Global Book Alliance: ADEA and USAID hold a Training Workshop on Bloom Publishing Software for national language writers in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)
Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire), 12th February 2019 – The Books and Learning Materials (BLM) section of the Inter-Country Quality Node on Teaching and Learning (ICQN-TL) of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) is organizing the “Enabling Writers: Bloom Software Training Workshop” in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) from 18th to 21st February 2019 at the Ramada Pearl Hotel. This workshop addressed to Burkina Faso writers in national languages, is already the sixth in a series aimed at empowering African writers to use the Bloom publishing software for the easy creation of reading materials for children.This training is part of the ongoing partnership between the Global Book Alliance (GBA) and ADEA, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The Global Book Alliance aims to transform book development, procurement and distribution, especially in Africa and Asia, to ensure that children everywhere have the essential books and learning materials produced in languages children use and understand, including braille and sign language. Several studies have shown that in many developing countries, children do not have reading materials in languages they speak and understand, while these tools facilitate the early acquisition of reading. To this end, USAID and partners have developed an ambitious program to address the scarcity of titles in African languages, improve the efficiency of procurement and financing as well as strengthen supply chain management systems.
Ouagadougou's national workshop on Bloom – the free and open source publishing software that allows individuals and communities to build their own library of reading materials, dictionaries or resources by grade level in their own language – will be facilitated by Mr. Pierre Balima and Aguibou Sow, Bloom software trainers, and literacy trainers as well.
The main objective of this workshop is to provide first-hand training to enable 20 Burkinabe writers of early grade reading materials to produce more and better books in national languages.
For more information, please contact:
- Aliou Sow, Focal point of the Books and Learning Materials section of the ADEA’s Inter-Country Quality Node on Teaching and Learning (ICQN-TL), T. (+224) 622 54 48 26, aliou2sow@yahoo.fr
Media:
- Stefano De Cupis, Senior Communications Officer, ADEA, T. (+225) 2026 4261, s.decupis@afdb.org
About ADEA: The Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) is a forum for policy dialogue, composed of all Ministers in charge of Education, Science and Technology in Africa. Established in 1988 at the instigation of the World Bank Group, it has evolved into a pan-African institution based within the African Development Bank Group (AfDB). ADEA’s work has expanded to focus more on the development of skills and competencies across all the education sub-sectors in particular through its two fundamental pillars, namely: the continental education platform and consultancy and support services. It envisions a “high quality African education and training system that is geared towards the promotion of critical knowledge and skills for accelerated and sustainable development in Africa”.
About ICQN-TL BLM: The ADEA’s ICQN-TL section on Books and Learning Materials (BLM) is committed to supporting processes conducive to formulating adequate National Book Policies that improve the provision of good quality educational materials, effective schooling, and literacy across sub-Saharan Africa. It strives to accomplish this by calling on governments, the private sector, development cooperation agencies, and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to consider a holistic approach that includes substantial inputs from African partners to achieve viable book policies. The BLM section of the ICQN-TL is the implementing arm for this project.
www.adeanet.org/en/working-groups/books-and-learning-materials
About GBA: The Global Book Alliance is an international effort involving multiple stakeholders working to transform book development, procurement, distribution, and use to ensure that no child is without books. Its mission is to guarantee that children everywhere have the books and learning materials they need to learn to read and read to learn. The lack of reading materials is so severe that it cannot be solved without new and innovative solutions. New and innovative solutions are needed to solve the learning crisis, and the Global Book Alliance is taking the lead on identifying and implementing these solutions.
