The Ghana Education Service (GES) says it is poised to enforce directives for all schools in the country to introduce daily reading periods on their academic time tables.
According to the Service, the ‘reading hour’ to be added to the 2014 / 20 15 academic curriculum for basic schools beginning this term is to help improve the standards of education in the country.
The state of the reading habits in the country, especially with students in government assisted public schools, is at its lowest ebb seriously affecting the ability of students to rightly apprehend subjects thought in school.
An “Early Grade Reading Assessment” conducted by the GES has revealed that a woeful 98% of pupils in primary two could neither read nor understand English.
Also over seven thousand candidates who sat for the 2014 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), failed in all subjects.
The country’s education at all levels is said to be below international standards by the World Economic Forum (WEF) lending added credence to abysmal education standards in the country.
Speaking to ultimate radio, Acting Director of the GES, Charles Tsegah stated that the service believes the reading hour will ignite the reading habits of students.
He noted that the practice existed in the past but had gradually faded away because it wasn’t harmonized and enforced.
He however expressed strongly that this time round, “we are going to make it a uniform practice in all timetables throughout the country.”
“Ultimately, we will be addressing the challenge of children getting direct access to reading materials and spending time to really do the reading. It will also enable us to tackle some of the challenges we are having in terms of building a culture of reading. It will also help in addressing some of the challenges that the children have in terms of reading,” he tutored on.
Charles Tsegah further encouraged parents to help in this new focus of the GES to help bring to appreciable levels, the reading skills of school pupils to “ultimately see a shift in performance and response to reading by children throughout the educational system”.
He stressed that this was just one of the most profound ways people could significantly contribute their quota to the development of the nation.
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