The goal of the project is to ensure that every child in basic school reads at least one story book a term, three books a year, and 18 books for the first six years of basic education.

The Executive Director of Gedaid Foundation, Emmanuel Asafo-Adjei, presented the 3,000 books to headteachers of the 13 recipient schools at a brief ceremony held at the Kanda cluster of schools in Accra.

The lead sponsor of the donation was the Rotary Club of Labone.

Mr. Asafo-Adjei said the child literacy project seeks to help government implement the 4Rs (Reading, Writing, Arithmetic and Recreation) as contained in Ghana’s 2018 Budget.

He stressed that, the project will be expanded to all basic schools, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service (GES) and other stakeholders from 2018 to 2030, to help pupils in basic schools develop better skills in reading and writing, and also help Ghana work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal Four of the United Nations.

According to the Executive Director, 750 million of the world’s population cannot read and write. Out of that figure, 250 million have stepped into the classroom but are illiterate.

He further stated that, “current report in 2017 from UNESCO and the World Bank indicates that 600 million children are in school but cannot read.”

“The situation is not different in Ghana where a study commissioned by GES revealed that only two percent of class two pupils in basic schools are proficient in reading” he noted.

Mr. Asafo-Adjei said his outfit conducted a literacy needs assessment to understand the reading trend in the beneficiary schools which showed that the literacy project will benefit 1,359 pupils in class one to three.

Out of the total, 394 pupils cannot read at all, 339 are struggling readers, and 629 are proficient readers.

The factors accounting for the literacy deficiency include the lack of parental involvement in their children’s education, access to supplementary reading books and inadequate literacy workshops.

He also emphasized that, although the GES has introduced early morning reading to enhance literacy in basic schools, all the beneficiary schools do not have reading books apart from a few old textbooks.

He noted that “with the exception of one school, all the basic schools do not have libraries. With this trend of reading deficiency in public basic schools, there is the need to embark on such a project to reduce illiteracy in the country.”

The Executive Director of Gedaid said his foundation has acquired over one hundred supplementary readers which have all been rigorously assessed and recommended by the Ghana Education Service, and the Curriculum Research and Development Division for basic schools across the country.

He appealed to Members of Parliament, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives, and the sub-metros to join Gedaid to make available 12 million copies of the foundation’s approved books to basic schools in order to reduce illiteracy across the country.

The Deputy Director responsible for Supervision, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Ghana Education Service, Accra Metro, Madam Mable Esi Asigbetse, commended the Foundation’s literacy initiative and promised that her outfit will supervise and ensure that the schools put the books to good use in order to achieve the purpose of the initiative.

She also charged the teachers to take good care of the books. A representative of the Member of Parliament for Ayawaso East, Mr. Oladade Williams, commended Gedaid Foundation for the gesture; and affirmed that, the MP is ready to partner the foundation to extend the project to all the schools within his jurisdiction.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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