Paulo Freire Institute and Vodafone Malta Foundation launch a free, digital toolkit for people facing literacy challenges

The Paulo Freire Institute and the Vodafone Malta Foundation have launched iċ-Ċavetta, a newly created, digital Maltese literacy toolkit targeted at adults and youths facing social exclusion and employment challenges.

The free resource can be accessed through the website cavetta.org.mt, as well as through an app which may be downloaded through Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

The toolkit, which has been two years in the making, is structured like a course and contains a set of 32 interactive activities – starting off at an elementary level and becoming progressively more advanced – to allow the user to acquire basic reading and writing skills in Maltese.

Iċ-Ċavetta is currently the only existing resource aimed at teaching basic literacy skills in Maltese which is specifically targeted at youths and adults. It is based on a set of text books produced since 2008 by the Paulo Freire Institute, which in turn was the fruit of the NGO’s several years of work in the field of education and helping adults with literacy.

The online toolkit also helps render reading and writing more attractive to the youth demographic already familiar with technological devices, while encouraging computer orientation skills in the older demographic.

According to the last census in 2011, there are about 24,000 people in Malta who are unable to read and write.

“These people tend to slip through the net and may never fully participate in Maltese and European society. Their employment prospects grow dim. Illiteracy also renders people more vulnerable and prone to being exploited by others,” Fr Edgar Busuttil, director of the Paulo Freire Institute, said.

“We are confident that this app will be of great assistance to those adults and youths who, for some reason or other, find it difficult to read and will help them participate more fully in Maltese society.”

Vodafone Malta Foundation chairman Michel Macelli said that iċ-Ċavetta was one of several projects which the Foundation undertook under its Connecting for Good programme aimed at harnessing the power of mobile technology to bring about social change.

“We trust that iċ-Ċavetta will be the key to employment opportunities, greater confidence and wellbeing, and a higher standard of living,” he said.