Ghana�s Second Lady, Mrs Matilda Amissah-Arthur, on Monday urged parents to introduce their children to reading at a very early age and to make reading part of their lives.
She said even where children were introduced to reading they more often saw the practice as a chore and more like a punishment.
Mrs Amissah-Arthur made the observation at the opening of the 2013 Library and Information Week celebration in Accra.
The programme organized by the Ghana Library Association (GLA) which was first discussed in April this year, is on the theme: �Information literacy and public library�
Mrs Amissah-Arthur stated that though most schools did not have libraries, those that had the facility did not spend time to introduce the children to books and help them to read.
She said though teachers were doing their bit to help the children to read, parents should also encourage their wards to read.
She said parents also did not spend time getting the child to read but instead bought them toys.
Mrs Amissah-Arthur further noted that parents buying computers for their children was a good idea, but that the computers were being used to play games and visit other social media sites which were not beneficial to them.
She said the GLA was spending time helping the children to acquire reading habits in order to enjoy reading for fun.
She noted that reading was the basis for everything, and that when one developed the habit of reading, it would take one far.
Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Education, stated the country could not develop as a society without people reading and that the cause of underdevelopment was ignorance.
Mr Ablakwa also noted that last year the Ministry assisted the Ghana Library Authority (GLA) to procure 72,410 copies of books including 65 sets of encyclopedia valued at GHc705,715 for all the country�s 10 regional libraries, as well as 50 districts and branch libraries.
He said in the 2014 budget, the Education Ministry intends to support the GLA by increasing its allocation so that it can have more resources to work, and especially to support the mobile libraries.
The Deputy Minister stated that currently ICT was being used to change and modernize libraries around the world and that Ghana should not be an exception, adding that the Ministry would lead in that modernization effort.
�If we would have to encourage our children to voluntarily ignore other entertainment centres and choose the libraries during their free periods then we ought to make the libraries a very exciting and convenient environment� he added
Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa also announced that the government had purchased 12.5 million pieces of Core text books for Primary one to JHS 3..
He urged parents to create study areas for children in the home so that they can take advantage of the opportunity to read.
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