Students asked to read more books to improve scholarship

Koforidua, July 16, GNA- An Assistant Director of Education in-charge of Administration and Finance at the New Juaben Municipal Education Directorate, Mr Godfried Asamoah, has urged students to read more books to improve their English language skills. He cautioned that if reading habit was not inculcated in the young ones to enable them to spell words correctly, the English language, as a subject, would continue to experience many examination failures in the country.

Mr Asamoah made this observations at an award presentation ceremony for winners of school quiz and spelling Bee competitions organized by the Regional Library Board on Friday, at Koforidua. He noted that most often, failures in the English language examinations were due to wrong spellings of words, which gave different meanings to sentences.

Mr Asamoah mentioned sign writers as a group who mess up with the spelling of words thereby making words and meanings difficult for people to understand, adding, "it is disheartening when you see wrong spellings on signboards on the roadsides belonging to big organizations yet they raised no objections and those mistakes were displayed."

He, therefore, urged students to patronize their school and community libraries to improve upon their spelling abilities. The Acting Eastern Regional Librarian, Mr Oscar Zando, noted with concern that students in both the primary and JSS schools performed poorly in the English segment of the competition, hence the need to encourage school children to read at libraries. Mr Zando suggested that library periods on school timetables must be taken seriously and the periods utilized in the best interest of the pupils so that reading habits would be inculcated in them as part of measures to address the poor performance of pupils in the English language.

He said libraries were not getting the necessary support and funding to expand their service despite the important role they played in education and appealed for an increase in government's budgetary allocation to libraries, especially, the Ghana Library Board, to bring about the necessary change in the English language usage. The Eastern Regional Director of Education, Mrs. Ewurabena Ahwoi, appealed to teachers to read themselves to impact on the enthusiasm of the children to cultivate reading habits.

She said reading, not books alone, but every inscription they came across, was the best way to learn how to spell words correctly and thanked the Board for the programme. Mrs Ahwoi promised the Directorates' support towards the organization of the programme throughout the region. The participating schools in the competition included Wesley Methodist Primary, Fr. Lemmens School, Nana Kwaku Boateng and SDA Primary Schools in the primary category.

Others were the Oyoko Presby, SDA JSS, Jumapo Anglican, Suhyen L/A and the Salvation Army in the JSS category. July 16, 05