Primary pupils to benefit from Renaissance reading programme for three more years |12 November 2022

Mr Pillay and Mrs Shapiro talking to the press (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

Two officials from Renaissance Learning, UK are currently in Seychelles for their last mission of the year, which is to conduct an evaluation of the reading programme launched in primary schools in 2020, and to sign a contract with the Ministry of Education for the upcoming three years.

The reading programme gives students in P4 up to P6 access to the ‘MyOn’ platform, a student-centred, personalised digital library through which they can access more than 5,000 enhanced digital books in the core collection.

Through the built-in Star testing, students undergo a comprehensive assessment, with all the insights needed to guide literacy growth.

According to the director general for Allied Education Services, Cyril Pillay, based on the success of the pilot programme in 2019 and full rollout in all twenty-five state schools in 2020, the ministry has decided to keep the programme for the coming three years, 2023 to 2025, at a cost of US $100,000 annually.

“The programme is bearing fruits, and when we return to the schools, the feedback from head teachers, teachers and programme coordinators indicate that many more children are reading. Prior to the introduction of Renaissance, our children were not reading much so it is a phenomenal achievement since many more pupils are reading,” Mr Pillay stated.

The overall level of reading comprehension, and pupils’ direct reading abilities have vastly improved across the board, with improved performance across various subjects, including English.

To better measure the effectiveness of the programme, the ministry is implementing a tracking and monitoring system to be able to measure the efficacy on examination performance.

Discussions are ongoing with Renaissance to extend the platform, and eventually add books in other languages, such as French.  

Another key focal point for the mission was evaluation, to test as many pupils as possible according to assistant director of International Professional Services at Renaissance, Lauren Shapiro.

“This programme has been a huge success. We have seen such an incredible reading culture being built over the past three years. Over 60 percent of the reading that children have been doing has been happening outside of school hours, with the most popular time being after 4pm each day,” Mrs Shapiro noted.

Statistics indicate that this year alone, over 50,000 books have been read through the platform, with very strong comprehension.

Additionally, the collaboration between the Seychelles government, and Renaissance’s complete literacy solution was recognised in the 2022 Bett Awards, a celebration of the inspiring creativity and innovation that can be found throughout technology for education. The collaboration was awarded eighth position in the International Digital Education Resource category.

Renaissance has through the ministry been running a competition targeting pupils, and yesterday afternoon rewarded the top ten achievers, some of whom have grown more than three years in their reading ages over the past twelve months.

While in Seychelles, the Renaissance officials have also hosted a workshop with focal persons in each school, to share the best practices.

Mrs Shapiro is accompanied by project manager Chris Job on the mission which ran from November 5 up until November 12.

Laura Pillay