Nikshahr

NikShahr

Geographical Location: Nikshahr, Sistan & Balouchestan Province
Age-group: First grade and multi-grade classes of Elementary School
Number of Children: 4700
Start Date: October 2016
In Progress

The Read with Me program was implemented in NikShahr in the academic year of 2016/17 by the financial supports of IDAJ Engineering Inc. and Balin Tech Company. In October 2016, 26 tutors participated in the basic workshops of Read with Me. By the end of autumn 2016, the Read with Me experts paid their first round of visits to NikShahr to evaluate the progress of the project in this region.

Overview

NikShahr is a city located in Sistan & Balouchestan province. According to the census report of 2010, the central town of this city, has a population of 263,963. Most of this population consists of immigrants who are dealing with extreme poverty.

In 2016-2017, in conjunction with holding beginner and advanced workshops, books packages (6800 volumes of books along with instruction handbooks activity sheets and book displays) were provided for participant teachers from four districts in Nikshahr. Among these, 1555 books were of the Learning Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Skills packages.

In December 2016, “Read with Me” experts visited Nikshahr classrooms that implemented the “Read with Me” program. The experts visited a total of 51 elementary schools and 74 classes in the remotest villages of the area. Visits were conducted in two groups accompanied by the regional education experts. The purpose of these visits was to observe and evaluate the “Read with Me” program, communicate directly with teachers to get to know the problems teachers faced in this area and provide them with educational support.

By the beginning of the academic year 2017-2018, the second year of “Read with Me” at Nikshahr schools started. In October 2017, 32 new teachers and 17 teachers from last year participated in the “Read with Me” workshops. This course was devoted to workshops on “Basic Literacy Creative Education” including Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Skills, Learning Numeracy, Learning Farsi through Literature, Dictionary of Riddles, Dramatic Arts: Hand Puppets, Moving Mouth Puppets and Masks. Additional training workshops were also held for teachers from the previous year.

Now, After sending the first round of books, these trained teachers are running the program for more than 3,000 first-grade children in the region.