Keta MP launches reading competition for pupils

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Keta, Mr Richard Quarshigah, has launched a quiz and reading competition for basic school pupils in the Keta Municipality.

The competition is to inculcate the habit of reading in the pupils in a bid to halt the decline in educational standards in the area.

The quiz is being held on "The Cockcrow", a collection of short stories, drama and poems put together at the instance of the MP.

Successful participants in the competition and their teachers will be hosted at Aqua Safari, a holiday resort, for three days, as part of their prizes.

The teachers will also receive cash rewards and computers.

Launching the competition, Mr Quarshigah said reading was the fulcrum around which all academic work evolved; therefore, it was important that children were encouraged to read.

He lamented the poor academic performance of the pupils in the constituency, especially in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in recent times and urged them to study hard to reverse the trend.

"We in the Volta Region do not have mining concessions or cocoa farms. Education is our only strength or the only thing we can rely on to succeed," he said.

Poor performance

The Keta Municipal Director of Education, Mr Raphael Kwashie, said the poor performance of pupils in the BECE stemmed partly from the fact that they were unable to read and understand the questions during the examinations.

He said in the 2014 BECE examinations, the Keta Municipality placed 13 out of 25 in the rankings and added that all forces needed to be marshalled to ensure better performance in the years ahead.

"As a directorate, any effort that will facilitate the process of teaching and learning and lead to an improvement in our learning process is welcome," he said.

A retired nurse and native of Keta, Mrs Gladys Seshie Kwami, said it was only when students read that they would understand what was being taught.

Mrs Kwami, who donated some books in support of the MP’s reading programme, also stressed the importance of education and said Keta needed to once again become the citadel of knowledge that it used to be.