THE 6th PAN-AFRICAN READING for ALL CONFERENCE

THEME: Literacy for Community Based Socio-Economic Transformation and Development

VENUE: The University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

CONFERENCE DATES: August 10th – 14, 2009

The Pan-African Reading for All (RFA) Conference is one of the most exciting and most memorable literacy events on the African continent. It is organized bi-annually by the International Reading Association’s International Development Committee in Africa (IRA/IDAC) and the National Reading Association in the host country. The first edition was held in 1999 in the glamorous South African City of Pretoria. The second edition was held in Abuja in Nigeria in 2001. In 2003, the third edition was held in Kampala, the city of seven hills in Uganda. In 2005, the 4th edition of the Pan-African Reading for All conference was taken down south to Swaziland, commonly known as the Switzerland of Africa because of its scenic beauty and climate. The most recent edition of the conference held in August 2007 took place in the West African country of Ghana. The up coming 6th Pan-African Reading for All Conference is being organized by the International Reading Association’s International Development Committee in Africa (IRA/IDCA) in collaboration with the Reading Association of Tanzania (CCHAUTA.) and Children’s Book Project for Tanzania (CBP), and will take place at the University of Dar Es Salaam, in Tanzania from August 10 – 14, 2009.

The conference brings together teachers, teacher educators, lecturers, adult literacy instructors, researchers, librarians, writers, publishers, book sellers, community leaders, policy makers and readers from all over Africa and beyond. Over the years, the conference has continued to register a steady increase in the number of participants from the United States, North America, Europe and Asia, giving it a really global perspective. Besides professional experience participants have opportunity to visit some successful

local literacy projects and exciting tour sites to make their experiences in Tanzania extremely exciting and memorable. More than 600 delegates are expected to participate in the Conference. You could be one of them; just fill the form below/contact the CBP if you want to participate.

Under the theme: “Literacy for Community Based Socio-economic Transformation and Development” participants from all over the world will converge in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania from August 10th – 14th, 2009 to share their experiences in literacy and reading promotion initiatives and practices from different countries and to present, examine, analyze, and seek ways of surmounting the various challenges preventing successful transmission of literacy through formal and non-formal systems of education. You are therefore invited to be part of this powerful network of literacy professionals, researchers and policy makers committed to fostering literacy and reading culture for sustainable socio-economic transformation and for the good of the whole world. You may choose to be part of this conference by: sponsoring some conference planning activities and events, sponsoring some participants, making presentation at the conference, registering to attend the conference and many other ways.

The Pan-African Conference has become an important literacy event on the African Continent providing platform for policy makers in government and the donor community to interface with literacy professionals at all levels and researchers to share vital knowledge and information on appropriate ways and strategies of delivering literacy and reading skills to the community at the grass root level. In countries where the conference has been held a number of positive developments have been registered ranging from rapid growth and development of community libraries, adult literacy classes, children’s reading tents, emergence of reading and writing clubs in schools and communities to positive policy pronouncements in favor of the book sector and publishing industry.

In the past, Tanzania, the host country, initiated some of the most revolutionary educational policies for rural transformation and socioeconomic development in living memory. It embraced Universal Primary Education; it had some of the most innovative adult literacy programs in Africa; it introduced progressive gender policies in education and liberal text book publishing and selection policies. Today, Tanzania has lost some of that momentum; while it is steadily expanding secondary and higher education quantity-wise, quality-wise it is falling behind many African countries. Why is this? What are the policy and pedagogical challenges that Tanzania needs to address in order to promote education and literacy? These are among the issues that the Conference will address.

In addition to visiting some successful community literacy projects and tourist attraction sites, participants will also have an opportunity to participate in book, cultural and educational exhibitions along side the main Conference, just within the same vicinity.

Conference Goal

The overall goal of the Pan-African Reading for All Conference is to create a platform for literacy professionals to share their experiences in literacy research and instruction in the class room and in communities with a view to identifying challenges faced and strategies through which such challenges can be surmounted in order to improve the delivery of literacy services for sustainable socio-economic transformation and improvement in people’s livelihoods.

Specific Objectives

The specific objectives of the conference include:

• Creating a platform for literacy professionals and literacy practitioners in Africa and beyond to share experiences and adopt best practices in the teaching of literacy skills and management of literacy programs.

• Creating opportunities for literacy professionals in Africa to undertake research, peer-review their materials and publish articles for their own professional development.

• Giving professional advice and guidance to African governments on matters of education in general and literacy instruction in schools and communities in particular

• To drum up support for the integration of literacy programs in other national programs in order to facilitate a sustainable development of a reading culture in communities

• Increasing the community’s awareness of the profundity of their cultural heritage, and need promote and defend it for their own survival and preservation.

• Alerting policy makers and media practitioners to support the community through literacy enhancement.

• Alerting the book sector personnel to the needs of the newly literate populations of the African continent.

Expected Outcomes

• Increased networking and alliances of educators and literacy professionals across Africa and beyond for sharing accepted practices and research in classrooms and elsewhere in the field of language and literacy.

• Enhanced capacity building among African educators as contributors to the design and implementation of effective national Education for All action plans.

• Increased international understanding of literacy problems in Africa through publication of conference proceeding which will be a tangible output.

• A profound professional pronouncement on the state of literacy in Africa and the best way forward for African Governments and other stakeholders based on the evidence presented.

• Improvement in the quality of literacy teaching and instruction in schools and communities

Conference Themes and Sub-themes

The themes and sub-themes under which participants will make presentations and share experiences shall be as highlighted bellow:

1. Literacy for Community Based Socio-economic Transformation and development.

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