Education is the most effective tool for solving the world’s greatest challenges
Our Work - DRAFT
If all women completed secondary education, child deaths would be cut in half, saving three million lives.
Worldwide access to primary and girls’ education could result in a 70 gigaton reduction of carbon dioxide by 2050.13 Deaths caused by natural disasters and extreme temperature events could be 60% lower by 2050 if 70% of women were able to achieve a lower-secondary-school education.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the risk of conflict in countries with higher education equality is less than half that of areas with lower equality in education.
Over 40 years, income per capita is 23% higher in a country with more equal education.
Room to Read addresses both access to education and quality of education, meeting children’s learning needs both in and out of the classroom
How We Do It
Our Literacy Portfolio supports children in developing literacy skills with a love of reading, and our Gender Equality Portfolio supports adolescents, particularly girls, in developing life skills that promote gender equality. We deliver and scale our programming directly and with partners, operating within our core competencies: curriculum and content; educator training and coaching; delivery structures; and research and insights. To accelerate learning outcomes for more children, more quickly, we collaborate with government education systems and non-formal learning systems, as well as multimedia and evidence management systems to scale our programming.
Developing literacy skills with a love of reading
Room to Read’s Literacy Portfolio supports children as they develop literacy skills with a love of reading.
Training educators and developing curricular materials
We assist educators in developing their skills and knowledge on effective literacy instruction and library management, with ongoing job-embedded support through literacy coaches. Reading instruction is centered around engaging and evidence-based curricular materials developed by Room to Read, like local language textbooks and teachers guides.
Creating quality, local language children's books
Through our unique role as a nonprofit book publisher, Room to Read partners with local publishers, authors and illustrators to create and distribute local language children’s books that readers at various levels can enjoy. Our work simultaneously builds a demand for children’s literature and strengthens the book publishing ecosystem.
Establishing engaging, child-friendly library systems
We partner with schools to establish child-friendly libraries and advocate with governments to ensure every child has access to quality children's books that can be enjoyed at school or home. When children have access to a variety of children’s literature and trained library staff to support book use, they develop a deeper appreciation for reading and have more opportunities for literacy skill practice and overall learning.
Fostering Foundational Reading Skills and a Love of Reading
Severe Learning Crisis
The world is experiencing its most severe global learning crisis. The current generation of children are experiencing the largest loss of learning in recorded history, and learning poverty has increased by a third in low-and middle-income countries.
- Only 1 in 6 countries are on track to meet Sustainable Development Goal 4 and achieve universal access to quality education by 2030.
- Progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 5 has been slow, with only 15% of indicators on track to achieve gender equality by 2030.
- Even if governments meet their national education targets, there will still be an estimated 84 million children and young people out of school by 2030.
