Bridge Liberia donate books to We Care Library to Mark World Book Day
Every year, on April 23 the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and education partners celebrate World Book and Copyrights Day, an event that promotes reading and celebrates great writers like William Shakespeare, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, a great Spanish writer among others.
Reading, which is a bedrock to education as well as a fundamental skill for education, is lacking in students mostly in poor countries, a challenge that education partners like Bridge Liberia is working to mitigate.
A 2017 Study conducted by UNESCO informed that most children are not able to read well, due to several factors including the availability of books.
Education partners like Bridge Liberia views such studies as an opportunity to turn things around especially for students they support.
Bridge Liberia, which supports 350 public primary schools across the country provides learning materials including textbooks to support teachers and students.
This kind of support eliminates the two major drivers holding education back: a lack of access to learning and a lack of quality teaching, which significantly impacts learning.
The textbooks provided by Bridge Liberia to its supported schools have contributed to significant improvement in reading among its students with data available to prove.
In Bridge Liberia’s first year of operation, a Learning in Liberia Report showed that students at Bridge Liberia supported schools could read 7 more words per minute and answer 6% more questions correctly about the story they just read.
Further, 17% of Bridge supported public schools second graders met reading fluency benchmarks for the first time, compared to only 4% of second graders at traditional public schools. At the end of the first year, a randomized control trial by the Center for Global Development found Bridge supported students had reading gains equivalent to a whole additional year of schooling, when compared to other government schools.
As Bridge Liberia joins the world to celebrate World Book Day, the social enterprise has donated over 1,500 textbooks to the WE CARE LIBRARY, a public library operating in central Monrovia since 1995, where students go to do research and read on a daily basis.
The Executive Director of the Library P. Michael Weah, commended the social enterprise for choosing to celebrate World Book Day 2022 in such a unique way, by providing learning materials for students and the general public in central Monrovia.
The donation of these books will give hundreds of students in central Monrovia access to academic books they can use for various education purposes including reading, to help them get on a learning path with other students around the world.
The journey of books may begin with the writer, but there is indeed a reader that is waiting for such scholastic to complete a portion of their lives, as we believe that reading should be a part of people’s lives, least to mention students.
