The literacy rate in both Fanteakwa North and South Districts of the Eastern Region has seen a significant improvement in less than three years following a collaboration between World Vision Ghana, the Ghana Education Service and the District Assembly.
In 2015, less than five percent of school children in all the basic schools in the district could read in comprehension and write according to a World Vision and the district directorate of education survey.
But following the intervention of World Vision Ghana, Save the Children and the Korean International Cooperation Agency, the local assembly has trained over 552 teachers in the district, set up 149 after-school reading camps to help improve the literacy rate in the district.
Twenty-five education officials at the education service were trained, and 447 volunteers were also taken through training to help out at the reading camps.
A total of 8,445 school children in the Fanteakwa district took part in the program, 158 book banks have been set up with 224,900 books distributed so far.
In an interview with Citi News, the Educational Technical Program Manager for World Vision Ghana Ofosu Denkyi, said it took a collective effort from all the stakeholders to achieve the results.
“When World Vision first came to the district the visible signs we saw was that the classrooms were all bare with no pictures on the wall, teachers ability to teach literacy was either poor or minimal, and the community participation in education was nonexistent. So we intervened at all the levels, the school level and the community level, and we realized that reading materials are highly nonexistent, so we had to bring in more reading materials to support the kids and teachers”.
“When we did the baseline studies before starting the pool program in 2015 we recorded 0.1 percent as kids who were able to read with comprehension, but after rolling out the project for 3 years with careful monitoring we have now recorded 65 percent of children who are able to read with comprehension in the local language as well.”
Council of churches takes over reading camps
Andrew Ofosu Denkyi further revealed to Citi News that the local council of churches in the district who are appreciative of the results have promised to help sustain the project.
“In terms of sustainability, the local council of churches in Fanteakwa and even the Islamic communities have taken up the mentorship of the reading camps to provide them support and incentives to the volunteers to ensure the smooth and effective running of the reading camps”.
The District Director of Education Mr. Felly Jacob Laweh, who expressed satisfaction with the improvement advised teachers in the district to come out with innovative ideas to improve the project.
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By: Neil Nii Amatey Kanarku | citinewsroom.com | [email protected] | Ghana
