The Ghana Education Service Directorate in the Anloga District of the Volta Region in collaboration with USAID and Right to Play (NGO) has taken strides to enhance education among basic schools through a reading festival dubbed “Read to Learn, Learn to Read”.
The students who come from the Dzita-Anyanui, Anloga, Tegbi-Woe, Srongboe-Kome, Shime, and Atokor circuits respectively in the district, were carefully selected to compete in Poetry recitals, Spelling Bee, reading and comprehension as well as Pick and Act competitions to represent the district in the upcoming regional contest.
Present at the reading festival were the District Chief Executive, the District Education Director, members of the Parents and Teachers Association from the various schools, Chiefs and Elders together with some Religious leaders in the district.
The District Chief Executive Hon. Seth Yormewu in his address encouraged the students to always engage themselves in the reading of books to boost their confidence and ability to understand and know new words.
He also called on them to make good use of the library facility in the district, adding that measures are in place to uphold the mobile library agenda which is initiated by the Ghana Library Authority.
Mr. Yormewu however appealed to parents to always support their wards in reading and learning so that the Anloga district will excel in academic activities in the country.
He lauded the efforts of District Education Director Yvonne Akpene Ame-Bruce for soliciting funds to organize the festival.
Torgbi Avege III of Anloga who doubles as the chairperson of the reading festival reiterated the commitment put up by the Education Director for initiating the project which is poised to enhance education across the country.
He stated that this initiative serves as a call on all traditional leaders in the district and beyond to play fundamental roles in encouraging reading and learning in schools.
Madam Akpene Yvonne Ame-Bruce took turns to reveal that it is necessary to promote reading and learning to create an enriched and outstanding future for the students in the Anloga district.
She explained that if the students are encouraged to read always, they will be confident and able to compete with other students in and outside the country.
She thus indicated that her office will give the necessary support to all the teachers in the district to enable them to work assiduously towards improving the educational standards of the students.
Madam Ame-Bruce added that she is hopeful that her district will outdo the upcoming regional contest to emerge the winner.
She however expressed gratitude to the DCE Mr. Yormewu, member of parliament for the Anlo constituency Hon Richard Sepe and other institutions who supported the reading festival, adding that their contributions have played an intrinsic role in the organization of the festival.
In an exclusive interview with some parents, they disclosed that this year’s reading festival had created awareness in them to invest more in their children’s education.
Some contesting students also told Sandcityradioonline.com that they were enthused after partaking in the competition and urging the education directorate to often organize reading programs for them.
Awards such as reading books and other educational materials were presented to each contestant as the Shime circuit was declared the winner of the competition and will represent the Anloga district in the regional contest in August this year.
Story By: Kekeli K. Blamey
