Capital Cares, the social responsibility arm of Capital Television and the Capital Line Group, has launched the “Reading Heroes Campaign” aimed at improving the reading habits of pupils.

Mr Benjamin Otoo, Chief Executive of Capital Line Investments Limited, said because of poor reading habits, standards were falling as knowledge remained hidden in books.

“As a country we need to take reading seriously and make this nation how we want it to be,” he said.

Mrs Adepa Sarfo, Project Co-ordinator of Capital Cares, said in partnership with the Ghana Library Authority, the campaign would strive to increase the patronage of public libraries and digitize books to ease access and generate more readership.

The reading campaign would have an 80 per cent focus on public schools which are underprivileged and also feature a nationwide reading competition among reading clubs of basic schools.

She said the Reading Heroes Campaign would also employ celebrity ambassadors to promote reading.

“Every week one renowned personality will visit a school and promote reading by reading to the pupils and giving them a chance for interaction.

“There is a popular saying that to hide knowledge from a black man, keep it in a book. We are trying to change that,” she said.

Mr Jerry Halm, Capital Television Head of Business Development, said the initiative was a demonstration of Capital Television's mantra of "TV for development."

The Reading Heroes Campaign is supported by Worldreader, a California-based non-profit organisation involved in promoting literacy through digital books and which has, in the past, embarked on similar projects in Ghana.