04/03/2021
GHANA MUST READ
The sounding bell, meant to get people reading has taken on a louder intensity with wider oscillation such that almost all educational and non-educational institutions are coming up with programmes to emphasize the need for people to read.
Television and other media stations have also joined the move and have created room to accommodate programs that teach people how to read and write. A typical example is the learning to read, reading to learn program Hosted by Adjetey Annan (Pusher) on Kessben FM and other television channels designed by the Rebecca Foundation to curb the issue of poor reading habit among the Ghanaian populace; more especially the primary students and the youth within the age of 15 to 24 years.
Apparently, it does not surprise upper primary and JHS teachers anymore if their students cannot read or write well. Probably it is evident to them that these students might have not gone through the normal educational cycle or lack basic knowledge in reading, and since they cannot be repeated, they do the best they can and leave the rest for the future to determine their fate.
It can sometimes be very surprising to find SHS and university students who can neither read nor write well to communicate their thoughts, let alone talk about speaking good English.
I am a living testimony of that and if I should gist you a bit about my life in SHS you might laugh your teeth away. Because I couldn’t speak good English (though I could write), I always isolated myself from colleague students who were fluent in the language. I believe this is the attitude of most students who have issues with English. Consequently, my friends were those whose frequent language of communication was vernacular (more especially Ga). As a result, I lost my crush to my good friend who was a pro in the English language. In fact, the crush was mutual between the two of us but because I couldn’t speak good English (but she does), I hardly communicated with her. She communicated and spent more time with my friend than me, and eventually got attached to him.
The learning to read, reading to learn program which is an initiative of the Rebecca foundation is worth the applause of the heroes of Ghana and the world at large. Learning to read and write increases literacy rate, and with illiteracy rate on the falling side of the pendulum, productivity and development is inevitable. Thus, this program is not only helping solve the problem of communication hurdles but also to foster development in Ghana.
According to africalibrary, USAID, World bank and other sources, the literacy rate of most African countries is very low. Though there have been quite an encouraging improvement in recent years, there still more that needs to be done since development is defined by World Bank to capture attitude which is a product of education. It is then imperative to say development have a positive relationship with literacy rate or education. It is estimated that in sub-Saharan Africa, about 182 million adults are unable to read and write, 48 million youths within the age bracket of 15 to 24 are illiterate, and 30 million (22%) primary aged children are not in school (africalibrary).
This level of illiteracy rate partly explains the level of development in Africa since these people are resources that have not been rooted out and refined, hence are functioning below their capacity and are going to lie down idle in the near future. In their old age, they can’t be productive and will become a burden on their families.
Unlike other countries, where people in their retirement period are able to make contributions to productivity and national development like Colonel Sanders (the founder of KFC) who became more prosperous in his retirement because of the special recipe he discovered, in Africa, they rather become a burden on their family and society. If their family fail to take care of them, you will find them sitting by roadsides begging for alms.
Their inability to read causes them to be https://theissachargeneration.wordpress.com/2021/02/27/ghana-must-read/
