PROMOTING CHILDREN'S READING IN KYRGYZSTAN

This paper is on family reading for children in Kyrgyzstan a Central Asian former USSR state. Poor reading skills lead to poor learning in all other subjects. This paper presents the research study on the Reading for Children project, which aimed to promote a love for reading and enthusiasm for books from early ages. The study also identifies whether the Reading for Children project has had any impact on language skills of small children. The study was conducted with the help of survey questionnaire, individual and group interviews as well as observation. The study findings demonstrated that Parents' involvement in reading tasks can help develop their children's interest in reading. The study demonstrated that the Reading for Children project increased access to children's age-appropriate reading materials, promoted enjoyable reading experiences between parents and children, and strengthened family bonds between parents and conducting series of trainings on family reading. In addition, there were indications that the project had also positively influenced the children's attitude towards education and performance at school. Paper offers practice and policy recommendations


Introduction
During the former Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan achieved significant progress in the field of education (Shamatov, 2005).There were many achievements, including: almost universal adult literacy, high graduation rates, solid levels of student achievement in mathematics and science, and low dropout rates (Shamatov, 2013).
That education system was a good fit for the planned economy of the USSR.However, Kyrgyzstan started experiencing serious problems in all public spheres, including education after the break-up of the USSR (Silova, 2009;Shamatov, 2015).The education system suffered major systemic shocks, including a dramatic loss of available financial resources and an inexorable transition from planned economies to market-based systems.Market economies require abilities to apply knowledge flexibly, to cope with the cognitive requirements of unfamiliar tasks, to recognize and solve problems and to self-manage new learning.The content and structures of prevailing teaching practices, assessment methodologies, curricula and education finance systems in Kyrgyzstan were not consistent with the acquisition of these skills.
The education system in Kyrgyzstan was not prepared for the demands of a market-based economy that valued critical thinking, selfmotivation and experiential learning (Shamatov, 2011).
The focus of this paper is reading books at home.The ability to read is the major foundational skill for all school-based learning.
Poor reading skills lead to poor learning in all other subjects.If children learn to read at early ages and at a sufficient rate of speed, then they have greater chance to do well at school.As children grow older, it becomes more and more difficult for them to learn to read, and therefore to do well in other subjects as well.This contributes to many students failing, making them more likely to repeat grades or even drop out.Moreover, children who do not learn to read well are deprived of many future opportunities for continued education, good employment, and a good living standard.
Learning to read early and well is a major predictor of children's academic success and longer term wellbeing (RTI, 2009).

Background of the Study
According to PISA 2006 and2009, shortage of reading resources (e.g.story books) at home is one of many reasons contributing to the lowering quality of education in Kyrgyzstan (Shamatov, 2014;Shamatov et al, 2014).A shortage of good quality reading materials (literature, story books) contributes to a decrease in love for reading.In addition, many families cannot afford to purchase expensive reading materials.
The problem of shortage of books is particularly acute in rural areas.For example previously there were libraries in almost all villages which would be regularly updated.
However, since the break-up of the USSR no new books have been supplied and many village

Method
The purpose of this study is to explore the role of the Reading for Children project (RfC) in promoting reading, and identify if RfC has had any impact on language and literacy skills of preschool and primary school aged children (Cohen &Manion, 1997).

Site and Sampling Selection
Out of total 66 villages where RfC project operates, 13 villages were selected.Purposive sampling was used considering the following criteria: settings from different provinces and districts; from each year of establishment (see table below), and ensuring a mix of community and school-based libraries (Glesne, 1999).These 13 villages with PRCs will be called in this report "target villages".
In addition, two villages (Tangy-Turmush and Kabyk both in Alai district) where the RfC project does not yet function were also included in the sample to be able to compare and contrast the findings from the RfC project villages.These 2 villages will be called comparison villages and one male librarian in these libraries, with work experience of between 3 and 37 years.
From the total 15 villages (both where RfC

Results and Discussion
Increase Access to Age-appropriate Reading

Materials
The study findings demonstrated that RfC

Role of Facilitators
The

Use of PRCs
It is important that many parents and their children visit PRCs.In the RfC villages, 76% of the parents, who were surveyed, mentioned that The study also showed that girls were more active than boys in reading activities.They were more interested than boys in reading books.A facilitator in Naryn district said, "Girls read more than boys in our village.Boys like to play and run around".A librarian in the same village commented, "In primary school, both boys and girls read well, but in secondary and high schools, girls read more while boys are attracted more to computer games or outdoor games".
Girls also come to PRCs more frequently than boys.

Influence towards Children's Language Skills and Performance at School
The study also showed that the children who participated in this project signifianctly improved their language skills (reading and One child said in FGD, "I like to listen to my father when he reads a book".

Conclusion
had attended RfC training and 109 had not attended any training yet.130 of the 246 RfC village parents also participated in focus group discussions.The following figure demonstrates the age distribution of the 286 parents who participated in this study.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Respondents according to their age distribution atmosphere have a direct impact on the use of them.Better conditions in the libraries are more attractive to users and therefore encourage readers more.trying hard to improve the library environment.Thus, a librarian in Kara-Kulja PRC was observed reading aloud a fairy tale to several children who were actively listening to her.A librarian in Alai district demonstrated all the collection of children's work (pictures, craftwork.She mentioned that previously the children would come to check out school textbooks only, but since the librarian has decorated the PRC and arranged books in an organized manner, the children now like to come and use the library more frequently.Documentation: In 62% of libraries (eight out of 13), the required documentation is kept (library use instructions, a registration log, and reader's record cards).Documentation was part of the training of the RfC facilitators and is important in a library.The librarians keep attendance records which categorize readers by age, gender, and whether readers have been trained under the RfC project.The following are verbatim comments of the librarians based on their attendance records."110-115 readers come to the library every month.";"Adults are rare guests here -1-2 people a day; 20 children come here daily.";"Children didn't have an opportunity to come here due to the problems with heating.";"We had 293 library users in March"; "Pupils come the most often, and girls come more often than boys.";"Third and fourth graders come most often.";"High school pupils often come to get Aitmatov's books and encyclopedias.";"Parents come to check out books for their 5-6 year old children".The analysis of the attendance records showed that most users are middle aged and older mothers or grandmothers who often come with their children.Children of primary graders are also frequent users of libraries.about the work of PRCs and to promote RfC (i.e., to attract children and parents to read books).Seven out of 13 libraries scored the maximum 8 points.Other libraries also scored high (6 or 7 out of 8), except the Kurshab library (scored 4 out of 8), in which the librarian did not do good job of raising community awareness.Events: All 13 PRCs in the sample have detailed descriptions of past and future events and activities.The lists of events show that the libraries function well, reviving the functions of a village or province library that have been lost in the past years.The libraries are often the main resource for the community, serve as important centers for social and cultural activities for children, youth and adults.Researcher observed that the PRCs had plans with thematic albums and posters created by school children (e.g."A book is my friend"), children's drawings are collected and held in the libraries.Parents in FGDs mentioned the events conducted by the staff of PRCs in their villages.The respondents mentioned the following events organized in PRCs: a book festival "Family Reading", drawing contest of the books' main characters, contest of recitation of Manas and many others.
role of facilitators is critical in promoting RfC goals.In each village there are several facilitators.Some work as librarians and others are school teachers.These facilitators recognize their responsibilities and their descriptions included: "I spread the ideas of family reading because it is important"; "My job is to provide access to books"; "My role is to help in increasing children's interest in books".A facilitator in Alai district, who is also a member of village council, illustrates very successful work.She has organized a puppet theater at her own expense, and she had children make puppets with their own hands.Then, she and children organized theatrical performances on the basis of books they read from PRCs.Every summer, she goes to jailoo (summer highland pasture) with her family and she takes books with her to establish a pasture PRC.All the children from the nearby pastures come to borrow books from her.This facilitator observed, "I am a village council deputy and I care for my fellow villagers.Each family in our village has livestock at home and I sometimes feel that animals get more attention than the children.Children spend much time looking after animals.Therefore, I try to speak out that children should read books and get good education".
PRCs, and 67% of them borrow books for their children.About one fourth of the parents and children also spend time in the library reading books.About half of the parents in the sample stated that they visit the library once a week or once every two weeks.The parents in the sample shared their attitudes towards the PRCs.They were asked to rate their attitudes towards the PRCs according to the following criteria and they were asked to mark on 5 point scale (maximum is 5).The parents rated as follows: PRC provides a variety of reading materials (4.18 out of 5), they like visiting library (4.20 out of 5), their child visits library with pleasure (4.28 out of 5), PRC helps them to read more with their children at home (4.20 out of 5), a librarian helps a child to choose a book (4.21 out of 5), and they started to read more frequently since the PRC has been established (4.29 out of 5), and the total aggregated score was 4.20 out of 5, which is very positive.The librarians also noted that the parents started to visit library more frequently since the PRCs have been established.our past tradition of reading culture.We started reading more with our children.This work should be continued because our children need that".Another parent in Alai district stated: "There is nothing else in our village.The PRC is very nice.There are beautiful and useful books in it.We can now check out books for our children in Kyrgyz".Another parent in Kara-Kulja added, "Without a PRC, our children would read only school textbooks".Almost all sampled parents who were trained by RfC and their children, visit the library on regular basis.In libraries established in 2010 and 2011 about 90% of trained parents included in the study, and 70% of their children, visit the library.This is a very high indicator given that it is unrealistic to expect that all 100% of parents visit the library on regular basis.In the PRCs established in 2009, around 65% of trained parents who answered the questionnaire and over 40% of their children reported visiting the library.This may be because not enough new reading materials and books were provided by MSDSP to the libraries established in 2009.It is interesting to see the number of untrained parents who also visit PRCs.Thus, in PRCs established in 2010, 80% of untrained parents included in the study, and 55% of children of untrained parents visited libraries.While in the PRCs established in 2011, around 70% of untrained parents and over 60% of children of untrained parents visit libraries.In comparison, 60% of the untrained parents and 50% of children of untrained parents visit libraries established in 2007, and around 35% of trained parents and 40% of children of untrained parents visit libraries established in 2008.A very low percentage of untrained parents (30%) and their children (18%) visited libraries established in 2009.The above indicates that training improves the level of attendance at the library.However, access to good books, as shown in the PRCs established in 2010 and 2011, can also attract parents who have not yet attended any training.The study also showed that the number of books in the PRCs were limited, and therefore in some villages parents and their children have completed reading the available books already.Some FGD participants stated, "All the books from the Aga-Khan Foundation [in the PRC] have been read, there is nothing else to read in Kyrgyz."Thus, it is necessary to continue with the provision of new books and attract interest of local communities and gain support from the local governments to supply PRCs with new books.These trends show that it is critical to provide new books to libraries to maintain the interest of parents at high level.The study showed a high percentage of children who visit and use libraries.According to the survey conducted with parents who participated in RfC trainings about 75% of their children visit the library on a regular basis.Children of pre-school level attend the library with their parents or caregivers or they are brought books from the library by older brothers or sisters.53.4% of pre-school level children use the libraries on regular basis.In comparison, a great majority (95%) of the respondents in villages where there are no PRCs reported that their children do not go to the library, and the main reason for this is the lack of children's books there.The parents from non-RfC villages stated that there are books from the old Soviet period in the libraries which are not attractive to children.In the two villages where RfC did not yet function, 47.5% of the parents responded that their children did not read at all.They stated the lack of story books as the main reason for that.Many parents were concerned that their children often liked to watch TV (e.g.cartoons or children's movies), and therefore they were not interested in reading books.After the parents attended trainings of RfC, around 35%of the children stated they choose books over watching TV, while around 25% mentioned that watching TV is better than reading books.Around 40% could not make choice between reading books and watching TV, and that they like both of them equally.The study findings show that the RfC project has substantially increased access to reading materials.These efforts have impacted on the family reading culture in the villages.Both parents and their children in target villages take great interest in reading together and visiting PRC on a regular basis.Promote Enjoyable Reading ExperiencesOne of the main goals of RfC is to promote enjoyable reading experiences between parents and children.In ideal family reading, parents or adult members of the family need to read aloud for fun and also create opportunities for questions, discussion and dialogue.To promote enjoyable reading experiences between parents and children, facilitators plan and conduct many activities including trainings for parents on family reading.In this study, out of 246 parents from RfC villages, 137 had attended family reading training.Of these 137 parents, 82% said that they participated in training because of their interest.Thus, the parents really like the training in which they participated.In FGDs, some parents mentioned that they were initially reluctant to come to trainings.Some thought they would not learn anything and it would be just a waste of time.Others felt that they were busy with their household and other activities.However, after attending a few sessions, they started taking great interest and they also started to realize the importance of the training.In the survey questionnaire, 79 (64%) of respondents out of 137 trained parents indicated that their children had increased their interest in reading.The parents said that their children request their parents to bring books for them from the library and to read books at home.Also, 78 parents (57%) noted that they discuss books with their children.Due to the activities of the RfC, most children started to visit the PRC on regular basis and they also ask their parents to buy more books and ask them to read books.These children take a great interest in reading books.Parents say they can express their thoughts better and use new words in their speech, and ultimately they also do better at school.a week, while 23% of them also said that their children read every day.In comparison, 38% of the parents who did not participate in the training (41 out of 109 parents) indicated that their children read 3-5 times a week 19% said that their children read every day.
. Almost all sampled parents stated that their children became more motivated to do their school tasks.The children who regularly visited the library, later continued to read books when they went back to schools.Over 75% of parents in the target villages mentioned that children in RfC villages have developed an interest in reading and thus they started to read more at home when they prepared their school home tasks.Out of 137 parents trained by RfC, 90% responded in the survey that their children started performing better at school.Better school performance is not an explicit aim of RfC, so this finding provides anecdotal evidence of a welcome unintended consequence.Strengthen Family BondsRfC aims to strengthen interactions and family bonds between parents or caregivers and children.It was hoped that by encouraging parents and other adults in the family to spend more time with their children by reading and discussing books would help them to make closer family bonds.RfC also aimed to promote oral storytelling in families, i.e. parents and grandparents tell stories to their children.Plus, children and their parents were encouraged to participate in storytelling and recitation of Manas (a tradition epic poem of the Kyrgyz people) during PRC hold events such as Festival of Books and others.Almost half of the trained parents (48%) mentioned that they noticed changes in their children and said that their children have become friendlier and they respect their parents more.Even fathers noted that they became closer to their children after attending trainings.One trained mother observed, "Reading together brings family members together, it unites us".Another mother added, "I now try to read to my child all the time, for example if my child asks me to read when I am in a hurry to go to a party, I still read a book and then go".Another trained mother observed, "When we read a book together, I notice that we are together.I noticed that I became closer to my own children".One more parent added, "I now read books for my children".The children of the trained parents reported in FGDs that they read books together with their parents.One of them said "we read books sitting side by side".Another child said, "I like when my mother reads to me in the yard under the sun".Another child added, "My mother often reads to me, and I like to discuss with her, and we often talk about what we read".The children also mentioned that they now started to read books more than watch TV.Many children and their parents spend much time watching TV rather than reading books.However, after attending RfC trainings, many parents now prefer to read books with their children over spending time in front of TV.It was especially interesting to note the participation of male parents (fathers and grandfathers) in reading activities of RfC.For example, one trained father observed, "I have changed a lot after the training.The training helped us understand that the father also should read books and spend time with their children.I always thought that it was only mother's job.In the past, when the children asked me to read, I used to tell them to go and ask their mother to read for them, but now I read books for my children with pleasure".Another trained father added, "I had no interest to read for my children.I thought that reading was something done by a mother or children themselves.I participated in the training and understood the role of family reading; the facilitators were stronger and smarter than us.Now, I am convinced that I need to spend more time with my children and reading for them is important".
between parents and children, and strengthened family bonds between parents and their children by establishing PRCs and conducting series of trainings on family reading.In addition, there were indications that the RfC had also positively influenced the children's attitude towards education and performance at school.Based on the positive results of the RfC project, it is recommended that the Ministry of Education and Science (MOES) of the Kyrgyz Republic introduce family reading nation-wide by integrating the family reading training modules into the national pre-service and inservice teacher training courses for pre-school and primary school teachers (Fullan & Miles, 1992).

Copyright © 2015, TARBIYA: Journal of Education in Muslim Society, P-ISSN: 2356-1416, E-ISSN: 2442-9848 I 107-116
libraries have been closed.School libraries, as stated by the Minister of Education of the (Bracken, 2008), as it prepares a person for relationship with a book and creates the need for reading.Family reading inculcates effective communication between family members, brings them together and awakens in them a desire to think, reflect, feel and empathize.271 facilitators have been trained, of whom 30 are men and 241 are women.Facilitators participate in trainings on reading techniques, how to conduct workshops for adults (parents