Pencils of Promise (PoP), a for-purpose organization, has distributed 250 electronic readers to three basic schools in the Volta Region.

The PoP is an organization that builds schools, trains teachers and increases education opportunities in Laos, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Ghana.

The pilot projects at Saviefe DA in the Ho West District, Mangoase DA in the Agotime-Ziope District and Dzelukope E.P in the Keta Municipality are to encourage pupils in the primary schools to cultivate the habit of reading in order to prepare them adequately for future academic pursuit.

Over 100 story books are loaded on each reader for primary 3 to 6 pupils. It is expected that by end of August, all approved government textbooks used from P3 to P6 will be loaded onto the device.

The Country Director of PoP, Mr Freeman Gobah, in an address during a ceremony to hand over the readers to the pupils at Dzelukope E.P Basic School, said the e-reader project was one of the interventions by PoP to provide students with access to books and to encourage reading both in school and at home in order to reverse the falling standards of education at the basic level in the Volta Region.

He said PoP since the start of its operation in Ghana in 2012 was instrumental in providing school infrastructure, hygiene and sanitation facilities, in service training for teachers and teaching and learning materials in support of education delivery in Ghana.

The West Africa Director of Worldreaders, a partner in the project, Miss Clara Miralles Codorniu, lauded the partnership between Pencils of Promise and her organization to bring digital books to children and families in Africa so that they could improve their lives.

She urged beneficiaries to take good care of the device in order to open the avenue for others to benefit, adding that the expansion of the project depended on the success that would be chalked under the present pilot exercise.

The Volta Regional Director of Education, Mr Emmanuel Keteku, said one of the factors identified as accounting for poor performance of candidates at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) was the inability of pupils to read and understand and lauded POP for introducing the e-reader in the schools.

He said he was optimistic that the device would immensely assist in developing the pupils’ love for reading and for books and added “In fact, the e-readers are a welcome addition to the general ICT we are developing in our schools.”

Mr Keteku advised parents to always encourage their children to work hard at reading even in the house.

The Keta Municipal Director of Education, Mr Edmund Gbetodeme, said the outcomes of recently conducted national education Assessment and BECE revealed that the inability to read and understand questions were major factors in the low education achievement of the pupils and therefore welcomed PoP for their support.

“We are most grateful to PoP because their contributions are in line with government’s policy of Public/ Private Partnership and we would like to assure PoP of our full support towards the success of this laudable project,” he added.

The Keta Municipal Planning Officer, Mr M. P. Dagbi, urged parents to invest in the education of their children.

The Headmistress of the School, Madam Grace Vanderpuye, assured PoP that the e-readers would be used to improve academic performance of the children. She also pledged to take good care of the readers since each class would be expected to leave the devices behind as they progress to the next class.