By Peter Agengre
The Nabdam District Education Directorate in the Upper East Region has held a reading festival for pupils in five circuits in the Nabdam area.
The reading festival aims to bolster reading proficiency and foster a culture of literacy from an early age and carve a pathway for the kids into the world.
The reading festival is a concerted effort to enhance literacy among basic school pupils in the Nabdam area and in the Upper East Region.
The schools were grouped into five circuits. They include Nangodi East, Zoliba South, Sekoti, Nangodi West and Zoliba North. Basic one battled it out in six rounds after which Zoliba North came first at the end of the competition.
In the Basic two category, Zoliba south will represent the directorate for the regional contest. Basic three went through the none-word reading, familiar word reading and oral reading passage one, among others.
In this category, Sekoti circuit came top and would be representing the District to face their counterparts at the Regional contest. One of the judges, Alfred Awuni commended the children for the efforts.
“You realize that some of them were timid. There were some of them who couldn’t speak well though they were doing better at the circuit levels. So I think that we need to boost their confidence and polish them around. When we do these littles things, I think they will go greater heights.” Mr. Awuni explained.
The Chief of Logre who served as chairman for the occasion, Naab Salima Yidan Tobig II commended the Nabdam Education Directorate for exposing the children to works that are expected to broaden their thinking capacity.
“The culture of reading is eroding very fast among students of today. The L1 are encouraged at the lower level yet it is not being seriously taught. But I know there are resource and personnel constraints. So I want to appeal to the teachers that you do extra work in that regard to improve the reading and writing skills of the children.”
Awards and prizes including some certificates and exercise books were presented to the various circuits for their participation.
The event was organized by the District Education Directorate in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Afrikids and Care International among others as part of activities to whip up the interest of pupils in the District. It was held on the theme; Reading, a pathway to the world.
