Mobi Lib reading club

Mobi-Lib Reading Club program is a safe space for children who struggle in reading to improve their reading without pressure and at the same time enjoy a variety of content unavailable in school libraries in Kilifi.

Since 2018, Impertimus have been running reading clubs in the local primary schools and children home in Kilifi with children in class 4 to 7 meet weekly to read and reading activities.

These are children led groups of 20 to 40 early grade learners given access to story books contained in tablets and laptops available in their respective schools every week. This program is initiated in schools and recently children homes, with access to the primary tools that facilitate storage of pre download content and learner reading experience. .

A typical reading club session has the following activities:

Group leader of club acquires tablets or laptops from teacher responsible
Members meet in designated club venue ready for session (usually 1 hour)
Tablets and laptops distributed to members in groups stratified based on reading levels. Some schools use projectors for learners to read from projection screen/wall
Advanced reading level learners guide junior members in the reading process
Where possible a single text is chosen to be read by all members
Members note down new words learnt
Mind games are also encouraged

We limit our involvement in these clubs to the initial formation process and occasional session visits to monitor their progress with assistance of a club patron who is a teacher in the school.

This approach has helped bridge the resource gap created by absence of libraries in our primary schools and given learners access to a variety of content. With the help of the African Storybook reader app as a tool of choice, children have access to 1000 plus storybooks written in not only the English language but also vernacular which has proven a great addition to them.

Note that the impact achieved goes beyond the clubs established as these gadgets are also put to use by teachers in these schools during class time reading sessions. Therefore, the level of success in advancing literacy that can be attained by this program is limited ONLY to the availability of requisite digital learning support infrastructure that a school has; that is, connection to electricity and digital gadgets such as laptops and tablets.