Adopt strategies to improve creative writing among school children-Koomson

Sekondi(W/R), May 18,GNA-President of the Western Regional Ghana Association of Teachers of English (GATE), Nana Ebo Koomson says in spite of the evolution of modern communication technology, writing still remains the norm of language development.

He therefore urged the Ghana Eduaction Service(GES) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) to adopt pragmatic steps to ensure that school children are imbued with writing skills to improve the falling standard of the English Language in the country.

Nana Koomson, who doubles as the Head of Languages Department of the Sekondi Methodist Secondary School, raised these concerns in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Sekondi in the Western Region.

He said, to boost writing in the country, creative writing should form an essential component of the extra-curricular activities in schools.

Nana Koomson recalled that hitherto school children mustered the art of writing letters to penpals, friends and distant relatives which was a potential to enhance their linguistic competence.

He therefore stressed the need for possible avenues to run school magazines and news letters to expose the hidden creativity of students.

The President observed that spelling mistakes is the bane of the poor standard of the English Language in the country adding that constant writing is the only way out.

Nana Koomson maintained that International Organizations such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) publish writing competitions every three months for people to market their writing skills and advised Ghana to organize similar writing camps and competitions to sharpen the writing skills among school children.

He however, reminded the Ghana Book Trust and the VALCO Literary Fund which used to serve as motivation for writers especially young ones,to be revisited to boost the morale of writing in the country.

GNA