BIC®, a leading stationery brand in the world, has donated one hundred thousand Cristal fine pens to the Ghana Education Service (GES) for distribution to deprived students ahead of the 2020 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
Presenting the pens on behalf of the brand, George Nkonsah, the Business Development Manager for the Ghana-Cameroon cluster said, the brand since its introduction in Ghana 40 years ago has been supporting educational projects not only in Ghana but in many countries across the globe.
“Globally, BIC® has supported significant educational projects; In Ghana, we have partnered organizations like the USAID Partnership for Learning (FHI) in assisting 1.1m Ghanaian students to read and write under the Partnership for Learning programme by donating 100,000 BIC® Evolution pencils 2 years ago.”
As a brand, “We have also worked with the Daily Graphic to revive the culture of reading and writing through numerous literacy programmes including the National Essay Competition,” he said.
He indicated that the brand has followed closely the government’s intervention in education through the Free SHS policy which has successfully helped over 1million students into senior high school. He was however quick to add that “while this is a great initiative, some deprived students might not fully benefit if they do not have the best writing instrument to successfully write and pass the BECE examination”.
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Reacting to the reasons the brand chose the BIC® Cristal Fine Point Pen, Mr. Nkonsah said the BIC Cristal Fine point pen is adored by junior high and primary students due to its fine point and has attributes such as stylish writing, reliability, vivid ink, attractive orange barrel and also the Cristal fine point writes twice than its competitors.
On his part, the Director-General of the GES, Prof. Kwesi Opoku-Amankwa, in receiving the pens, expressed his outfit’s gratitude to BIC in ensuring that students especially those in the deprived areas get the right type of pen to write the impending BECE.
He indicated that, almost 500,000 students will be writing the 2020 BECE and that his outfit has put together a list of schools in deprived areas that would be at the receiving end of the kind gesture from BIC®.
“Ghana Education Service and BIC® will immediately commence the distribution of the 100,000 pens to the beneficiaries ahead of the start of this year’s BECE,” Prof. Amankwah added.
He further challenged the Education Desk Reporters and the brand to help the GES in monitoring the distribution process so as to ensure that the pens get to the intended target publics.