In Timbuktu, the "Reading Corner" makes school enjoyable.

It's Thursday afternoon, and there is usually no school for the students of fundamental graders in Mali. However, at the Mahamane Fondougoumo school, one of the oldest schools in the city of Timbuktu, one can still hear the voices of children repeating the syllables "Bi, Ba, Bu" after their teacher. Among the thirty or so children engaged in a reading session is Mouly, a young 12-year-old teenager, and third-year student. 

This reading lesson is part of a program designed to strengthen the academic skills of students who have been reintegrated into the educational system after having been out of school. This innovation, known as the "Reading Corner," also welcomes students who have never been schooled but who are too old to be enrolled in the first grade, like Mouly. 

Because of her advanced age, Mouly had to join straight the third year, despite her not knowing how to read or write. Five months after the start of the school year, she has acquired basic reading and writing skills thanks to the reading corner. She is now nearly at the level of her third-grade classmates, and her grades are improving. Mouly's teacher, Imamaya Traoré, is very surprised at her student's rapid progress. "I am happy. I am learning lots of new things," declares Mouly. 

"Mouly was spotted by the school principal lurking behind the classrooms. The little girl loves school. Approached by the Head of the institution to understand their daughter's situation, Mouly's parents explained that she had never been schooled due to financial constraints. He therefore decided to enroll her in his school, and in the reading corner, with their agreement. The school has received equipment and educational kits as well as school supplies to facilitate the reception of children who attend the reading corner. 

In two years, the reading corner has welcomed more than 70 children (including 42 girls) who were out of school or had not been schooled in this establishment and, above all, to keep them in school. "Most of these children are among the best in their classes. It's an encouragement for the parents who ensure that their children do not miss any of the reading corner sessions. The program is free," explains Abdoulaye Alhousseyni, the school principal. 

In Timbuktu, more than 11,600 children, including almost 7,900 girls aged 7 to 12, are out of school for various reasons: the lack of educational structures, household poverty, the low priority given to education by some parentsto girls' education, social norms, and displacements due to the security crisis affecting some regions of the country. Nationally, more than 2 million children do not have access to education according to the 5th General Census of Population and Housing of 2023. 

The "reading corner" funded by the "Education Cannot Wait" program is one of the innovative approaches developed by UNICEF and the Ministry of National Education to facilitate access to and retention in school for children of school age. Institutionss with reading corners have also received educational equipment and school materials. In Mali, between March 2022 and December 2023, 36 of them were equipped, and 1,800 children attended the reading corners. 

For every child, a quality education!