Accra-Ghana, April 27, GNA – Madam Mary Dagbah, National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) Director for Ga Central Municipality, has called on parents to encourage their wards to read at home.
She said most children when at home spent so much time on phones and video games, which prevented them from reading books, depriving them of the immense knowledge and enrichment of vocabulary that reading offered.
Madam Dagbah made these remarks at the Ga Central Municipality NCCE reading sensitisation drive at Ablekuma, Accra.
The event formed part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Accra World Book Capital 2023 programme.
The Accra World Book Capital 2023 programme seeks to raise public awareness around books, reading and literature from April 23, 2023 to April 22, 2024.
The World Book Capital is an initiative of UNESCO adopted in 2001 which designates cities to carry out activities to promote books and foster reading during a 12-month period.
Madam Dagbah said parents had the foremost role to play in the education of their wards, hence they needed to ensure that their wards where not led astray by social gadgets at home.
“Parents themselves also need to adopt the habit of reading so that their children can learn from them,” she added.
Mr Mohammed Bashiru Kamara, Municipal Chief Executive of Ga Central Municipality, said they would institute an awards scheme for best student readers in the Municipality.
He said they would urge local schools to allot periods in their timetable, particularly their first periods, for reading to revive reading habits in students.
However, the event saw people, both young and old, troop to the NCCE reading sensitisation booth to read books and receive advice on reading.
The event would be carried out by the NCCE in other electoral areas of the Municipality, as well as other regions throughout the 12-month period of the Accra World Book Capital programme.
