Cambridge Publishing Manager · Zambia · 2023
Books in languages children already speak.
Cambridge’s contribution to USAID Let’s Read: early-grade readers in seven Zambian languages, produced so the Primary Literacy Programme had books children could actually use.2
My role: Project lead for Cambridge’s reader work, as Publishing Manager. I led language adaptation, quality assurance and stakeholder management, and coordinated teams in Zambia and South Africa. EDC implemented Let’s Read. USAID funded it. Cambridge was the private publishing partner.
The brief
Early-grade reading fails if the books are in the wrong language.
USAID Let’s Read worked with Zambia’s Ministry of Education to improve reading in pre-primary through Grade 3, in languages children speak and understand, as part of the Primary Literacy Programme.12
EDC implemented the programme. One of the gaps was usable pupil books. USAID’s 2023 fact sheet records Cambridge University Press as the private partner supporting the $2.4 million acquisition and distribution of over 1.4 million local language readers to schools.2
Design problem
How could a publishing team in South Africa and Zambia adapt, quality-assure and deliver graded readers in seven languages at the volume a national literacy programme actually needs?
In the classroom
The book has to work in the child’s language
Adaptation and quality assurance were the publishing work. Print volume only matters if the language, level and classroom use hold.
My contribution
Lead the Cambridge publishing work, not the whole programme
Let’s Read was an EDC-implemented, USAID-funded system programme. Cambridge’s job was the readers. Mine was to get that job done across languages, teams and stakeholders.
Language adaptation
Led adaptation of early-grade readers into seven Zambian languages of instruction, so the books matched the Primary Literacy Programme rather than sitting beside it.
Quality assurance
Held the QA route across language versions: level, accuracy, classroom usability and production quality, before volume printing.
Stakeholder management
Kept Cambridge’s publishing work aligned with USAID Let’s Read, EDC and ministry literacy priorities, rather than running a parallel product line.
Two-country delivery
Coordinated teams in Zambia and South Africa so adaptation, production and distribution could move at the scale the programme required.
What was delivered
Readers at national programme scale
What I took from the work
Three publishing lessons
- Local-language reading is a production system, not a translation task. Adaptation, QA and stakeholder sign-off decide whether a book is usable.
- Volume without language quality is waste. A million readers only help if the level and language are right for the classroom.
- Cambridge was a partner, not the programme. The useful publishing role was to deliver the books the literacy system needed, then get out of the way of teaching.
Attribution: USAID Let’s Read was implemented by Education Development Center with the Zambian Ministry of Education. Cambridge University Press was a private partner on local-language readers. This case study covers my Cambridge project-lead role and does not imply authorship of the wider programme, teacher training or assessment results. Classroom photograph from EDC’s public Let’s Read project page.
Sources and further reading
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