The Regional Director for West Africa for World Reader, Lesley Tettey has called for increased investment and advocacy aimed at creating a reading culture, particularly among children in Ghana.
According to him, the average school system must have reading at the core of its subjects and on the timetable of schools.
Speaking at an executive breakfast conversation with Worldreader and its partners as part of celebrations for International Literacy Day 2023, Tettey said enhanced reading and literacy have the potential to open up the world to children and therefore wants parents to create an enabling environment of reading culture for their children.
“For us at World Reader, we are trying to make books readily available on our digital platforms for children to read while working with telcos as part of their Social Corporate Responsibility to provide zero-rated downloading for some of these books,” he noted.
Leslie Tettey however called on the government to lend their support to Civil Society Organisations that are making giant strides to instill reading and literacy culture among Ghanaian children.
President of the Ghana Publishers Association, Asare Konadu Yamoah on his part emphasized for government intervention in building a reading culture amongst the citizenry and children in particular.
He stressed that children are the future leaders and therefore critical investment in their upbringing must be paramount.
“Reading and literacy is something you deliberately learn and although corporate organizations and CSOs like World Vision and World Reader may be doing their best, it may not be enough without the government’s support,“ Yamoah stated.
Meanwhile, National Director of World Vision Ghana, Laura Cristina Delvalle during her remarks highlighted that about 98 percent of grade 2 children in Ghana could not read while half of this number cannot identify a single letter sound.
According to her, a baseline survey conducted by World Vision Ghana in 2021 also found that only 3 percent of children in grade 2 can read with comprehension.
“When compared to the National Early Grade Assessment results, which found only 2% of grade 2 children who could read with comprehension, it leaves no doubt that a concerted effort is needed to eradicate child illiteracy,” Delvalle disclosed.
The World Vision Director said the organisation will continue to partner key stakeholders like World Reader, Pencils of Promise, the Complementary Education Agency, UNESCO, the government through the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders to improve child literacy and education outcomes.
Ghana’s leading digital news platform, GhanaWeb, in conjunction with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is embarking on an aggressive campaign which is geared towards ensuring that parliament passes comprehensive legislation to guide organ harvesting, organ donation, and organ transplantation in the country.
Vladimir Antwi-Danso speaks on Ghana's security in the face of recurring coups on The Lowdown on GhanaWeb TV with Etsey Atisu
You can also watch this episode of People & Places here:
You can also watch the latest episode of Everyday People on GhanaWeb TV below:
Watch the launch of the 2023 GhanaWeb Excellence Awards on GhanaWeb TV below:
The stakeholders and participants at the breakfast conversation
