The Upper Denkyira West District Education Director, Madam Rose Tenkorang, has expressed concern about the growing popularity of television soap operas with school children and the amount of time they spend watching these.

She said this should give everybody, who genuinely wanted to see improvement in academic performance cause to worry.

Instead of the children spending time on their books, many of them in the district, are often seen glued to the TV in the evening watching “Kumkum Bhagya”.

She was speaking at the district reading festival held at Diaso to encourage school children to take to reading.

Madam Tenkorang said helping students to adopt the reading habit was the way forward to ensure strong academic performance.

She reminded parents not to allow the pressure of work to prevent them from spending quality time with their children and to properly supervise them to do their homework.

It was not enough to put them in school but to make sure that they gave them every necessary support and encouragement to work hard on their books.

Mr. Eugene Asamoah, the District Training Officer and Co-ordinator for the Reading Festival, urged teachers to do more to assist school children to improve their reading skills.