International Literacy Day in Kilifi County.
Kilifi, a town in Kilifi County, Kenya, is selected as a learning city by UNESCO. Learning cities are selected to promote the lifelong learning strategy aimed at increasing access to education and information system for people of the County. One of the duties of the learning city in 2023, is to host the International Education Day on January 24 th under the theme to “invest in people, prioritize education.”
The Kilifi County Executive Commissioner (CEC) for Education and ICT, Ms. Clara Chonga, invited Impertimus Education Investment to partner in hosting this event due to the notable role in promoting literacy in Kilifi county. The Kenya National Library Service, Kilifi Library Branch, Impertimus and Kilifi Department of Education and ICT, together held the International Education Day in Kararacha Primary School.
The event started under a tree in the school compound where 500 children and their teachers together
with the team from Kilifi department of Education and ICT were in attendance.
The team from Kilifi
Library and Impertimus engaged the children in constructing and spelling words, and reading aloud using the school tablets and the ASb Lenovo ones from the library.
During the event, we showed the children and teachers how to download and use the ASb Reader
and Maker Apps, and use them to read ASb storybooks and create their own stories offline. We had
uploaded 766 ASb storybooks onto 25 of the school tablets. The children had the opportunity to read in groups from the school tablets. We encouraged the children to read aloud for others to listen.
The Kilifi County Executive Commissioner (CEC) for Education and ICT, Ms. Chonga is very passionate about literacy and improving the education standards of Kilifi County. As an avid reader herself, she looks forward to having reading clubs in primary schools, a reading hour slotted in the timetable for children to read books, newspapers, journals and magazines which will improve their literacy levels. Some of the activities she wants to implement include children reading one book per week which translates to 13 books per term. The reading sessions will help children in the spelling and other literacy activities. Her biggest desire is to see the Kilifi County education narrative changing, particularly, for girls who often discontinue school, from one with high school dropout rate and low educational achievements to one that promotes and records high literacy levels. Her dream is to transform the reading culture from ECD centers to public primary school to be of acceptable standards. She strongly believes that education is the greatest equalizer and accessing reading opportunities in public schools will change the future of the children in Kilifi County.
As of Impertimus as literacy champion in Kilifi, we look forward to work with Ms. Chonga in changing the narrative of Kilifi County.
