Strengthening Early Grade Reading Skills Through Community Reading Camps Based on Service Learning for Rural Primary School Children in Uganda
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Clinical Trial
Abstract: Background: Many children in rural Omoro district, northern Uganda, reach Primary 4 without reading a short story in Leb Acholi or English. Classes hold 54 to 83 pupils, storybooks are scarce, and most homes have no printed material. Objective: This programme aimed to strengthen the reading skills of rural primary school children through community reading camps run by university students as service learning. Methods: The programme ran from September 2025 to February 2026 in six government aided primary schools. Twenty four Gulu University students facilitated after school camps, three afternoons a week for twelve weeks, with 186 children from Primary 2 to Primary 4 grouped by assessed reading level. Sessions used Leb Acholi and English story materials, and parents were supported to keep home reading corners. Reading was assessed before and after at five levels, from non reader to story level, in Uwezo and EGRA style. Results: Children at paragraph or story level rose from 46 (24.7 percent) to 95 (51.1 percent), non readers fell from 51 to 14, and mean oral reading fluency rose from 12.6 to 27.9 correct words per minute. Children read to at home at least three times in the previous week rose from 28 to 96. Conclusion and Implications: Levelled camps with trained student facilitators and books children could take home produced visible gains within one term cycle. District education offices can adopt the format where universities already send students into nearby schools.
DOI: 10.59689/rsvrcx03
Institution: Gulu University
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7223440548