🚂 Getting Started
1. Be a teacher or be training to become a teacher.
2. Buy a Phonics Train membership starter pack ($35 or $60).
3. Read and master all manuals.
4. Implement the learned concepts with your learners.
5. Become an expert at using the Phonics Train approach.
6. Receive a consultant card and start mentoring schools to the program.
Your Mentor — the person who introduced you to the Oasis Book Project — will help you with everything you need to grow your OBP Literacy Consultancy business. In addition, the Literacy Consultants' Handbook provides all the practical advice you need.
There are two starter kit options:
• $35 Basic Kit: Three Phonics Train Manuals, a flip chart, a basic sounds chart, a sight words chart, a Scope & Sequence, and four workbooks.
• $60 Premium Kit: Ten Sound Series titles, five Read to Me Series titles, ten Starter Series books, plus all the manuals, charts, and workbooks from the Basic Kit.
Most Literacy Consultants start with school visits close to their homes. You sensitize teachers, head teachers, and proprietors about the importance of effective reading instruction — especially in ECD classes — and introduce them to the Phonics Train reading scheme. If a school signs up, you earn 25% of all sales made every term. A typical school visit takes about 3 hours.
💰 Earnings & Payment
• 25% commission on the total sales value of each order (10% for rural/discounted bulk orders).
• 1–2% monthly Personal Sales Bonus if your sales exceed 750 copies in a month.
• 3% on the sales of anyone you personally mentor.
• Additional bonuses and overrides as you advance in rank.
For school visits: customers pay you the full retail value; you pay Oasis the net value after deducting your commission.
For bulk school purchases: the school pays Oasis directly; Oasis calculates and pays your commission.
All override commissions are paid into your bank account by the 15th of the following month, along with a commission statement by email.
Earnings depend entirely on effort. The average daily earnings per consultant are between 10–20 copies sold, which equates to approximately UGX 15,000 per day, plus bonuses. Multiply by the number of days you choose to work per month for a rough income estimate. Consultants who mentor and build a team earn significantly more through passive commissions.
• Teachers pay their mentor in cash after each sale, deducting their commission as agreed.
• Ambassadors can pick up books at a 20% discount, paid in cash with the order.
• Consultants pick up books at a 25% discount with a 50% down payment, clearing upon completing monthly transactions.
• Captains pick up books at a 28% discount with a 30% down payment of their credit limit.
🎓 Workshops
Yes! Once certified as an Educational Services Phonics Train Consultant, you can facilitate Guided Reading workshops at local schools and teacher colleges. Schools are obliged to pay for the workshop — and most have a training budget. Always coordinate with your mentor, collect attendance lists and feedback forms, and submit them to the office for M&E purposes.
Full-time consultants can conduct: (1) Guided Reading Workshops — demonstrating the Phonics Train approach to teachers and setting the stage for termly book purchases. (2) Impact Assessment Visits — following up with enrolled schools to measure learning outcomes, often sponsored by schools or NGOs. You can also speak at teacher conventions, civil society events, literacy festivals, and government ECD summits.
Yes — you must always consult with the head office before visiting any school to avoid approaching schools that have already been visited by other Phonics Train Literacy Consultants. All workshops must also be declared at the office so that the office can select the best facilitators by location and ensure proper M&E measures are in place.
🤝 Mentoring
It depends on your goals:
• For a little extra income each month (~$100): No, you don't need to mentor.
• To max out all bonuses or replace a full-time income: Mentoring is key.
Nobody on the team will ever pressure you. This is your business. However, note that the real long-term income comes from building a downline — $100 from each of 4 mentees per month is far more reliable than solo sales alone.
No. There are no territories for mentoring new Literacy Consultants. You can sign up anyone from anywhere in the country. You can also begin sponsoring people into the business from the day you sign up yourself.
📍 Where to Sell
• Nursery schools near your home — mealtimes are ideal for reaching many teachers at once.
• Primary schools near your workplace — over 10,000 in Uganda alone, few with a proper reading scheme.
• Adult education institutions — our phonics charts, workbooks, and decodable stories are perfect.
• Civil society organizations — NGOs, companies, and government agencies supporting rural schools.
• Social media — post about your hustle, your achievements, and rewards to attract new clients and mentees.
No. Oasis books are only sold directly to end users. You must NOT sell to shops, and you must NOT display the books publicly. You also must not share the Phonics Train manuals with anyone who is planning to sell them to a third party, or with a teacher who is not yet a registered member of the Phonics Train Teachers' Network.
🏫 Starting a New Phonics Train Station
1. Identify a community with no existing Phonics Train Teacher and no Consultant living within a 5 km radius.
2. Verify there are at least 50 schools in that community not yet following the Phonics Train.
3. Present a list of those schools with your application to both your mentor and the head office via email.
4. Once the office verifies that all the schools are not yet on the Phonics Train list, permission will be granted to start a new station.