Time to Read Project

Speeches Shim

By end of 2017, more than 200,000 students received improved instruction in learning two basic reading skills, alphabet and sound decoding.
By end of 2017, more than 200,000 students received improved instruction in learning two basic reading skills, alphabet and sound decoding.
USAID/Kyrgyz Republic

USAID Time to Read Program helps to improve the foundational reading skills of students in grades 1– 4. The program works with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic to increase reading outcomes in 900 Kyrgyz and Russian language schools.

Duration: Oct 2016 – Sep 2020

Budget: US $9.9 million

Implementing Partner: Chemonics International Inc.

Key Partners: Ministry of Education and Science KR, Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism KR, Kyrgyz Academy of Education, Republican Institute for Advanced Training and Re-Training

Activity Location: Nationwide

MAJOR FOCUS AREAS

The program works nationwide to improve classroom instruction, strengthen methodological support, provide high-quality early grade reading materials, and engage the parents and families around reading.

One of the key components of the project is helping teachers, school administrations, librarians and education officials understand, introduce and use modern approaches and practices in teaching reading. This includes training of relevant staff, developing new materials, updating manuals, policies, etc.

Children must have diverse and interesting books so that they read more and develop their skills. That’s why USAID works with local authors, illustrators, and publishing houses to publish new story books and distribute them to schools.

Finally, the program helps to organize “reading camps” and different events where parents and families can work together with their children and learn about benefits of reading together.

IMPACT AND RESULTS 

  • The program developed 10 comprehensive training modules on five basic reading skills and classroom best practices for teachers and instructional support teams. They have been approved and adopted by the Ministry of Education and Science, the Kyrgyz Academy of Education, and the Republican Institute for Advanced Training and Re-Training.
  • More than 400 national trainers and 9,000 primary grade teachers, school administrators and librarians received training based on these new materials. Now these teachers teach more than 220,000 students across Kyrgyzstan.
  • 120 trained District Education Department methodologists held trainings for 900 Heads of school methodological units to improve classroom teaching practices in the 2019-2020 academic year.
  • 6 pedagogical institutions piloted a new practical course on development of reading skills in grades 1-4 in 2019-2020 academic year. This new course was developed with USAID’s support and recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science of Kyrgyz Republic to pedagogical colleges and universities nationwide to incorporate into curriculum. Over 1,000 future teachers who took the course learned about new strategies to improve reading skills of primary grades students.
  • USAID procured 968,298 copies of books that includes 152 new and re-printed titles in Kyrgyz and Russian languages to be handed over to 900 schools and other institutions.
  • More than 122,000 students and over 5,000 parents took part in hundreds of out-of-class reading activities organized under the program.
  • As part of the project’s efforts to promote reading culture among parents, the project launched a campaign titled #ReadingToKids during the COVID19 lockdown when schools were closed. The project asked popular social media celebrities to read children story books published by the project. The videos reached over 300,000 people and inspired several hundred similar videos posted online.
  • The Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic is placing all the materials produced under this project on its official website for public access: