Parents urged to assist children to develop reading culture

Accra, Aug. 1, GNA - Madam Sera W. Kariuki of the USAID Partnership for Education (Innovating), has called on parents to complement the efforts of teachers by supporting their children at home to develop a culture of reading.

She said in doing so the parents would be helping to transform the lives of the children to perform better at school.

Madam Kariuki made the call in an interaction with the media as the USAID Partnership for Education prepares to launch an Innovating programme in Accra on Wednesday to support Ghanaian families and communities to inculcate the reading culture into children in the early grades of primary school.

She said the Innovating is a four-year activity being funded by USAID with a 10.4 million dollar grant.

Madam Kariuki said the programme would serve as a catalyst to support widespread public awareness on the importance of reading for the individual and national development, and the benefits of learning in the local language.

It would also promote public action to encourage good reading habits at home as a complement to classroom instruction.

She said the Innovating would work closely with the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service and would focus on the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Western, Volta, and the Northern regions.

Madam Kariuki said key activities to be rolled out include the conduct of local and national media campaigns to emphasise the value of reading, and share best practices which families could use to help improve reading.

They would work with community organisations and volunteers to build a strong network of early-grade reading champions; grow public-private partnerships, support home and community-based reading; and award grants to more than 800 communities to support early-grade reading activities.

She said other partners to play key roles in the activities of the Innovating were Education Development Centre Inc.; Participatory Development Associates, local media outlets, and businesses.

Mr George Kwasi Appiah, the Education Specialist, says the Innovating is a programme to urge parents to interact with their children when they come back from school.

He said encouraging children to read story books built their confidence and sharpen their intellect.

Mr Appiah expressed the hope that parents would cooperate with the Innovating to make the programme a success.

GNA