[ 2012-06-17 ]

An illiterate population frustrates development-UDS Librarian
Bolgatanga, June 17, GNA- Mrs Florence
Dedzoe-Dzokotoe Plockey, Assistant Librarian of
the University for Development Studies (UDS) on
Thursday said no country could dream of meaningful
development if its citizens could not read.

She said for a country to be fully develop, it
needed to make massive investment in its
educational system adding that, breakthrough in a
country is directly proportional to the
educational level of its citizens.

Mrs Plockey was speaking on the theme: “Life long
reading culture, a prime ingredient for national
development” during a public lecture to climax the
celebration of the Ghana Libraries

Authority (GLA) in Bolgatanga.
It was to sensitise students and the general
public on the need to cultivate the habit of
reading for societal and national development.

The Regional celebration, under the theme:
“Libraries, key to national development”, was
attended by students drawn from all the second
cycle institutions in the region, directors of
education, the Deputy Upper East Regional
Minister, and a section of the media.

She indicated that reading when cultivated makes
an individual thoughtful, constructive and
meaningful contributor to a democratic and
cohesive society. “Continuous learning is
necessary if economic development is to be
guaranteed”.

“A Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) report in 2008
reveals that almost 49 per cent of adult
population in Ghana could neither read nor write,
whilst a UNICEF report revealed that globally,
nearly one billion people entered the 21st century
unable to read a book or write their names”.

She further indicated that libraries throughout
the country had worked over the decades to direct
human and material resources towards helping
children and adults to read, speak and write.

The Librarian added that without the opportunity
to read widely, what was taught in the classroom
was not reinforced and the quality and performance
for the benefit of education were endangered.

While decrying the current state of readership in
the country, she called on government to develop
policies that required all schools in the country
to have well resourced libraries to reduce pupils'
dependency on teachers as the only source of
information.

Madam Joana Pwadura Adabare, Upper East Regional
Director of the GLA, stated that the association
founded in 1962, was to present library and
information services in Ghana adding that.
libraries throughout the country had touched the
lives of many in spite of its numerous
challenges.

According to her, the celebrations was the first
of its kind in the region, calling on the
Government to complement the association's efforts
at providing quality reading and learning
materials to Ghanaian students throughout the
country.

Mrs Lucy Awuni, Deputy Upper East Regional
Minister, observed that the depletion and
non-availability of relevant books on the shelves
of most libraries and encroachment by developers
on the lands of public libraries were ” a
disturbing phenomenon” and needed to be dealt
with.

She called on the students to utilise library
facilities for their benefits and desist from the
practice of using the libraries as avenues for
hanging out with friends and “place their
education

above all other things since these crucial times
would define their lives”.

Source - GNA

... go Back