Kwahu West District wins Eastern Regional Library Competition

By
Bertha Badu-Agyei/Ben Akoto/Naa Shormei Odonkor

Koforidua (E/R), Oct.
22, GNA – The Kwahu West District, represented by Ms Martha Lola Frimpong and
Lydia Akoto Bamfo of St Anthony and Nkawkaw Presbyterian JHS respectively, has
won this year’s edition of the Eastern Regional Reading and Spelling
Competition, organized by the Ghana Library Authority (GHLA).

In a keenly contested
competition, Kwahu West beat eight other districts with 60 points to become the
winners followed by Akuapem North District represented by Jessica Kumi Larbi
and Nhyira Asiama Kumi, both of the Presbyterian College of Education (PCE)
Demonstration JHS with 55 points and the Okere District represented by Ruth
Odei and Jessica Awuah Mantey both of the Abiriw Presbyterian JHS with 50
points.

The first and second
winners therefore, would represent the Eastern Region at the national level
next year. With the exception of two of the contesting districts that presented
boys, all the others were represented by girls.

The Executive Director
of the GHLA, Mr Hayford Siaw, said the reading and spelling competition was
part of a strategy to improve the reading habit among schoolchildren as well as
reduce the high level of illiteracy in the country.

He said there was a
correlation between higher education and higher economic development and that
libraries contributed heavily in developing the habit of reading and that plans
were advanced to increase the number of libraries in Ghana significantly by the
year 2020.

According to him,
Libraries were integral part of education, however over the years interest in
them had waned, disclosing that in 1980 all the Libraries put together in Ghana
had about one million stocks of books on their shelves, but in 2018 that had
reduced to just 500,000 books across country over.

The Executive Director
hinted that the First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo was billed to construct 20
libraries to bridge the deficit gap by 2020, adding that the project would be
unveiled very soon.

Reverend Alex Koranteng,
the Regional Training Officer of the Ghana Education Service (GES), said
statistics from a recent research showed that only two per cent of pupils in
primary schools in Ghana could read with fluency and understanding.

He said in order to address
that problem there was the need for libraries to be establish in all schools
and in communities to give access to children to read widely and called on
schools to observe the library periods on the timetables to improve on pupils
reading and spelling.

GNA

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