The La Dadekotopon Municipal Education Directorate, in collaboration with the Municipal Assembly, has held the 2022 Reading Festival, at Labone Senior High School, in Accra.
The event, the first of its kind in the municipality, was organised on the theme: “learn to read, read to learn,” to revive and boost the reading culture of children, which formed the basis for gaining knowledge and understanding in all subjects.
Six participating basic schools: Adobetor, Adjetey, Airport Rangoon, Arakan, Emmaus and Manledada, competed in fast reading, pick and read and mother and child.
A Technical Advisor to T-TEL Learning Assessment, Dr John Annang, urged community leaders and educational authorities to provide learning resources, such as libraries and reading materials, for children.
He said, “if by age 10, every Ghanaian child is able to read, it would augur well for our education in the present and foreseeable future.”
Mr Annang called on teachers to come up with innovative practices to boost reading interest and habits of children.
He stressed that, “heads and teachers should devise innovative ways to help children acquire and improve reading habits”, adding that reading was indispensable to the future of children.
“We all have a part to play to incorporate some reading activities in the learning of children at all times to promote their academic well -being, ” Mr Annang said.
The Municipal Education Director, Mrs Habiba Kotoma, noted that students and learners have developed intense interest in TV programmes and social media rather than reading.
She said this attracted the attention of various “education watchers and partners such as ‘USAID learning’, which saw the need to support GES in early reading programmes since 2014, with the latest being Transition to English Plus (T2E plus).”
Mrs Kotoma said the directorate together with the assembly has adopted the festival as a yearly event with activities lined up, including fun reading in Ga, Twi and English.
The Municipal Chief Executive of the La Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly, Rev. Solomon Nikoi Quartey, reminded parents that they have a key role to play in the academic development of their children.
“It is sad to note that some parents have totally neglected the upbringing of their children which continues to have a toll on their children’s education, ” he noted.
The internet and smart phones, Mr Quartey said, “have caught and overshadowed the interest of children in reading,” and that the festival would address the challenge.
He said though the internet played a key role in the learning of children, it should not be completely used as a substitute for their books.
They participating schools received educational materials and packets of indomie.
