GILLBT’s Literacy, Education and Development (LEAD) Directorate promotes mother tongue and English reading and writing – as well as numeracy – among all people and faiths in Ghana. We also promote mother tongue education in formal schools. GILLBT LEAD has also been one of the Implementing Partners (IP) of the government’s Complementary Basic Education (CBE) programme for the past three years. Additionally, LEAD is involved in advocacy for quality basic education and is a member of a number of networks, e.g. Northern Network for Education Development (NNED), Complementary Basic Education Alliance (CBEA) and Alliance for Strengthening Education in Ghana (ASEG).

The LEAD Directorate is comprised of the following departments: Material Development, Literacy & Education, Gender & Women Empowerment, Research & Management Information Systems, and Community Development.

We endorse mother tongue literacy and education because it is recognised as the easiest way to gain reading and writing skills applicable to learning any other language. Since 1972, we have been carrying out successful, community-based literacy programmes – now in 34 language groups. GILLBT has also published over 500 titles for literacy in various Ghanaian languages. In recognition of this, GILLBT was awarded the Nesim Habif Prizes 1990-91 by UNESCO for distinguished work in the promotion of literature in African languages.

Our literacy, education and development work, coordinated from the GILLBT field office in Tamale, focuses on Ghana’s northern and central areas where poverty rates are highest and education levels lowest. The LEAD projects are grouped into four regions: Upper East, Volta, Brong Ahafo and Northeast but only two are currently functional. A Regional Coordinator for each serves to link the projects with the LEAD Directorate in Tamale, and with other projects within the region.

The local project committee (Central Literacy Committee) which makes decisions at project level, is composed of local interest groups, including churches, and other development organisations. Depending on size, projects may be divided into zones with a supervisor for project activities in each. Zones may be further divided according to villages where project staff are mainly volunteers.

Central to our project activities are literacy classes run by literacy teachers. They are local people who speak the target mother tongue language and receive regular training on how to facilitate learning, teach adults and promote income-generating activities. We also train formal school teachers to effectively teach mother tongue in the schools. LEAD’s community-based literacy projects are designed for integration into local life with an emphasis on the support and commitment of traditional authorities. And thus, are supportive of traditional social patterns. LEAD has a five phase exit strategy by which projects are supported and nurtured to become autonomous and self-sustaining and register as non-governmental organisations (NGOs). So far, the Bimoba, Konkomba, Dagbani, Kusaal, and Sisaala projects have attained NGO status.

“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right…. Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.” – Kofi Annan

Click on a map pointer to learn more about the project working happening in that location.  The pointers are color coded: blue are working on New Testament, purple have finished the New Testament and are working on Old Testament, and red have completed the Full Bible.

The Translation Department ensures that translators are adequately trained for the tasks of Bible translation. In view of this the department organizes training in Introductory Course in Translation Principles (ICTP) for new translators as well as other training courses for all translators. The department in consultation with translation consultants and translators organizes workshops on specific books in the Bible.Meeting with consultants to assign them to projects that have books that need to be consultant checked.