At school we were made to digest Bacon’s essays. About reading and writing, Bacon wrote “Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.”
I have perhaps because of these early teachings placed great importance on reading. A few Ghanaians have realised the importance of reading, and some approached me to assist in establishing organisations to promote the reading habit.
Meanwhile, institutions which help reading have been neglected.
A school friend was an early Director of Library Services. My brother-in-law was next in command, while my sister was in charge of the children’s section of the library. I therefore visited the Aglionby Library regularly and found it rewarding.
I was surprised when after few years abroad, on a visit to Ho, I visited the library. It was in a bad state. The latest magazine was three years old. The library appeared to have received no new books for years. I discovered that the situation was similar in other regional libraries. Talks with those in charge of improving the library service met with very sympathetic response. But there was resignation about not doing something concrete because of the lack of money.
Since we tend to follow others in the disbursement of resources, and generally in running the economy, we should watch what is happening elsewhere. We should not blindly follow what is happening in the citadels of our “benefactors”.
A friend in London has pointed out to me libraries which have recently been renovated at great cost being closed. The main reason appeared to be to save money. Meanwhile, the newspapers were surprised about a reading crisis. The London Evening Standard of June 1 reported that “Thousands of 11 year olds start secondary school with a reading age of seven.”
The education minister agreed that children who cannot read are condemned to spend their entire life in “a prison house of ignorance.” He pledged to end the evil of illiteracy.
But we cannot end this evil when we are obsessed with costs. The demands of a healthy economy largely dominate all aspects of financial administration. We in Ghana cannot afford the stranglehold of the gurus of finance. The economy cannot prosper with an increasingly illiterate population.
There is general dissatisfaction with the quality of education in the country. Many school leavers and even a few university graduates cannot put their thoughts clearly on paper. They do not read widely and therefore cannot write well.
As Bacon wrote, “writing maketh an exact man”. We cannot express our thoughts clearly in speech or on paper. We, therefore, do not clearly reveal our thoughts and particularly as men and women, we appear to be half baked individuals. We expose ourselves as inexact men and women.
Now when did the reading habit and good writing decline? It is for our experts to find this out, as well as the necessary remedy.
I was lucky in my time to have collaborators who read and wrote. One of them was Ambassador Owusu-Ansah whose recent death is mourned by his colleagues.
The policies of the visionary Kwame Nkrumah could not have been implemented without men and women who could read and write. John Owusu-Ansah was indeed the Chief scribe of Osagyefo’s African Affairs Secretariat. He avidly read books and magazines on Africa and its future, and helped the secretariat with ideas on the way forward. He readily produced drafts to answer Nkrumah’s critics, or provide a new way forward.
He was later sent as High Commissioner to Sierra Leone. Thus began a distinguished diplomatic service which took him many countries as an ambassador. Ambassador Owusu-Ansah distinguished himself because his reading made him grow in full stature and his writing made him an exact man. We need people of the calibre of Owusu-Ansah as key ministers today. There are many young men and women waiting to follow in his steps. We cannot deny them the opportunity by not providing them with libraries and reading material.
We cannot allow the decline in reading, writing, and general education to continue on the grounds that the money we raise is best used directly on economic projects. The economy will not grow if Ghanaians cannot read and understand what is happening in the global village. Those who cannot read cannot embrace and operate the technology on which future economic prosperity depends.
By K.B Asante/Daily Graphic
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Feature: Reading maketh a full man