The project which forms part of the company’s global initiative dubbed: ‘World Class’ initiative will among other things seeks to refurbish and restock eight libraries in rural and deprived basic schools across six regions of the country for the start.

The beneficiary regions are the Ashanti, Eastern, Central, Volta, Oti and Greater Accra.

In addition, the initiative is aimed at positively impacting over 30,000 children through learning how to read by the year 2030.

Launching the project, the Country Managing Partner of Deloitte Ghana, Mr Daniel Kwadwo Owusu explained that globally, Deloitte’s WorldClass initiative was to prepare 100 million people to be better prepared for the future of their work.

This, he said was in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) four, which ensures inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Mr Owusu noted that by collaborating with stakeholders across sectors, Deloitte intended to make a meaningful impact on issues that were critical to societal success.

“In Ghana, Deloitte has identified Spring-UP Global Network, a youth-led not-for-profit, working to bridge the literacy gap between children in rural and urban Ghana, as a partner to realise its World Class purpose,” he emphasised.

He said “Our goal with World Class in Africa is to empower 20 million people by 2030, by providing them access to the education and skills required to find meaningful work in the new economy.

 A 2022 report by the World Bank has revealed that seven in 10 of all children in low-and-middle-income countries cannot read and understand a simple text by age 10.

 As a result, children without strong foundational literacy skills are less likely to gain the technical skills needed to succeed in society.

For this reason, Deloitte Ghana as part of our 75th Anniversary celebrations has decided to work with Spring Up Global Network to refurbish and restock eight libraries in deprived schools across the country.

On her part, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Spring-UP Global Network, Akorfa Ama Akoto said the 2020 MICS-EAGLE Ghana Education Fact Sheet by UNICEF revealed that 52 per cent of children who do not have foundational reading skills come from the country’s poor regions.

With inadequate resources and poor facilities in rural schools contributing to poor academic performance, there was an urgent need to improve literacy rates in rural communities in Ghana, she noted.

Ms Akoto said from providing schools with modern libraries to nurturing the reading and writing skills of children, Spring-UP Global Network, had a dream to make education and mentorship accessible to all children.

“This is why we are super excited to receive support from Deloitte’s WorldClass to provide libraries for over 30,000 children,” she stressed.

The iReadiLead Campaign is a 10-year strategic educational programme launched in January 2020 by Spring-UP Global Network which includes the iReadiLead Library Project and the iReadiLead Literacy Programme.