In a world where six out of every ten children are not achieving minimum proficiency in reading and mathematics, the road to literacy – and UN Sustainable Development Goal 4, quality education – is an uphill climb. And while the obstacles are many – including a shortage of schools and teachers for millions of children, compounded by a dearth of local language reading material for 40% of students – Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver is committed to providing children with the very first step to literacy acquisition. Books.
Our approach to creating book security is three-pronged
Creation of books
Enablement of open access to these books
Free resources to use these books to help children read
Since 2004, Pratham Books has been creating engaging storybooks in multiple languages and formats to help children discover the joy of reading – in languages they can understand, set in locations they can recognise, featuring characters with whom they can identify, and telling stories that capture their attention and fuel their imagination. Fired by our mission of ‘A book in every child’s hand’, we realised that in order to accelerate progress towards SDG 4, we need innovative solutions that bring books to children in a scalable and sustainable manner.
In 2015, we created StoryWeaver - a new platform approach for book creation and distribution - that is taking books to some of the most disadvantaged children globally, particularly where chronic under-investment in the availability of mother tongue reading resources poses a significant barrier to literacy.
At its core, StoryWeaver is a repository of high quality, openly licensed multilingual storybooks sourced from global publishers, including but not limited to Pratham Books. Every book is freely available in multiple formats can be read online, and keeping in mind the digital divide - can also be read offline, downloaded, printed and even repurposed, so that no child is left behind. Translation and versioning tools help customize the books for localized requirements and these resources become available to other users as well, creating a multiplier effect and amplifying impact.
Today, StoryWeaver is a platform built on networks composed of all the key stakeholders of children’s
literacy: governments, educators, librarians, NGO partners, parents, and of course, children.
The twin levers of
technology and open licensing allow us to scale up access to books. But the last mile is - and will always
be - created by the community of people and organisations who help these children discover the joy of reading.
Together, we can work to create book security for the children who need it the most.
IMPACT STORIES
The newspapers are filled with reports of online education, coaching classes, and remote lessons thriving during the pandemic. And while this is true in several parts of the world, it doesn’t quite describe education for an underserved child in the global South with little or no access to the resources we often take for granted.
With global usage of the StoryWeaver platform growing dramatically during school closures and lockdowns, we focused on serving learners, educators and caregivers, with quick, flexible solutions like Learn at Home, with curated grade-wise resources, to help children continue reading and learning.
Resources like the Reading Programme were scaled up and made available in 4 languages to support reading development. Book Lists were strengthened, and more Readalongs (audio-visual stories) created to build early literacy skills. In Maharashtra, India, we launched ‘Goshticha Shaniwar’ (‘Saturday of Stories’), a weekly reading programme in Marathi, Urdu and English, in partnership with State Council of Educational Research & Training, Maharashtra (SCERT), Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), and UNICEF, that impacted 2.5 million children in government schools and anganwadis.
And along the way, we’re learning just as much as the children are.
StoryWeaver happens to share an anniversary with the UN Sustainable Development Goals - including SDG4, quality education. We are acutely aware that the realisation of these goals requires rapid and sustainable acceleration. Technology enables this acceleration, but to ensure the quality of children’s books requires greater disruption.
For this, Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver has stepped off the well-worn path of traditional publishing that created exclusive, expensive books. Open source allows us to share the best of books freely. Technology allows us to grow and accelerate infinitely. Digital lets us offer children thousands of books today, and millions more tomorrow. And Community takes these books to the children who need them the most.