Standard Chartered Bank Ghana PLC, (Stanchart) in partnership with United Way Ghana, is set to engage over 400 young learners from four schools within the Kanda area of Accra in periodic literacy activities.
The partnership forms part of the bank’s community engagement interventions which seek to provide young learners with opportunities to enhance their reading skills while developing their reading habits.
The project will be implemented within a year, and the two entities hope to contribute toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) four – Quality Education – by improving access to age-appropriate books for basic school children and ensuring that they have the right engagements with volunteer readers to improve their literacy skills.
Under this project, United Way Ghana, with funding from Standard Chartered Bank Ghana PLC, has enrolled Kanda AMA Basic, Kanda Estate Three and Five Basic Schools, Ring Road Basic School, and Islamic Training School into its Childhood Literacy Project for a year.
Activities outlined for the year will be centred on teachers’ capacity enhancement, assessments on young learners’ literacy levels, and periodic literacy engagements with employees from the bank, volunteers from the community and class teachers.
To ensure that all engagements are effective, beneficiary schools have been provided with relevant literacy materials comprising 750 age-appropriate books, eight literacy board games, four sets of jigsaw puzzles, four sets of flash cards, eight sets of chess games, A-4 sheets, among others. Four mini book shelves have also been donated to the school to store the books.
The over 400 young learners to be engaged will be enrolled into the Standard Chartered Reading Project, which was launched on February 16, 2023 at the Kanda Cluster of Schools in Accra in partnership with United Way Ghana and with support from Ghana Library Authority, Ghana Education Service, and Ayawaso East Municipal Assembly.
The reading project is intended to take off with the establishment of reading clubs in the four schools.
Executive Director for United Way Ghana, Felix Kissiedu – Addi, said: “This project forms part of United Way Ghana’s Improving Basic Education Project strategy which is ensuring that all children of school age are enrolled in school at the right age and have access to the required resources and engagements to promote life-long learning.
“Results from the pre-assessment conducted on the young learners indicate that 49.8 percent of the young learners were able to read lower primary books while only a harrowing 36 percent understood what they read or was read to them. The key expected outcome from this project is to have at least 80 percent of the young learners able to read books at their class level and understand what they read by the end of 2023.”
The reading club project will run for a period of 36 weeks, from February 20, 2023 to December 4, 2023.
For her part, Company Secretary, Standard Chartered Bank Ghana PLC, Angela Okai, reiterated that reading is essential and must be prioritised, particularly in the formative years of the pupils.
Head of Administration Directorate at the Ghana Library Authority (GHLA), Yaa Adu-Opare and Municipal Education Director, Adisa Tasa, expressed their gratitude for the kind gesture and believed that the outcomes from the project will reflect in an improved academic performance of these young learners.
