Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI), Ireland’s leading network of responsible businesses, has developed a number of programmes that help to address educational disadvantage. In particular, they have two very powerful programmes that connect companies and their staff to local primary schools, supporting teachers and pupils from disadvantaged schools in the areas of literacy and numeracy.
You’ll be aware that Ireland urgently needs to improve literacy and numeracy skills, particularly for disadvantaged and vulnerable children who have fallen behind this past 18 months as schools closed and reopened a number of times due to COVID. You, in lending support to a local DEIS school, can have a very powerful impact on the educational and career outcomes of disadvantaged children. A recent statement from the Joint Committee on Education noted “The evidence strongly demonstrates that additional supports to disadvantaged and vulnerable students can be transformative in terms of educational outcomes and life chances”.
Time to Read is their literacy programme where volunteers from companies spend one hour a week for 16-20 weeks helping children who struggle with reading to become confident, fluent readers. The concept is similar for Time to Count – volunteers take part in fun, interactive games for one hour a week over 10 weeks, helping children to enjoy numbers and become confident with them. BITCI provides full support for both these programmes in terms of administration, materials and training to minimise any workload for companies. There is a modest financial outlay of €3,100 to cover the running costs of the programme, which is tax deductible.
We are hoping members of LIA will participate in this worthwhile and rewarding initiative. If this is of interest please contact Pauline McKiernan directly at pmckiernan@bitc.ie, or if you are a small company who wouldn't perhaps have the resources to be able to commit to the 16-20 weeks, LIA would be happy to connect you with other interested companies in a similar situation. Click the button below to contact us.
