The next diagnostic evaluation will be held within the framework of the project "Zardabi"

The project "Zardabi - development of reading skills of elementary school students", launched by the Ministry of Education since the academic year 2015-2016, works with schools, parents and the community, and is carried out in three directions.

The purpose of project implementation is to create the reading habits in elementary school students, to develop reading comprehension skills and skills to work on written texts, to provide resources, based on international assessment methodologies, for students. The increasing of the knowledge of parents in the direction of formation and development of reading skills, the active involvement of students in the reading process as one of the parties who have organized this process, the expansion of areas of activities of school heads in this direction, as well as drawing public attention to the importance of the formation of reading skills and culture of reading are among the main objectives. The project "Zardabi" is the first project aimed at the improvement of functional literacy in the country at the level of elementary education and the development of students' reading comprehension skills.

Under the project, the workshops entitled "Reading Strategies" were organized together with elementary school teachers who teach in 4th grade.

18 615 4th grade students, studying at nearly 800 grades of 204 general education schools of other cities and regions of the country, including Baku, were included in the project's target group.

The seminars and lessons were held twice a month during the year 2015 and 4 times in December. The seminar-lessons are taught on the basis of the themes of "Evaluation tools for reading comprehension skills" by project coordinators by using interactive teaching methods in order to improve students` ability to work independently on written texts, to enrich their vocabulary, to develop their reading techniques. The seminar-lessons will be implemented until the end of the school year.

In order to follow the dynamics of the development of students' reading comprehension skills, the written evaluations are conducted during the project. The diagnostic evaluation was carried out in November last year in order to determine the initial state of reading comprehension skills of 4th grade students. The next evaluation is scheduled to be held in January 2016.