Standard Chartered launches reading club project to improve childhood literacy

Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Plc has today launched the Standard Chartered Reading Club Project, to engage 400+ young learners from four schools within the Kanda East Municipality. This is part of the bank’s community engagement programmes which seek to provide young learners with opportunities to enhance their reading skills while developing reading habits.

The bank shares in the commitment to contributing towards the UN SDG 4 - Quality Education by improving reading and access to age-appropriate books for basic school children and ensuring that they have the right engagements with volunteer readers to improve their literacy skills.

Kanda AMA Basic, Kanda Estate 3 & 5 Basic School, Ring Road Basic School, and Islamic Training School have been enrolled in the project for a year.

Activities outlined for the year will focus on teachers’ capacity enhancement, assessments of young learners’ literacy levels, periodic literacy engagements with employees from the Bank, volunteers from the community, and class teachers. To ensure that all engagements are effective, the engaging schools will be provided with relevant literacy materials comprising age-appropriate books, literacy board games, jigsaw puzzles, Flash Cards, and Chess Games.

The implementing partner for the project is United Way Ghana with support from the Ghana Library Authority, the Ghana Education Service, and Kanda East Municipal Assembly. The Reading Project is intended to take off with the establishment of reading clubs in the four (4) schools.

Launching the programme, Ms. Angela Okai, Company Secretary, Standard Chartered Bank Ghana PLC said, “We believe that helping our children acquire reading skills at an early age will not only expand their vocabulary but build their self-confidence, make them creative and help them to acquire a habit of life-long learning. Beyond the children, we would also build the capacity of teachers, providing them with resources to enable them to support the children ensuring the sustainability of the project.”

Mr. Felix Kissiedu-Addi, the Executive Director for United Way Ghana said “This Project forms part of United Way Ghana’s Improving Basic Education Project strategy which is ensuring that all children of school age are enrolled in school at the right age and have access to the required resources and engagement to promote lifelong learning. Results from the pre-assessment conducted on the young learners indicate that 49.80% of the young learners are able to read lower primary books, while only a harrowing 36% understand what they read or was read to them. The key expected outcome from this project is to have at least 80% of the young learners able to read books at their class level and understand what they read.”

The Reading Project will run for a period of 36 weeks, from February 20, 2023, to December 4, 2023.

Standard Chartered Bank Ghana PLC is Ghana’s premier bank established in 1896. We are part of a leading international banking group, with a presence in 59 of the world’s most dynamic markets and serving clients in a further 83. Our purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, and our heritage and values are expressed in our brand promise, here for good.

The Bank is listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange and has been one of the leading stocks over a sustained period.