SIL [Summer Institute of Linguistics] - literacy training

The Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), which will implement the project in cooperation with SRMOE, will produce pre-primers, primers, and post-primers in 16 languages for which no instructional materials, and in some cases, no recorded alphabets, now exist. SRMOE will establish a Department of Local Languages and 48 SRMOE personnel will be trained in the preparation of local language materials. The project, which will begin in 1979 and continue through 1981, constitutes part of a 10-year effort which was initiated by SRMOE and SIL in 1976, and which includes activities funded by other donors. Materials developed under the A.I.D. project will be used for primary (and eventually adult) instruction at 30 integrated rural education centers (being financed by the World Bank, with TA from UNESCO), while the Department of Local Languages will function within a Curriculum Development Center, to be constructed, also with World Bank financing, in Maridi. Over the life of the project, some 35,000 children will be taught to read in their mother language, and it is estimated that by 1985 the materials will have been used by 150,000 primary students and by 15,000 adults taking functional literacy classes.