Afrikids launches Mobile Library Project in Upper East

Afrikids Ghana, a child rights Non-Governmental Origination has launched Mobile Library project in the Upper East Region to complement Ghana Education (GES) efforts at addressing the academic challenges facing school pupils in this era of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

As part of the project implementation strategy, Afrikids Ghana in collaboration with the GES, School Management Committees (SMCs) and Parents Teacher Association (PTAs) have established community learning centres in the project Districts namely Nabdam, Bongo, Builsa North and South in the region.

The Afrikds Ghana Mobile Library project is under the Dynamic Approach to School Improvement(DASI) project, funded with the support of the Department for International Development (DFID) of UK and the Book Aid International, also a UK registered charity organization which provides books and supports libraries in Africa and around the world.

Speaking at the launching of the Afrikds Ghana Mobile Library project at Nangodi in the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region on Friday, the Project Manager of Afrikids Ghana, Mr Cletus Anaaya, explained that what necessitated the Mobile Library project was that his outfit realized that with the closure of schools in March this year 2020, the academic progress of the school children were being challenged.

He said school pupils in more deprived areas were the most hard-hit and so Afrikind-Ghana with its funding agencies and partners decided to collaborate with the GES to open the learning centres in such remote areas to empower the school children study.

Mr Anaaya stated about 80 schools made up 25 from the Bongo District, 15 from the Nabdam District and 20 each from the Builsa North and Builsa South are benefiting from the project.

"The project also got a donation of 16,000 books from the Book Aid International and shared them to the 80 targeted schools. Training programmes were further carried out to further develop the capacity of the teachers so that they can assist children to cultivate a reading culture’’, he announced.

He stated the project ensures that the workers who have been trained to go with the tricycle motors procured by the project and stocked with the different varieties of reading books to the learning centres on a time table basis for the school pupils to borrow the books with the assistant from their teachers to read and to return them.

The Project Manager who mentioned that the project in addition supported 200 school pupils who earlier on risked dropping out of school with some educational materials, said the SMCs and PTAs from the beneficiary schools were also trained in effective management and governance of the school system.

The District of Education in charge of the Nabdam District, Mr Timothy Naasal Yuornuo, commended Afrkid-Ghana for the intervention and said the NGO in the past had supported the District Directorate in education service delivery.

He said one of the major challenges militating education delivery in the District was due to the spate of mining activities in the District where many school children often forego classes to attend to mining activities hence affecting their academic standards.

He expressed optimism that with Afrikids-Ghana Mobile Library intervention, it would inculcate reading habit into school children to whip up their interest to stay in school and complete and further impressed upon parents to ensure that their children patronize the mobile library project.