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Kwahu West District wins Eastern Regional Library Competition

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).

Date Created : 10/23/2018 8:01:51 AM : Story Author :

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