Mr Henry Hevi, Hohoe Municipal Director of Education, has called for a multi-stakeholder approach to inculcate the culture of reading in school children, especially at the basic-level.

He said greater collaboration among stakeholders including the Government, Ghana Education Service, parents, Non Governmental Organisations as well as the children themselves could make reading a companion of school children.

Mr Hevi was addressing a workshop of teacher-patrons of reading clubs for some public and private basic schools in Hohoe, organised by the Shalom Word Foundation, a Hohoe-based not-for-profit organisation.

He said reading habits could only manifest in children if the infrastructure in the form of reading materials, provision of well-stocked libraries and the encouragement from school and home were enforced.

He lauded the initiative of equipping the teachers with skills in the establishment of reading clubs to complement the efforts of the school system at shoring up reading habits.

He said this effort would bolster the literacy skills and improve on the standard of education and urged the teachers to be worthy ambassadors of the initiative.

Ms Shallom Abla Lumor, Executive Director of Shalom Word Foundation, said her outfit’s objective was to inculcate the civility of reading in school children and respond to the emerging indifference of children towards reading.

She said the Foundation successfully organised the Hohoe version of inter-schools Spelling Bee competition for basic schools in 2014 and was repositioning itself to replicate it this year.

Ms Lumor appealed to corporate institutions, district assemblies, traditional rulers and philanthropists to join forces to shore up reading habits in children.

Mr Shadrack Kumi, Technical Advisor of the Foundation, said the culture of reading was an engine for progress in education and must be embraced by all.