New books will strengthen literacy level in basic schools

The government of the United States of America (USA), through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has presented over four million books in English and local Ghanaian languages to the Ghana Education Service

 (GES) for onward distribution to public primary schools in all 216 districts. An estimated 13,936 public kindergartens and 14,405 public primary schools are expected to benefit from the project.

Under the USAID Partnership for Education dubbed Learning, the project has been supporting the Ministry of Education (MOE) and GES to improve reading habits among pupils.

Learning strengthens the capacity of parents, schools and local authorities in improving the reading habit of students. It appreciates that the promotion of reading in Ghanaian languages and English depends on teachers, schools, parents and stakeholders and so the need for it to also be a part of these variables.

Director General of the Ghana Education Service, Jacob Korr, said distribution of the books will provide better opportunities in schools because they will have better access to good, quality books that will enable them to develop their reading skills.

“With access to more reading materials in Ghanaian languages and English, pupils will then practice reading and have skills that will strengthen them to learn better,” he underscored.

US Ambassador to Ghana, Robert Jackson, said at the launch of the project that the motivation for the project is founded on the desire by his country to improve the reading culture of Ghanaian children during their formative years.

“We want the children of Ghana to have the best opportunities. The best way for them have opportunities is to expose them to the world and if they are not exposed to the world through their communities, they can be exposed to the world through the magic of reading,” he said.

Meanwhile, a total of 64 books of different languages with varied titles, such as English in 23 titles, Gonja 4 titles, Kasem 2 titles, Ga 3, Fante 6, Ewe 5, Akwapim Twi 7, Asante Twi 4, Dagaare 4, Dagbani 4 and Dangbe 2 from kindergarten one to primary 3 have so far been distributed to the beneficiary districts.

Stakeholders, including parents, teachers, universities, colleges of education, development partners, traditional leaders, publishers and corporate bodies were in attendance.

Source: – thebftonline.com