The Ghana Education Service in the Kwahu Afram Plains North District in collaboration with UNICEF held a reading festival for basic schools in the district today Wednesday, 19th September 2018.
The programme was organised on the theme “Your future, just a book away”, to help inculcate the habit of reading in the pupils.
[ads1]Speaking at the programme, the District Director of Education, Mr. Joseph Bebaako said the programme was necessary because reading and comprehension has been identified as problem among basic schools in the country.
“Reading and comprehension has been a very serious challenge in all schools in the country. Therefore, in other to cultivate the habit of reading in the pupils, we decided to organise this reading festival. We believe this will serve as a firm foundation for a better future for our pupils”, he said.
On the performance of the pupils, the Director stated that they did very well and it’s a good start.
“Their performance today is encouraging. Considering their stage and the fluency level, I will say they have really done a good job”, he added.
Speaking with a cross section of the teachers present, they said they were impressed about the performance of the pupils.
” We are impressed about their performance today. We believe this will change the way things are seen in our district”, they said.
Asked why parents were not present at the festival, they blamed the organisers of the festival.
“We will blame the organiser for the poor attendance of the parents. Even we as schools were informed lately and we believe parents were not given enough information concerning the programme”, they told Joshua Tettey in an interview.
The students on the other hand expressed their profound gratitude to the organisers and look forward for more of such programmes.
” We are very grateful to the organisers of this programme. We believe it’s a good start and we promise to make good use of it. We will however ask that, this should not be the last one but should come frequently”, they said.
The programme saw pupils of Basic 1 to Basic 3 from selected schools such as St. Micheal R/C Primary, Agortime R/C Primary, Nana Baadu D/A Primary, Adukrom R/C Primary School, Atakora D/A Primary School and Kofi Yeboah Memorial D/A Primary showcasing their reading skills.
Nana Akuamoah Boateng Tano the second, who served as the guest of honor at the programme pleaded with parents to take keen interest in the academic affairs of their wards.
“I am highly disappointed in parents. I don’t see any reason for which they will decide not to attend a programme such as this. I would plead with them to take keen interest in their wards education for a better future of our mother land”, he said.
#talesfromPlains by Joshua Tettey. 0209534579
