President of the Ghana Publishers Association, Asare Konadu Yamoah has called on Ghanaians to cultivate the habit of reading as it is necessary to do so.
According to him, Ghana as a country unfortunately has not been able to keep up with the habit of reading due to educational and other structural reforms in the past years.
“…especially when there is structural adjustment, the focus of the government was to provide for the needs of those enrolled in agriculture leaving education and books aside. So you realize that in the 70’s and 80’s we had reading lessons particularly on the time table of schools, as we entered the 90’s where we did the educational reforms things changed. Ghana could therefore not attain that straight categorization of a reading country. We are still grappling with that.”
Speaking ahead of this year’s Ghana International Book Fair, Mr. Yeboah noted that reading helps to improve one’s lifestyle and as such should be given the needed attention.
He added that patronizing Ghanaian authors in the quest to attain a reading culture in the country is the way to go.
“We have very good Ghanaian writers and we should rather domesticate our reading. Those are some of the things that will encourage our children to understand that we can also make it.”
The book fair is scheduled for Thursday 26th of August, 2021 in Accra and will be on the theme: Ghana: A nation of readers for development.
Source: Lydia Sakyi Acquah/ATLFMNEWS
