Pakistan Reading Project wins 2020 international prize for literacy program of the year

ISLAMABAD: The United States Library of Congress has announced the early grade literacy program, the Pakistan Reading Project, is its 2020 recipient of the International Prize in its Literacy Program Awards.
The Library of Congress created the awards in 2013 to honor organizations working to support literacy and reading initiatives domestically and around the world. The award recognizes the Pakistan Reading Project’s “remarkable results, which will have long lasting effects both on the education system and the individual lives of children and educators,” Creative Associates International, an implementing partner of the program, said on its website.
USAID’s largest reading project to date, PRP developed the reading instruction skills of 27,000 teachers and provided 1.5 million early grade students with improved reading curriculum and more. At the local level, in some cases the project exceeded its goals. In Sindh, Pakistan’s second largest province, PRP reached over 433,000 students in 3,852 schools, doubling its projected impact.
“Receiving the 2020 Literacy Program of the Year Award is recognition of the valued impact the program had in the classroom to strengthen teaching practices, improve student reading skills and increase learning outcomes,” Drake Warrick, Senior Project Director for Creative’s Education division, said.
PRP is funded by the US Agency for International Development and implemented by International Rescue Committee and its partners, including Creative Associates International, World Learning and the Institute of Rural Management.
Reaching 1.7 million students in grades 1-5, the project provided schools with 7.3 million reading learning materials, trained over 27,000 teachers in teaching reading, set up over 15,000 classroom libraries and trained nearly 12,000 education officials and administrators.