Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum
DEPUTY MINISTER of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has admonished librarians in the various senior high schools (SHSs) in the country to constantly read wide and seek more knowledge.
He pointed out that acquiring additional knowledge would make the librarians more efficient to enable them support students in knowledge transfer.
He gave the admonishment during the official opening of an intensive training workshop for librarians in SHS in Ashanti, Bono, Ahafo and Bono East regions in Kumasi recently.
The workshop organized by the Ghana Library Authority (GLA), in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service (GES), is seeking to increase the knowledge of librarians in the various secondary schools in the country.
As part of the programme, which is being facilitated by a team of seasoned librarians from the GLA and the University of Ghana, all the regions in the country have been divided into zones for librarians to benefit from the initiative.
Continuing, the Deputy Minister of Education especially charged librarians to be patient and concentrate on students known to be academically weak in their institutions to help them to catch up with their colleagues.
In this regard, he lauded the GLA and its partners for coming up with such a brilliant and educative programme to help upgrade the knowledge of librarians, urging the participants to take the exercise seriously.
Some of the librarians who attended the workshop in Kumasi.
Hayford Siaw, the acting Director of the GLA, said the training forms part of government’s agenda within the framework of the implementation of the Free SHS policy to build the capacity of librarians to promote quality education.
“This policy seeks to equip school libraries within the country with the necessary learning resources and supplementary reading materials as part of the educational investment by government,” he announced.
He said “this training comes after an assessment of all SHS libraries across the country, as part of the School Libraries Transformation Programme,” adding that resourcing school libraries is key to ensuring quality education.
According to him, secondary schools whose libraries are facing severe challenges would soon have their problems resolved. He indicated that libraries having challenges had been documented and they would be raised to acceptable standards soon.
Mr. Siaw also entreated students to constantly visit their libraries in their respective schools and read wide so that they would increase their knowledge in order to pass their examination and climb the academic ladder.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi