Empowering Tongan literacy: US volunteers launch free app with culturally rich texts

Micheal Hassett and Andrew Pavey, of the United States Peace Corps, are on a mission to make learning to read easier for people in Tonga through a new literacy software programme.

The app, Tau Laukonga Let’s Read, was developed by Friends of Tonga, a US charity, the Tongan Education Ministry, and the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga.

The app aims to enable schools and communities in Tonga to access reading materials without incurring significant expenses.

In an interview with John Pulu on PMN Tonga, the American volunteers say that many villages in the island kingdom struggle to get educational resources because shipping books to these areas can be very costly, leaving them with limited options.

“It's a lot of weight. When books do arrive and reading materials do arrive in Tonga, they reach just a small community,” Hassett says. “To send a box of books, you're looking at a lot of pa'anga with very little impact.”

Hassett believes that technology, like the Tau Laukonga app, can help communities in Tonga.

“[It] is a nice intersection of technology and literacy that can reach any Tongan that has a smartphone or a laptop, and it's free of charge,” he says.

Hassett and Pavey have spent time in different communities across Tonga. Hassett worked with the Peace Corps from 2012 to 2014 in Fahefa, and Pavey is currently a teacher in Houma.

According to the World Bank, about 70 per cent of households in Tonga don’t have reading materials at home.

Watch Micheal Hassett and Andrew Pavey's full interview below.

Pavey says he noticed this lack of resources soon after arriving in Tonga and started thinking of ways to improve the situation.

“I saw immediately when I came to the country. And so I immediately began to work on a solution that would leverage the growing prevalence of technology in the kingdom to solve this issue,” he says.

The idea behind Tau Laukonga was to provide high-quality reading materials from various sources, although Pavey admitted that it has been challenging to find Tongan literature for the app.

“I was looking for a way to give all of my students the kinds of quality reading materials that we had in the US. The materials are drawn from different sources. It's very difficult to find Tongan language reading materials nowadays,” he says.

Tau Laukonga offers more than 100 stories relevant to Tongan culture, each with varying difficulty levels.

Pavey is excited about building the library further in the future.

Photo/Tau Laukonga

“We're very happy to have built a library of a hundred stories in Tongan and growing in the future as well,” he says.

Pavey also views Tau Laukonga as a means for Tongans living abroad, particularly in Aotearoa New Zealand, to reconnect with their language and culture.

“It's just a way to really connect the Tongan diaspora to the Tongan language as well as really supporting our students and teachers across every single island group.

“This is a great resource for reconnecting with your Tongan roots. If you're an adult and you don't know how to read in Tongan [and] you want to practice. Or, if you want to teach your kids how to read, it's a great resource for that too,” he says.

Pavey and Hassett, along with their partners, hope to share resources like Tau Laukonga with communities outside of the main island of Tongatapu as well.

“The vast majority of resources are located in Tongatapu, so really finding opportunities to reach the outer islands, especially Ha’apai and Vava'u and even the Niwas and with the advent of technology and smartphones, it's just becoming easier and easier to reach these hard-to-get-to places,” Hassett says.

Photo/Tau Laukonga

He adds that, following the 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, which caused significant damage and necessitated assistance, it’s refreshing to refocus on education and literacy with the app.

“Ever since the volcanic eruption, we've been really focused on disaster relief. So it's been nice to get back to the literacy and education component of our mission as well,” he says.

Hassett hopes the success of Tau Laukonga will inspire other communities and regions served by the Peace Corps.

“With more and more Peace Corps volunteers coming back to Tonga, really giving them the resources as well to be ambassadors and to expand on the work that Andy has done.

“Within two years [of] being able to develop this app with limited resources, every Peace Corps group should be able to do something similar across the world,” he says.

The Tau Laukonga app is available for free download on both Apple and Android devices.