The Rebecca Foundation has handed over two libraries to the people of Daffiama Bussie Issa District in the Upper West Region and Wenchi in the Bono Region.
The Rebecca Foundation has built four libraries in various parts of Ghana to inculcate the habit of reading in schoolchildren as a way of improving on their learning skills.
In a statement read on her behalf, the executive director of the Rebecca Foundation and First Lady of the Republic of Ghana, Rebecca Naa Okaikor Akufo-Addo acknowledged the contribution of the current NPP government in giving first importance to education.
This is being effected through various policies such as Free Senior High School and by reinstituting allowances for teacher trainees to improve the ability of our young Ghanaians to propel national development effectively.
Ability to learn
The First Lady however bemoaned the limited ability of many children to read and write as a result of factors including limited access to reading materials. This, she said, adversely affects the child’s ability to learn.
“Literacy is the means by which lifelong learning and a child’s ability to learn to the highest levels is made possible,” she said.
The First Lady thanked the development partners of the Rebecca Foundation, including the Ministry of Education, Ghana Library Authority (GhLA), Book Aid International, and the district and the municipal assemblies where the libraries are sited, for their support with executing the four projects.
She also announced the completion of two further libraries in other parts of the country, to be commissioned soon.
The chief executive of the GhLA, Hayford Siaw, expressed gratitude to the First Lady in helping the agency meet one critical objective in its “2020 Year of Learning” which is to increase the network of libraries in Ghana, stating that since 2017, the government through GhLA has increased library network from 61 to 74 and now 78 with the new libraries by the Rebecca Foundation.
Watch and read
Present to grace the commissioning were municipal chief executives, officials of the Ghana Education Service and GhLA and chiefs.
It will be recalled that in 2018, the Rebecca Foundation launched the Learning to Read and Reading to Learn initiative to help improve literacy levels among Ghanaian children.
The initiative involves a television show for children on reading. This airs nationwide on GTV on Saturdays (12 noon) and is repeated on Wednesdays (5pm). It is also broadcast on Ghana Learning TV, Net2 and GN Junior TV.
Learning to Read and Reading to Learn also promotes the construction of libraries in school clusters which lack access to library facilities.
* For more information, visit the website (http://therebeccafoundationgh.org) or call 026 264 0001 (email: info@therebeccafoundationgh.org).
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