- Making libraries accessible to over 35,000 children by 2030
Deloitte has announced the launch of its global initiative ‘WorldClass’ in Ghana, which aims to refurbish and restock eight libraries in rural and deprived basic schools. The initiative is aimed at positively impacting over 35,000 children by 2030.
Globally, Deloitte’s WorldClass initiative seeks to prepare 100 million people to be better prepared for the future of work, in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) four (4) which ensures inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. By collaborating with stakeholders across sectors, Deloitte aims to make a meaningful impact on issues that are critical to societal success. In Ghana, Deloitte has identified Spring-UP Global Network – a youth-led not-for-profit working to bridge the literacy gap between children in rural and urban Ghana as a partner to realise its WorldClass purpose.
This partnership will see Deloitte and Spring-UP Global Network renovate and refurbish eight school libraries, making secure and conducive school libraries accessible to over 30,000 children in Ghana. As an add-on incentive and intervention, the partnership will also launch Reading and Writing clubs in the beneficiary Primary and Junior High Schools of Ghana. In addition, the staff of Deloitte Ghana will collectively invest over 1,000 hours to participate in reading and mentorship sessions for students in the programme’s first year.
Commenting on the launch of WorldClass, Daniel Kwadwo Owusu – Country Managing Partner of Deloitte Ghana said: “Our goal with WorldClass in Africa is to empower 20 million people by 2030 by providing them access to the education and skills required to find meaningful work in the new economy. A 2022 report by the World Bank has revealed that 7 in 10 of all children in low-and-middle-income countries cannot read and understand a simple text by age 10. As a result, children without strong foundational literacy skills are less likely to gain the technical skills needed to succeed in society.
“For this reason, Deloitte Ghana as part of our 75th Anniversary celebrations has decided to work with Spring Up Global Network to refurbish and restock eight libraries in deprived schools across the country. With the advent of the industry 4.0 wave, the world is poised for a seismic shift; and to survive in it, we must cooperate to ensure that no one is left behind. We see this initiative as a tremendous opportunity to make a meaningful impact and create pathways for our future leaders to fulfil their aspirations.”
Founder & CEO-Spring-UP Global Network, Akorfa Ama Akoto said: “According to the 2020 MICS-EAGLE Ghana Education Fact Sheet by UNICEF, 52 percent of children who do not have foundational reading skills come from the country’s poor regions. With inadequate resources and poor facilities in rural schools contributing to poor academic performance, there is an urgent need to improve literacy rates in Ghana’s rural communities.
From providing schools with modern libraries to nurturing the reading and writing skills of children, at Spring-UP Global Network we have a dream to make education and mentorship accessible to all children so as not to increase the already-existing literacy gap between the rich and poor. This is why we are super-excited to receive support from Deloitte’s WorldClass to provide libraries for over 30,000 children”.
The Library Project-iRead iLead Campaign
The iRead iLead Campaign is a 10-year strategic educational programme launched in January 2020 by Spring-UP Global Network that includes the iRead iLead Library Project and iRead iLead Literacy Programme. The iRead iLead Library Project focuses on renovating and building new libraries in Ghana’s rural and deprived schools, while the iRead iLead Literacy Programme is focused on establishing Reading and Writing Clubs in schools to build the literacy capacity of children in rural communities.
Starting in October 2022, eight (8) libraries will be refurbished and restocked for eight (8) clusters of schools; thus impacting a minimum of 16,000 lives in the first year across the Greater Accra, Eastern, Central, Ashanti, Volta and Oti Regions.
