ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — Only 20kms from Bible House is a school where a teacher was asked how many books they had in the school. “Only one,” he answered, “and that one is the teacher’s, of course.” How then did he help pupils improve their reading? “I have to write on the blackboard,” he said. “The pupils practise and I have to erase it for the next lesson.”

A New Reader Portion might be the first book a primary school pupil has ever owned, because so many do not have textbooks. More than 35 per cent of the population cannot read; in addition, 25 percent of students drop out of primary schools and have only a rudimentary education. A further 15 per cent have only very basic literacy skills, and soon forget their reading and writing as they get out of practice. The need for literacy helps is great; the value of New Reader Portions cannot be over-estimated in the effort to teach people to read more comprehensively.

The headmaster of La Sagesse Primary School, Vana Sebastien Rasolondraibe, said he regards the New Reader Portions to be of great importance for the children’s understanding of the Word of God. This graded series of Bible stories is introduced in the second class when the children are just beginning to read simple lines of text. In all classes, the morning devotional period is based upon the New Reader Portions. There are six books in the series and when they have gone through them once they are given to the children for them to take home and share with their families.

The headmaster said that the daily half-hour devotional period was clearly having a good effect on the children. Many of them had changed in their behaviour and were beginning to build a strong faith in God and his Word. The children come from very poor homes and the school itself is run on a shoe-string budget. The Bible Society therefore provides the New Reader series free of charge to these schools. The children were eager to demonstrate their ability to read from the Scriptures they had been given. Even those children in grades 2 and 3 could read very well from the New Reader Selections.

The New Reader Portions, on the other hand, are bound books, the first level being 16 pages long. As the child progresses from level to level it brings them up to the standard of the new common language translation of the Malagasy Bible, which they can then cope with. (WR 330/22 - 4.98) [PHOTOS]