Accra, GHANA – On August 30, 2022, U.S. Ambassador Virginia Palmer joined the Hon. Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum to mark the handing over of 3.7 million additional Basic 1 to Basic 3 English teaching and learning materials, including supplementary readers to the Ministry for Education. The materials will reach over 11,000 schools which have not already received the materials. The materials are designed to enable teachers to deliver engaging and effective reading lessons and improve pupils’ ability to read.
Ambassador Palmer said, “The U.S. Government is pleased to support the Ministry of Education and its agencies in providing 3.7 million books to over 11,000 schools across Ghana. We are delighted that these materials were developed here in Ghana by Ghanaian writers, illustrators, designers, and editors, making them both relevant and engaging for students. Printing these books in Ghana also created dozens of jobs and contributes to prosperity in the United States and Ghana.”
Through the Partnership for Education program, the U.S. government has increased the availability of quality materials in schools to improve teaching and learning and provided more than 10 million learning materials to Ghana since 2014. The materials include Teacher Guides, Pupils Books, Supplementary Leveled Readers, and classroom materials including Alphabet Cards and Word Cards in English, all aligned to the new curriculum, for B1, B2 and B3 grade levels. The book donation represents a $5 million dollar investment, a part of the larger, nearly $100 million overall U.S. investment in education in Ghana over the past eight years.
The collaboration between USAID and Ghana’s Ministry of Education is one of the key partnerships between the United States and Ghana and supports the early grade reading of learners in Ghana. Since 2014, working together, the U.S. government and Government of Ghana have trained over 70,000 teachers, headteachers, and curriculum leads, and reached over 750,000 pupils. The latest donation will bring the number of schools supported from 7,200 to over 16,000 across Ghana.
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About USAID
USAID is the lead U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential. USAID’s activities and strategic partnerships support Ghana’s journey to self-reliance and a “Ghana Beyond Aid.” Our work advances an integrated approach to development. It promotes accountability, sustainable systems, and inclusive development.
Remarks by Ambassador Palmer for Handover of 3.7 million Teaching and Learning Materials at Buck Press
August 30, 2022
All protocols observed. I’m delighted to be here at today’s event to showcase the U.S. Government’s support to improve reading outcomes nationwide. We have long recognized the importance of literacy and ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education for all.
Today highlights the important partnership between the U.S. Government and the Ministry of Education to provide quality education to primary students. Over the last eight years, the U.S. Government has remained focused and committed to supporting the Government of Ghana to improve early grade reading achievements in English and the official Ghanaian Languages. I became a convert of the Learning to Read concept because you can’t read to learn until you learn to read.
We support context-relevant, quality teaching and learning materials and have provided over 15 million of these materials to support the efforts of both teachers and learners.
An external evaluation of Learning’s early grade reading program in 2019 found that the program had the largest effect of any early grade reading program worldwide, with a tenfold increase in average words per minute in reading.
Literacy, as we all know, holds the transformative key to economic progress of every country. And when children have access to books, they learn to read faster. We also know that when teachers effectively use these materials, early grade learners improve in reading achievement. The materials we are commissioning today include a range of Teacher Guides, Pupil Books, Pupil Workbooks, Read Aloud Compendium, Alphabet Cards, Word Cards, and Supplementary level Readers.
It’s particularly important that these materials were developed by Ghanaian writers, illustrators, designers, and editors, making them both relevant and engaging for Ghanaian learners. We’re also delighted that the materials are being printed in Ghana, and that’s created dozens of jobs for Ghanaians along the way. [Through efforts like these] I truly believe we can create prosperity in Ghana and the United States.
I want to end with sincere thanks to Ghanaian educators. You are incredibly important to the nation and we don’t thank you enough. You shape the future of this beautiful country.
Thank you.
