Enabling Writers comp seeks innovative reading software for young kids

Investing in the youth of a country is investing in that country’s future. Educating and developing young minds can help nurture potential leaders and, perhaps more importantly in developing economies, potential job creators.

Literacy is one such challenge for the developing world, and in this light The All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD) has launched a US$100 000 prize competition called Enabling Writers, which seeks to find technological solutions to improve the reading skills for children in developing countries.

Specifically, the technological solutions Enabling Writers seeks are software solutions that “allow authors to easily create and export texts in mother tongue languages for early-grade students.”

The solutions should be targeted at children in grades one to three, or those children out of school aged approximately six to ten.

Three finalists will be awarded US$12 000 each, as well as feedback on improving their software for field testing.

From there, the solution that best enables local writers to create appropriate and interesting texts according to “tested reading instruction methodologies” as well as provide a great reading and learning experience for school children, will win the US$100 000 prize.

Early-stage applicants can submit their software in any form: Windows, Mac OS, Linux or mobile, but should they be successful they will have to expand to more platforms.

The ACR GCD was first established in 2011 as a partnership between USAID, World Vision and the Australian Government with the goal to create and expand scalable, low-cost education tools and initiatives that help improve the literacy of early-primary school students.

For more information check out the FAQ or the official website.