Ghana to host fifth Reading Conference

Accra, July 12, GNA - Ghana will host a conference dubbed: "Pan - African Reading for All," aimed at rallying reading associations in Africa under one umbrella.

The conference on the theme: "Literacy for Human Liberation" to be organized by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport in collaboration with the Institute of Adult Education, University of Ghana, University of Education Winneba and other reading associations in Ghana is expected to attract about 800 participants across Africa and the Americas.

Mr Kwame Ampofo Twumasi, Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Sports at a press briefing on Thursday said the conference scheduled for August would focus on five main areas.

The areas are: Literacy for Education Development, Literacy for Political and Economic Emancipation, Literacy for Social and Health Liberation. Others are: Literacy for Gender Empowerment and Literacy for Adult Empowerment.

Mr Ampofo Twumasi expressed government's readiness to support any move that would enhance the reading skills of the populace. "Ghana has put in place measures to promote 'Education for All'. These include the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) and the capitation grant to encourage all children of school going age to be in the classroom."

The Deputy Minister said that literacy had become a key ingredient, which continued to shape the individual to contribute meaningfully to national development.

He said there was the need to help the adult population who were not so lucky to be in school through alternative choices using the National Functional Literacy Programme to acquire the skills of reading, writing and calculating.

As part of the programme a large group of conferees from Nigeria would be driving to Ghana by bus and would launch a campaign "Literacy on Wheels Across West Africa," Mr Ampofo Twumasi announced. He said there would also be press conferences in Nigeria, Benin and Togo to promote the conference and create awareness on the importance of literacy for ECOWAS as well as African citizens. In Ghana there would be a pre-conference leadership-training workshop to empower leaders of various participating organization from August 3-5, Mr Ampofo Twumasi said and urged Ghanaians to be enthusiastic about the conference.

Dr Daniel Oduro-Mensah, Deputy Director for the Institute of Adult Education said the institute had so far received over 300 hundred abstracts from people globally, but expressed concern about the limited number of abstracts that Ghanaians had presented. He therefore encouraged Ghanaians to make more presentation to make the country more proud as a host.

Explaining the theme of the conference, Dr Oduro-Mensah, said no education was useless, saying, "When you are educated, you are liberated."

He said there would be organized field trips as part of the conference to expose non-Ghanaian participants to the Ghanaian environment.

Dr Oduro-Menash called for support from publishers and printing houses to make the programme a success while urging publishers to publish books that would boost the interest of children in reading. He also appealed to various organizations for support to make the conference a success. 12 July 2007