Anomabo Methodist ‘A’ and Anomabo Anglican basic Schools emerged winners of the 5th Edition of the Kobbah Acquah Memorial reading competition organized for basic one and basic two pupils in the Anomabo and Yamoransa circuits in the Mfantseman municipality of the Central Region.
The competition, sponsored by the Kobbah Acquah Foundation (KoAF), was aimed at promoting and developing reading skills in the younger pupils in the municipality.
At the preliminaries held earlier this year, 28 basic Schools from Anomabo Circuit ‘A’, Anomabo circuit ‘B’ and Yamoransa Circuits participated where Saltpond Lower Town M/A basic school, Anomabo Methodist ‘A’ basic School and Kobinah Ansah M/A basic school under Anomabo circuit ‘B’, Anomabo circuit ‘A’ and Yamoransa circuit respectively, qualified at the basic one category to the final while Anomabo Methodist ‘A’ basic school, Anomabo Anglican ‘A’ basic school and Kobinah Ansah M/A basic school, under Anomabo circuit ‘A’, Anomabo circuit ‘B’ and Yamoransa circuit respectively, qualified to the finals at the basic two categories.
At the end of the watertight final contest last Friday where contestants were taken through reading, spelling and questions and answers in English and Fante languages, Miss Perpetual Ama Baidoo-Quansah of Anomabo Methodist ‘A’ basic school emerged victorious at the basic one category with 74 points while her keen contender, Ms Margaret Nyanful of Saltpond Lower Town M/A basic school placed first runner up with 73 points.
Ms. Victoria Donkor of Anomabo Anglican Basic School, on the other hand, emerged the winner in the basic two category with 73 points whereas her close contenders, Master Benjamin Donkor of Kobinah Ansah M/A Basic School and Master Egwei Kannatey-Asibu of Anomabo Methodist ‘A’ secured 70 and 69 points to place second and third positions respectively.
Expressing her joy over her victory in an interview with newsalertgh.com, Miss Perpetual Ama Baidoo-Quansah who said she was not surprised about her victory, attributed her victory to the hard work and dedication of her fante teacher.
In encouraging Ghanaians to prioritize the study of our local languages, she disputed the assertion that fante was a difficult language to learn and therefore admonished her colleague pupils to cultivate the habit of reading.
“Fante is not difficult…..in fact, it’s not difficult at all so it sometimes surprises me when I hear people claiming fante reading is difficult…. after all, it is our mother tongue so we should be proud of and study it”, little Victoria Donkor asserted.
The winners were awarded with trophies, notes, exercise and reading books, cash and certificates of merit while the runner-ups also made away with books, cash and certificates of merit.
The program, facilitated by the Anomabo chapter of the Boys and Girls Club of Ghana was under the theme “Reading: Key to lifelong learning”.
Mr Stephan Quansah, the national director of the club, in congratulating the contestants made a passionate appeal to the government and other stakeholders to provide basic schools with libraries and stock them with books to enhance reading.
“We tell the kids to read but they don’t have books to read because most of the public schools do not have libraries, in various households too they do not have books to read there and so it has been a challenge. The teachers may teach them how to read and write but they may not have the materials so we’re pleading with the government, NGOs, churches and philanthropists to go to the underserved communities and help them by constructing libraries and stocking them with reading books for the kids to improve their reading,” Mr Quansah appealed.
Source: Kojo Atta Kakra Abrowa
