Literacy Competition 2021

As part of our interventions to inspire children in our communities to engage in reading and spelling, Pen to Paper Ghana, in collaboration with the District Education Offices, set up a systematic method that leads to improving reading in our schools.

First, we plan two days of phonics training with the teachers from the district to encourage them to focus and help improve the reading of our students by guiding and sharing simple ways of teaching phonics to help our pupils to start decoding words. This is to empower the teachers to make synthetic phonics a sustainable method in the communities we work with. In 2021, we trained teachers in 69 schools.

Then, the schools are monitored by Pen to Paper Ghana and a member of the Ghana Education Service to make sure the lessons learnt from the teacher training are being used in the various schools that attended. Further help is given to those teachers who request it. Throughout the two school terms which consists of six months in total, each school also benefits from our mobile library.

The final part of the intervention is running reading and spelling competitions, which consist of several rounds over a few weeks, leading to a grand final.

Last year, we held the competition in the Atwima Kwanwoma District and the top four schools were rewarded as follows:

The second, third and fourth schools (Ampabame D/A Primary 2, Kromoase D/A Primary and Brofoyedru D/A Primary) were taken on a trip to explore the Asantehene Palace, popularly known as the Manhyia Palace to take a tour and learn about the Ashanti Kingdom. The students, staff members from the Ghana Education Office and teachers from their schools were escorted there by Pen to Paper Ghana. The contestants also received a medal from Pen to Paper Ghana and school bags, snacks and gifts donated by Food Tech Ltd. and Mummy and Me Ghana.

The students from the winning school (Ahenema Kokoben D/A Primary) were taken on an all-inclusive trip to Accra by plane to experience an adventure that most children in the communities have never had. They had a beach trip, a restaurant meal and visited monuments in Accra. As well, they received a medal, school bags, snacks and gifts from Food Tech Ltd. and Mummy and Me Ghana. The top four schools also received a large donation of exercise books for their classes.

The overall idea was that this activity would inspire the next school pupils to work hard to become the next champions, and therefore improve the reading abilities of all.