Library for Nasarawa community at Dansoman
The Alpha Beta Charitable Trust (ACT), a social responsibility wing of the Alpha Beta School, has inaugurated an 80-capacity ultramodern community library, valued at GH¢400,000 for the Nasarawa community at Dansoman.
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The library will be opened for use at no cost for basic school pupils in the Dansoman area, and also serve as a centre for adult literacy programme, which would be operated during school hours with the aim of promoting functional literacy among the uneducated adults.
Inauguration
Speaking at a grand ceremony to inaugurate the facility that attracted traditional rulers from the area, the Member of Parliament for the Ablekuma West Constituency, Mrs Ursula Owusu- Ekuful, representatives from the Ghana Education Service (GES), and the Alpha Beta school authorities, the Principal of the school, Mrs Florence Adjepong, urged parents to support their children to make good use of the facility and to build on their knowledge.
“Reading is the best way to acquire knowledge in order to be empowered. It is in the light of this that we need to encourage the setting up of more community libraries so that the younger generation will develop healthy reading habits,” she said.
She said it was important for corporate institutions and philanthropists to take up the mantle of initiating library projects, since it was not possible for the government alone to do everything.
For her part, Mrs Owusu Ekuful, who contributed in cash and in kind for the establishment of the facility, urged corporate bodies and individuals to donate relevant books to stock it.
She said reading was what made good leaders and individuals accomplish their goals to make valuable contributions to promote national development.
The Operations Manager of the Alpha Beta School, Dr Naomi Adjepong, said the ACT community library project was being extended to other parts of the country with the focus of building a reading generation of young people.
She said it took resilience and deliberate efforts by government and all stakeholders to put in place the required infrastructure and structures that would ignite the spirit of reading in the country.
Background
The Ghana Library Authority (GLA) has advocated the prioritisation of community libraries to address the dwindling culture of reading, since concerns have been raised by many authorities and individuals over the situation, especially among the youth in the country.
Many people have attributed the trend to the influx of social media and their use by the younger generation at the expense of their books.
The inadequate community libraries in most parts of the country has also been cited among the key reasons for the poor reading habits which has negatively affected the performance of students in examinations.