75 South Tongu schools presented with books
Seventy-Five basic schools in the South Tongu District in the Volta Region have been presented with 20,000 books by Walk2Learn International, a United States-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) with special focus on education and health.
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The donation followed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr Kobby Mensah Woyome and Walk2Learn International.
The books, worth US$60,000, are expected to help address the poor reading and comprehension levels of pupils in basic schools in the district.
Poor reading habits
An early grade reading assessment (EGRA) conducted by the National Education Assessment (NEA) in the district last year concluded that half of the pupils assessed were unable to read a single word of the story they were presented with.
Also, many pupils, representing 44 per cent of those interviewed, were described as struggling readers. A few pupils, representing four per cent were able to read with some understanding, while only two per cent were able to read fluently and understand.
At a ceremony to present the books to the beneficiary schools, Mr Woyome said he signed an MoU with Walk2Learn International last September as part of efforts to arrest the reading and comprehension challenge in basic schools in the district.
He said in spite of interventions by the government and stakeholders in the past years, the district was still confronted with challenges at the educational front.
He stressed that a good foundation in education was crucial in making an individual a productive adult, capable of making the needed contribution to national development.
In pursuit of that, he said, Walk2Learn International, had come in as a strategic partner to help address the challenge of reading and comprehension at the basic level in the district.
“Development cannot be an agenda pursued by the government alone. We must all contribute our quota to the shaping of the future of our children. We cannot afford to shirk that responsibility,” he said.
Objective
The Assistant Executive Director of Walk2Learn International, Lady Marthamae Wright, said the objective of the NGO was to help bridge the literacy gap between developing and developed countries, as well as to improve the quality of healthcare delivery services in developing countries.
To that end, she said, it was committed to promoting equal access to educational opportunities in underserved and underperforming communities by providing educational resources.
She said the organisation was currently implementing most of its projects in Ghana, adding that over the past few years, it had donated over 200,000 books valued at over US$150,000 to schools, libraries and orphanages in Ghana.
The South Tongu District Director of Education, Mrs Angelica A. Attakey, said the poor performance of schools in the district over the years had been attributed to the poor reading ability of schoolchildren right from the lower grades.
She said the books would, therefore, go a long way to address the major problem of lack of reading materials.
