The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ghana Education Service (GES) for the Ga Central Municipality, Rev. Mrs Failila Osman-Kodom has called on parents to inculcate the habit of reading into their children, especially at the lower level.
She said early child’s reading helps to improve the understanding of the English language and broadens the knowledge in the environment.
Rev. Mrs Osman-Kodom disclosed this at the 2nd graduation ceremony of Harmony Community School at Sowutoum over the weekend which was held on the theme “Inculcating reading in children; The role of parents in the 21st century education.”
The ceremony saw 16 children made up of nine females and seven females each graduating from kindergarten to class one.
The Municipal GES PRO said, though teachers had the responsibility to ensure reading habit in children for which reason they have been brought to school, parents had a bigger role to play in the child’s development.
She said parental encouragement and support for learning activities at home combined with parental involvement in schooling was critical to children’s education.
“They enlarge parental and community capacity and create a condition in which children learn more effectively,” she added.
She stated that, early childhood professionals have the opportunity to build relationships that could positively impact children and their families for a lifetime.
“Strong relationships with families promote family wellbeing, positive parent-child relationship and the ongoing learning and development of children and parents,” she said.
She encouraged parents to expose their children to the ‘magical world of books’ to enable them develop good reading habit much before they start reading.
The Chief Executive Officer of the school, Dr Emmanuel Adofo said the school would continue to provide the facilities and the enabling environment for the children to learn and develop in the right way saying “but we also need the parents to play their part.”
“The school will provide very resourced library for the children to help them learn and read adequately and we the parents are to encourage them to make reading a habit and not an event.
We know how the economy has made things so difficult but we cannot give up on the education of our children. Let us work hard and keep hope alive for a better future for our children,” Mr Adofo added.
The headmaster, Mr Kingsley Amankwah proposed that education in the 21st century must change the narrative where acquisition of information in the olden days were done through story telling which had hitherto, dragged the African child behind the world in the quest for true education.
He stated however that, for the story to change, it would need a direct and deliberate role of parents to make the change a success.
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR
