Junior Graphic National Essay Competition launched
The Director, Marketing and Sales, of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Franklin Sowa, has pointed out to children that the future of this country is in their hands so they should prepare themselves for the leadership roles ahead.
He reminded them that there were no short cuts in life, so they should focus and aim at adding value to themselves daily by reading newspapers such as the Junior Graphic.
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“You have an identity and that identity must be protected. As children who are learning, make sure your sources of information are well grounded sources that you can trust,” he said.
Mr Sowa gave the advice at the launch of the 2021 Junior Graphic National Essay Competition which took place in Accra.
He gave children an assurance that Junior Graphic was a partner they could trust to provide them with information about anything that was relevant.
“Whatever your motivations are, this brand is a partner to help you achieve that. We are offering this platform for you to share your expectations and needs,” he stated.
On the essay competition, he said it would be on the theme, “ “Improve your creativity through reading and writing,” and is targeted at upper primary and junior high school pupils.
He said they should exhibit creativity in their work on whatever topic they would be given, adding that creativity in solving the problem is what would make them stand out.
Some of the people who were present at the launch of the 2021 Junior Graphic National Essay Competition
Mr Sowa asked parents to keep their children in the Junior Graphic family because “the more they read the newspaper, the better they become.”
Throwing more light on this year’s competition, the Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Kobby Asmah, said it would be in three phases - the first phase would be at the district level, the second phase at the regional level while the third phase would be at the national level.
He said the topics would be on a range of issues including the COVID-19 pandemic, sanitation and education.
He gave the assurance that there would be attractive prizes for winners at every phase of the competition.
On how the competition started, Mr Asmah, who is also the Editor of the Daily Graphic, said the Junior Graphic noticed over the years that the articles received from the children were poorly written.
“They contained spelling mistakes. The children were not creative in their writing, especially the short stories. They plagiarised the works of others and there was no coherence in their story telling,” he pointed out.
To help children sharpen their writing skills, he explained, the GCGL, publishers of the Junior Graphic, decided to organise the competition to among others assist them to learn how to write essays correctly, improve on their grammar and help them to perform well in their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
The Editor of the Junior Graphic, Ms Kate Baaba Hudson, said the competition would run from now till September.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, launched the competition and commended the GCGL for it.
He pointed out that it was a perfect avenue to teach Ghanaian students that they were capable of achieving anything they set their minds to, regardless of their geographical location.
He encouraged corporate institutions to initiate and support literacy promotion activities for Ghanaian students and the nation at large.
For his part, the Business Development Manager, Ghana and Central Africa of BiC, Mr George Nkonsah, encouraged more schoolchildren to participate in the competition.
The 2021 Junior Graphic National Essay Competition is sponsored by the Sustainable Development Goals, BiC and Twellium.