Reading is key to acquiring knowledge -Prof. Oquaye

The second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Michael Oquaye, has called on students in the country to inculcate the habit of reading in themselves, to improve on their knowledge base.

According to Prof. Oquaye, it was only through reading that one could acquire knowledge, in order to be part of the changing world.

“If you are not knowledgeable in today’s world, I’m afraid, you are hardly part of the world,” he said.

Prof. Oquaye made this remark when he officially launched the literacy project at the forecourt of Parliament, in Accra yesterday.

The project aims to improve on reading in the rural communities, especially, cocoa growing areas in the country.

To Prof. Oquaye, a lot of children were not reading, simply because of the unavailability of books, a situation, he said, infringes on the rights of the children.

“The most important human right is the right to read, the right to know, and the right to an informed society,” he said.

Over 34,000 books, ranging from novels, fiction, reference, science and mathematics, according to the Executive Director of Child Rights International (CRI), Bright Appiah, would be distributed to communities, especially, those in cocoa growing areas in 120 selected constituencies, from the kindergarten to the Senior High school.

Mr. Appiah said research had proven that almost 54% of children in cocoa growing areas cannot read and write, hence his outfit’s decision to empower children in those communities. The lack of libraries, he said also, were the main hindrances in those communities.

To address the problem, the CRI Executive Director said his outfit, in collaboration with Memifee Valley College from California, donor of the books, would establish e-libraries in 300 communities.

According to Mr. Appiah, the CRI was also looking at the one laptop per child initiative for those in the cocoa growing communities, to further address the problem.

“We are aware of a number of risks in this area, especially, lack of electricity, and that is why we are opting for the one laptop per child scheme. The computers could last for over four hours, and to us, the most important thing is to let the children have access to those laptops and things would improve.

Another option is to send the computers to the district level, and periodically invite the children to have access to the laptops. By so doing, their knowledge base would be enhanced,” Mr. Appiah noted.

Present to grace the occasion were Mrs. Akosua Frema Opare-Osei, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso West Wuogon, the Charity Baptist Church School, Accra, and children of the Adabraka Presbyterian Junior High School.