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Some of the books that would be read by the school children today
Some of the books that would be read by the school children today

Afram Publications organises Reading Clinic today

About 200 children from nine basic schools in the Accra Metropolis will today converge on the Mmofra Children’s Park at Dzorwulu in Accra to participate in this year’s Afram Reading Clinic in the local languages and in French.

The clinic, the fourth in the series, is dubbed, “Local language and French Day”.

The reading clinic will make available interesting books in the mother tongue and French to encourage reading and learning. It is on the theme: ‘’Reading to Empower Minds.’’

Research has increasingly shown that learning to read in one’s local language early in school helps to reduce drop-out rates and makes education more engaging, meaningful and enjoyable for children.

In 2010 and 2013, for instance, the Ghana Education Service (GES) conducted an early grade reading assessment and the results showed that by the end of Primary Two, most public school pupils could not read a text in any Ghanaian language or in English.

The findings revealed that 64 per cent were unable to read a single word of a story and 33 per cent could read some words but could not understand what they read.

The research said only one per cent were able to read fluently.

The research also showed that seven out of 10 Ghanaian children in Primary Three could barely read and write, although they should be able to.

Reading in the local language

It is as a result of these findings that the Children’s Literature Foundation has over the past three years organised the reading clinic under the aegis of the Afram Publications, Ghana’s major publishing company to help children to learn to read, especially in the local language.

The facilitator of the reading clinic, Mrs Ohui Allotey,noted that being able to read in the local languages came with many benefits and advantages, especially for children.

Benefits of the local language and French

She enumerated some of the benefits to include an opportunity to help children learn the English language quicker at school.

Mrs Allotey explained that a good knowledge in the local language facilitated learning of another foreign language such as French.

“We are surrounded by Togo, Cote d’ Ivoire and Burkina Faso, all French-speaking countries, hence our decision to include French as part of the reading clinic,” she explained.

She said knowledge of the French language would help the children to be bilingual and multilingual, thereby giving them a good start on the labour market.

Mrs Allotey said the local language “helps children make the transition to a new environment by remaining grounded and confident in their own cultural identity and also maintains closer ties with their family.”

UNESCO on mother language

Mrs Allotey recalled that the UNESCO celebrated the International Mother Language Day on February 21, 2017 on the theme: “Towards Sustainable Futures through Multilingual Education.”
She said on that day, the UNESCO Director-General, Madam Irina Bokova, launched an appeal for the potential of multilingual education to be acknowledged everywhere, in education and administrative systems, in cultural expressions, as well as the media cyberspace and trade.

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