The YWAM Medical Ships Australia & Papua New Guinea (YWAM MS), Port Moresby Campus has launched a literacy support program called Literacy for Life.
This short-term intervention program is aimed at school-based children who have low literacy skills and are typically identified at the beginning of grade 3. The program comprises intensive one-to-one lessons for 20-30 minutes a day, three days a week, with a trained YWAM MS Literacy Tutor.
Last month, YWAM MS trained 16 tutors, including nine members from Vabukori and Taikone and seven full-time YWAM volunteers. The tutors will begin their work at Sevese Morea Primary School this February.
The aim of the program is to bring the children up to the level of their peers and provide them with the assistance they need to develop independent reading and writing strategies. The students remain in the program until their reading and writing skills are at the level equivalent to that of their peers.
The tutors were trained to teach phonics, sight words, decodable reading, leveled reading, and writing through engaging different learning styles using games and expressive storytelling.
Xavier Wablasu, the National Capital District Division of Education Projects Coordinator, expressed his delight in the commencement of the Literacy for Life Program.
He said, "We have been eager to start this program here in NCD since hearing about its success in Fiji and Alotau. The engagement of local parents and grandparents is what makes this program special, and I'm hopeful we will be able to expand the program into more schools in the near future."
YWAM MS Literacy for Life Program Coordinator and teacher, Candace Giwojna, said that YWAM MS is thrilled to be starting the program after much planning with the National Capital District’s Division of Education and Sevese Morea Primary School over the last few months.
She added, "We are screening the grade 3 students this week to help determine which students will be matched with a tutor. In the meantime, many of the tutors have taken the initiative to tutor their children and grandchildren at home in the village. We have been really encouraged by their passion and commitment."
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