You are spot on Hon. Issah. There is indded a crisis of reading and achievement in Public schools in Ghana. Reading achievement levels measured by the Criterion Referenced Test (CRT) in 2000 by Ghana Education Service in some selected districts indicates that fewer than 10% of the school children at primary 6 are able to read with grade level mastery. Reviews of various Commissions and Committees, for instance, Kraft (2000) on the challenges of education in Ghana have underscored the weak reading and limited comprehension abilities of pupils as key to the low levels of learning achievements at the basic school level in Ghana. These are attributed to Pupils inability to read and write in their mother tongue (Andoh- Kumi, 2001). The teaching and learning of L1 seems not to have been encouraged due to the associated governance bottle necks at the implementation stage at the basic level. Just as recent as February 2014, The 2013 National Education Assessment (NEA) report has established that a majority of pupils in basic school cannot read to understand either in English or in any Ghanaian language. It said in every language, at least 50 per cent, and often, more of the pupils assessed could not pronounce a single English or Ghanaian word correctly. Forty-four per cent of pupils could read without understanding what they read, while only four per cent of pupils were able to read with some understanding, with only two per cent of them able to read fluently with understanding, the report said. The report also revealed that pupils in urban schools performed better than children in rural schools while pupils in private schools also did better than those in public schools. Besides, children in hard-to-reach schools were among the lowest performers, especially in the three northern regions where the pupils performed abysmally. The report followed a survey carried out from July 9 to 11, 2013 that sampled a total of 19,458 pupils in primary three and 17,447 pupils in primary six with 550 public and private schools in 170 districts in Ghana. Like the saying that when a stone is thrown into the air, every one tries to protect his/her head first so we are concerned with Chereponi first. We only need to think outside the box a little bit by being innovative. I hope Mr. Seidu Kalamba will recall when he was the head teacher of Central primary, I paid his school a visit and during my interaction with the pupils I tried to find out their reading skills: that was not satisfactory. I introduced the syllabic drill method using consonants and vowels. We tried to first of all identify them and to also pronounce them after which we paired them with one, two, three alphabets lo and be hold pupils were able to pronounce words correctly to the surprise of their teachers. I believe if we give teachers at the basic level some in service training on Phonology and drills, which will go a long way to improve the reading skills of our wards. Thank you.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 15:45:33 +0000
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