Keur Farba Primary School Library
Project Launch: 1-5-18
What happens when a child does not understand the words he or she is painstakingly sounding out in a foreign language? How can a school improve the quality of the education it delivers to its students when the teachers must teach in French, a language the students have never heard before entering school? These, and other, challenges have led to Senegal's poor adult literacy rate of 49.7%. Students at the primary school in the small rural village of Keur Farba struggle to read at grade level and to graduate onto middle school. The community has decided to address this problem by repurposing an unused classroom and transforming it into a room for reading. It will feature French dictionaries and picture books in order to combat the low French vocabulary of the students. It will also contain books in Serer, the local indigenous language, that will enable them to practice reading in a language that they already understand. The school director will serve as the librarian during the school year and collect very low annual fees from families so that the school can repair and replace damaged books. To encourage students to take advantage of this new resource, the librarian will create a reward system for the children who read the most books. A local teacher will serve as librarian during vacations. The children of Keur Farba will soon have a space dedicated to their literacy and their imaginations.
Project Update: 6-27-18
The library was assembled throughout the course of spring. Books were transported to the village and a library operations training was given to the faculty in order to maintain order and integrity of the materials. The facility opened in March at an inauguration attended by 50 local residents. To date, 155 students have availed themselves of the library space and materials.
Final Report: 11-16-18
The four middle grades came to the library for 2-3 extra sessions at the end of the school year. This added up to 4-6 hours of extra reading practice for 140 children. Students in the CM2 grade all borrowed books to help them prepare for their elementary certificate exam. The school's pass rate for that exam in 2017-2018 was 74%, a huge jump over the previous year's 51% pass rate. In August and September, the Peace Corps Volunteer hosted library hours, enabling 40 students and community members to come in and continue reading. Once school opened in October, all 6 teachers incorporated the books into their lesson plans every Tuesday afternoon.
Explore other Projects
