Learning circles open for 400 children.

Six new learning circles opened their mats this month — three villages, 400 children, and 24 volunteer tutors who needed exactly one weekend of training to begin. No classrooms required: a shade tree, a stack of books, and an hour after school.

The model is deliberately simple. Tutors pair older readers with younger ones, work through phonics games, and log every child's progress in a shared notebook. Parents can read the notebook any evening — transparency you can hold in your hands.

Why circles work

Schools here run double shifts with sixty pupils per class. Circles give struggling readers what crowded classrooms can't: ten children, one patient tutor, and zero shame in sounding out a word twice. Average reading fluency doubles within two terms.

"I tutor on Saturdays because my brother learned to read in a circle. Now he teaches me mathematics."

— Brian K., volunteer tutor

Next term we open four more circles — including our first for out-of-school teenagers. $30 keeps one reader in circle for a full term, books included.