As part of efforts to arrest the dwindling academic standards of basic schools in the Volta region, the regional directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES) has introduced a reading project dubbed ‘Volta Read’ in all public basic schools.

The project, which is in collaboration with some non-governmental organizations including the Rotary club of Ho, is aimed at getting school children develop good reading habits to enhance their learning.

Acting regional director of the Ghana Education Service, Mr. Alexander Mawusi Buadi who disclosed this to Starr News’ correspondent, Lambert Atsivor, said the NGOs are providing supplementary reading materials to the schools.

The authorities and teachers are to allocate time periods where pupils are mandated to read a book at their pace.

“We’ve realized that, most of our pupils are not able to read and if you’re not able to read, then you cannot learn. So we’ve come up with this project, ‘Volta read’ with support from some NGOs.”

“With this, we’re asking all schools to use their silence periods every day to engage the pupils in reading a passage and once they have developed the habit of reading, they will be able to read and comprehend any material available to them.”

Mr. Buadi who visited some schools in the company of the deputy Volta regional minister, Mr. Francis Ganyaglo to welcome fresh pupils into the basic school system on Tuesday, also indicated the preparedness of his outfit to implement the national language policy in all the schools under the Accelerated Literacy programme.

The programme, he said will ensure the teaching of children at the pre and lower primary levels in their mother language.

“Research has shown that Children are able to learn better when they are taught in their mother tongue in their early stage. So with the support of USAID, our KG to P3 have been trained on the rudiments of teaching at that level and we are looking forward to a successful implementation of the project in the region,” he emphasized.