustain students’ interest, Literacy teaching must demonstrate a functional benefit in the lives of the students.  The Literacy students in Kabubbu described why becoming literate was important to them:

·        to read letters and reply to them

·        independence in reading and writing means they don’t have     to trust others with personal information

·        to read with their children and understand their children’s      school reports

·        to help them get jobs

·        to read sign posts and posters

·        buying and selling are easier when they can write down and     understand prices

·        they can speak English with their spouse and children

Benefits from the Library Service identified in the survey of Literacy classes included:

·        learning to read

·        learned to write letters of the alphabet and write on lines

·        learned to write their name

·        learned to understand dates

·        learned to understand simple greetings in English

·        improved reading with access to reading glasses

·        children have somewhere to learn when they cannot           attend school

·        learned to count money

·        overcame the shame of being illiterate

·        finding the confidence to express themselves

·        all now have the confidence to lead prayers

·        learned to work as a team

·        learned to keep time

·        improving their letter writing

·        supported by good relationships in the classes

·        having fun through Library activities and learning sports

·        learning vocational skills

·        learned to have conversations in English

·        reading the library books independently and sharing what they have learned with others

In their own words Green and Blue Literacy Groups described themselves as ‘ashamed’ and ‘primitive’ because of their illiteracy.  After 14 months of Literacy teaching they say ‘even if we are slow, at least we can try to speak with confidence and write our names’.  The Literacy classes have had a positive impact on the self-esteem of the students, especially those who were illiterate in the beginning.  Annet and Ritah, the Librarians, are trained infant teachers and have been teaching the Green, Blue and Red Literacy Classes during 2003.  They described some of the methods by which they achieved these outstanding results with the Classes.  The Librarians say that the students need very careful handling involving a delicate balance of encouragement, direction, a functional literacy focus, confidence building, bite size tasks / assignments, behavioral guidance, constant consolidation, progress monitoring and a pleasant learning environment.  Obstacles to progress include the students: lack of study skills, short attention spans, poor learning behaviors, advanced age, different learning abilities, memory difficulties, conflicts of interest with work or household chores (which are much more onerous than in the UK) and conditions such as short daylight hours / heat.  The Librarians have managed to keep the groups motivated whilst encouraging them to be committed to their studies so that they will see an improvement.  The Librarians have earned the respect of the whole community whilst tackling a difficult job, very effectively.  The evaluation of the Literacy Classes concluded that there were many students who have benefited in a great many ways, resulting in increased empowerment, self-esteem and hope for the future. 

Learning objectives for the future included:

·         taking part in debates

Speaking was rated the most important skill to learn and popular vocabulary topics included biblical language, vocational language to support the work of the Employment Skill Development Clubs, business language, simple medical language and conversational / tourist language.

A tourism language course was provided to help the Literacy students improve their tourist English.  This will increase their chances of finding a job once the planned tourist project is launched.

Future Literacy teaching will focus strongly on areas of functional literacy according to the priorities specified by the students.  Partnering of a strong student with a weaker one is being considered for the improved progress of both students.