BIC’s Creative Handwriting Program supports penmanship for over 35,000 kenyan students
BIC, a world leader in stationery, and a champion in encouraging students to develop a love for handwriting for over 70 years, celebrated the conclusion of the third edition of the My Words, My Story, My BIC Pen handwriting initiative.
The celebration event took place at the Racecourse Primary School in Pangani, Nairobi.
The creative writing program helps students improve their handwriting skills and transition from graphite pencils to ballpoint pens.
My Words, My Story, My BIC Pen was created in response to a finding that poor handwriting often attracts a negative stigma, which can affect a child’s growth and development in the writing space.
This year’s celebration marked the successful completion of a 26-day course in 30 Kenyan primary schools, with over 10,000 students and teachers taking part.
Participating students wrote a creative story using BIC pens to become more comfortable with the feel and movement
of a ballpoint.
Students then presented their stories to their teachers, parents, and the Teachers
Service Commission (TSC) in Kenya.
To commemorate the program, students received a special BIC Pen License presented to them by their teachers.
Commenting on the occasion, Salome Ngugi, Marketing Manager at BIC, said: “When we first launched this initiative three years ago, our aim was to put a pen in each child’s hand and to impact the quality of their education. Today, and following the success we’ve seen with over 100 primary schools over the past few years, we hope to further expand the program making it nation-wide, in collaboration with the persistent and dedicated team of teachers and
partners.”
BIC provided teachers with training courses throughout the year to help them manage and run the program in the selected schools. BIC has also provided the teachers and the schools with the necessary writing tools and materials to run the program effectively.
Praising the partnership with BIC, Ruth Wangu, teacher in charge of the program at Racecourse Primary School, said “It has been a very exciting and good experience. Students usually start handwriting using pens in grade six, we started engaging them from grade four with the program and it’s been successful. As a teacher, being able to read students’ handwriting is invaluable, and enhancing the overall learning experience for both students and teachers.
We are appreciative of the program BIC is running across schools as well as for the writing tools and books distributed to students which improve the students’ learning experience.”
Ann Gitiiri, a nine-year old in grade four at Racecourse Primary School said: “Using the BIC pen has allowed me to learn many new things and has helped me improve my handwriting.”
Ten-year-old Asma Mohammed, a grade five student, said: “I felt appreciated when I was given the certificate. I was shown ways on how to write neatly, and my handwriting has improved.”
Ten-year-old Isaac Wangai, participating student from the Special Needs department at Racecourse Primary learning through sign language, was ecstatic to receive his certificate and said:
“We have all worked really hard in the past weeks. I am happy to have learnt to write using a pen and to see my handwriting become much better than it previously was.”
My Words, My Story, My BIC Pen is in its third edition. The initiative stems from BIC’s commitment to improve learning conditions for 250 million students by the year 2025.
To date, the initiative has reached 35,000 students. By the end of 2022, the global total for the company was 187 million cumulative. This education commitment is one of the five commitments made by BIC as part of the Writing the Future Together sustainable development program launched by BIC in 2018.
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