Duayaw Nkwanta (B/A), Nov. 26, GNA- Six schools in the Tano North District of Brong-Ahafo were at the weekend honoured for their outstanding performance in a debate and inter-school reading contest. The Brong-Ahafo Regional branch of the Ghana Library Board organized the contest for Senior and Junior High Schools. The schools, Prince of Peace Preparatory Junior High School, Methodist Junior Secondary School, Islamic Junior High School, Serwaa Kesse Girls Senior High School, Boakye Tromo Technical Senior High School and Yamfo Anglican Senior High School, were presented with books, certificates, cash prizes and pens.

Mr Nicholas Lenin Anane-Adjei, District Chief Executive (DCE), was also honoured for his commitment to providing quality education in the area and was presented with a citation. The DCE noted that the standard of education in the area had fallen and the contest was a major intervention to help improve the situation. He urged the students to maintain the habit of reading, and that the programme would be organized regularly to help lift the standard of education in the district.

Mr Anane-Adjei promised to increase the prizes to boost the morale of the students and advised them to avoid laziness. Mr Omari Mensah Penkorang, Executive Director of the Ghana Library Board expressed his appreciation for the support of the Ghana Education Service and the District Assembly to the Board. He said the public library would help promote the reading habits of the students and the community.

Mr Omari urged the students and teachers to manage the library well to meet the educational needs of users. He noted that students pursuing distance learning programmes stood to benefit from the services and facilities of the library, saying the Board would collaborate with all interest groups in the successful delivery of distance education.

He stated that the mobile library services had been reintroduced to ensure that more communities benefited. "The Board has taken delivery of 10 new mobile vans that would be distributed to the 10 regions and that the metropolis, municipal and district assemblies would be in the forefront of the operations of the mobile services.

He appealed to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to collaborate with traditional authorities and the Ghana Education Service to assist the mobile library services teams. 26 Nov. 07