Foundation promotes reading, spelling culture among pupils

A non-governmental organisation, Grassien Education and Entrepreneurship Foundation (GEEF) recently held a reading and spelling competition for primary school pupils at Lutheran School, Ikot Oduot, Akwa Ibom state and used the occasion to donate learning materials to the school.

The foundation’s director, Mrs. Nsidibe Aideyan said the event was aimed at sharing stories that would instill moral values and excellence in pupils while promoting good reading and spelling culture.

“We believe that reading is the core aspect of education. If you cannot read, it is unlikely that you can obtain education. At the foundation level, what you can give to a child is the ability to read and encourage that child to continue on that path. This is the reason Grassien is laying strong emphasis on inculcating reading culture from the cradle” she said.

She further added that the foundation could have called the best pupils in the school to read to demonstrate reading and project them at the event but, “we rather picked pupils randomly to read in order to ascertain their competence and identify challenges”.

She said, “We want to assess them to identify the place of need in order to put up an intervention strategy because Grassien is about solving problems. Those who read well would be encouraged, while pupils who did not read well would be further interrogated to know whether it is a case of stage fright or a lack of capacity.

We would expose those having fright problem to coaching in public speaking and engage volunteers to read with those who lack capacity. We would consider setting up a library where volunteers would visit at regular intervals to read with them at a relaxed and impactful environment”.

Aideyan said the vision of Grassien is to provide infrastructure to support educational and entrepreneurship alongside relevant stakeholders.

On his part, the Company Secretary of Ibom Power Company limited who is also a former pupil of Lutheran School; Ime Asibong announced plans by the foundation to partner with the school in the area of infrastructural development.

He said, “We are just getting to know that there are counterpart funding for projects whereby the government and non-governmental organisations can partner with relevant schools to implement by contributing 10 per cent of the total project cost. Grassien will partner with the school to identify the areas of need, access these counterpart funds and ensure that infrastructural development projects are attracted to the school.

Head Teacher of the school, Mr. Dennis Okon lauded the foundation for taking the school into consideration in its strategic plans.

He said the donation of chairs and benches by the foundation will go a long way to ease the learning process of pupils while enjoining the group to fasttrack its intervention effort to the school.

Pupils, who emerged tops in the reading competition, were given gifts and prizes.