United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced direct grants to 800 communities to help implement innovative local solutions that encourage reading.
The 800 communities will be selected from the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Western, Volta and the Northern regions.
United States Ambassador to Ghana, Mr. Robert P. Jackson made this announcement during the launch of USAID’s Partnership for Education project, Innovating.
The Innovating project is a four-year partnership between USAID and the Ministry of Education and is expected to create a culture of reading among children.
According to Ambassador Jackson, the education programme has an objective of increasing the number of Ghanaian children who are able to read with fluency and comprehension in the early grades of primary school.
“One of our top development priorities is to work with the Ghanaian government to improve reading skills in the early grades of primary school. This is because we believe that literacy is a necessary ingredient for national development in the modern world” he explained.
On his part, a chief director at the Ministry of Education, Enoch Kobbinah said his outfit will work closely with USAID to ensure the success of the programme. He called for the need to have a reading revolution in order to inculcate reading habits in children.
“Let us be reading to babies from birth, through their developmental stages and that way we will reap the benefit of a literate and well-developed nation”.
Through the Innovating programme, USAID will undertake a nationwide media campaign that promotes the value of reading and also build a strong network to support home and community-based reading.
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By: Naa Kwaamah Siaw-Marfo/citifmonline.com/Ghana