On Stage

Twenty five year old Sam van Tol from Rotterdam in the Netherlands travels the world in his battle against illiteracy. With his company Correctbook he aims to give children in developing countries access to re-writable notebooks. These notebooks and accessories, are sold by Correctbook in Europe. Especially the customized books are being bought on a big scale by different companies. Part of the profit is used to introduce these same kind of notebooks to different African countries. To everyone’s surprise Correctbook won the award for “promotion gift of the year” for the third year in a row!

How Correctbook started.

When Sam was on holidays in South Africa he was confronted with the causes of illiteracy. In the schools he visited, the children hardly had access to a decent pen or a clean piece of paper. Back home

Sam van Tol went on a holiday to South Africa during his time as a Strategic Entrepreneurship student, three years ago. ´´In Africa, I was confronted with the biggest flaw in the South African educational system: illiteracy. The problem immediately drew my attention. Even in poorer countries, there are investments made in schools and education. However, there is lack of school materials on structural basis. Writing without paper is not ideal. Full of inspiration I returned to The Netherlands, with the purpose to find a solution for maybe the most underestimated problem in the world!’’

250 million children

More than 250 million children never learn how to read and write, because of a lack of school materials. These children go to school, attend lessons, but do not possess any school materials. The development of these children is jeopardised. This problem deserves more attention. Especially given the fact that globally  1 billion children

Last thursday the jury announced the winner of 'Best starter of the city Rotterdam'. This was taking place during the award ceremony in The Suicide Club, following the inspiration-event Groot Handelsgebouw Open. Like the title already reveals: we won! We will receive a free furnished office space in the Groot Handelsgebouw plus coaching. In the finals we were up against CamHatch Netherlands B.V., StoredEnergy and Hi Marry. 

In march 2016 Correctbook has been nominated for the title Rising Star by Shell and the Chamber of Commerce. A competition for the most innovative start up companies (1 to 5 years). Correctbook has made it to the last 5 and very proud. We believe that innovation in the business model key is for companies of this time.

Look at the video that was used to inform the jury and the public about the social concept Correctbook.