By Bampia James Bundu
One of Sierra Leone’s telecommunications companies, Airtel has announced its support for the first ever inter secondary school reading and comprehension competition organized by Bright Life Ministries. The event will take place at the British Council Auditorium tomorrow Saturday 6 July 2013. Speaking at a joint press conference at the new Airtel Headquarters in Freetown the head of Brighter Life Ministries, Louise Chaytor said that her ministry was geared towards promoting education in the country via improving the reading habit of pupils. She said they started operating in the country in 2006 and had been doing a lot to ensure the formation of school clubs within the Western Area and in the provinces. She however revealed that their interest was to help improve the standard of English in the country and to improve the reading habit of pupils. She commended Airtel for their continuous support in promoting the competition and assured they would do all they could to make this year’s competition a success. 12 schools will participate including St Joseph’s Lungi, Bo School, St Edwards Secondary School, FSSG, St Joseph’s in Freetown, Annie Walsh, Government Rokel and Model. The Airtel Commercial Director, Keith Tukei said this was an opportunity to complement the effort of government in promoting education in the country. He said that they had been sponsoring educational activities in the country darting back to their days as Celtel. “Education is one of our priorities at Airtel” he said adding that they were always willing to support such venture. He called on participants to show determination and work hard to win the competition for the various prizes which range from Le 1 Million as the Star Prize, Le 500,000 for 2nd prize and Le 300, 000 for 3rd prize. He said that there would be consolation prizes for others. According to a senior lecturer of Fourah Bay College, Gloria Palmer, they are willing and determined to serve as judges in the competition. “This will help enhance the standard of English in the country” the English language lecturer said. She concluded that they would be assessing the pupils’ ability in a wide range of areas including proper reading and comprehension, as well as pronunciation, spelling and use of punctuation marks. (C) Politico 05/07/13
