As part of efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 4 on quality education, two non-profit organisations, Pencils of Promise (PoP) and World Vision on Wednesday, 11 September 2019 hosted hundreds of pupils at Kedjebi in the Oti Region when Ghana joined the rest of the world to mark this year's International Literacy Day.

The pupils drawn from various basic schools in the region participated in the celebration, with a call on them to take their lessons serious in order to become useful to their families, societies and Ghana at large.

Addressing the pupils, the Education Director for Kedjebi District, Mrs Grace L.A Bonuedi praised the two NGOs for their social interventions towards quality and sustainable education in the country.  She advised parents to play vital roles in their children's educational affairs and children also to pay heed to their parents and guardians.

Speaking on the theme of this year's celebration: "Literacy and Multilingualism" , she called for the need to promote local dialects, stating that the new teaching curriculum introduced by the government is of a great support to local languages, hence, the need for teachers and parents to urge the pupils to make use of their local dialects in addition to official languages such as French and English.

" I encourage parents never to relege on their responsibilities to be the first campaigners of literacy and mutilingualism and teachers to also take over the mantle of a guide in this literary education enterprise," she said.

Speaking on the behalf of the Country Director of PoP, Fred Parku said, education is critical to every child's development, therefore, PoP wants to see every child of school going age in the classroom.

Mr Parku indicated that, PoP over the past few years has provided "5,400 E-readers to 53 basic schools, while we hope to add additional 1,600 E-readers to 20 new basic schools in the Volta, Oti and Eastern Regions of Ghana" .

He called on other sister organisations and the government to reinforce their commitment to developing literacy level in the education sector mostly especially at the basic schools.

"In view of current trend of literacy levels especially at the basic level, Pencils of Promise will like to use this platform to reinforce the need for commitment by state actors and non-governmental partners to collaborate in adopting learner centred approaches in teaching and learning of literacy.

we must fully embrace linguistic diversity in literary development, which is central to addressing literacy challenges in Ghana", he mentioned.

World Vision's Cluster Manager, Mrs. Salomey Yeboah in her speech noted that World Vision since its establishment in the Volta and Oti Regions have invested "close to $1,000,000 to support communities in the Kedjebi district with school infrastructure, training of teachers and provided teaching, learning and recreational materials as well as water and sanitation facilities for schools."

The International Literacy Day is an annual celebration adopted in 1966 by the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) aimed to highlight the merits of literacy among individuals, societies and organisations.

The celebration held in the Kedjebi District was characterised with cultural performances, reading skills exhibited by the pupils and over hundreds of story books were distributed amomg the children by Pencils of Promise.