THE government and publishers have been called upon to come out with measures that will forestall the breeding of ‘negative literature’ that has the potential to corrupt society.
The Provost of the College of Arts and Social Sciences of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Professor Dr Dr Daniel Buor, who made the call also urged publishers in particular to organise experts in various disciplines to produce textbooks that would take cognisance of the cultural and environmental experience of the country.
Professor Buor said it was equally important for publishers to be selective in their publications to curb moral decay in society, explaining that “pornographic literature is having a toll on the moral life of the youth and must be eliminated from the system”.
He was addressing some members of the Ghana Publishers Association, Lecturers of the Department of Publishing Studies of the KNUST and a cross-section of students at the university during the inaugural ceremony of the Ghana Book Publishers Association Northern Sector office at the university.
He pointed out that by their initiative, the association had now embarked upon “indigenisation of knowledge to pave way for development based on local experience”.
He said it was therefore important for the executives of the association to be proactive and innovative “by moving within the current stream of technology and strengthen your networks both locally and internationally to ensure sustainability”.
Appealing to the government and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to support publishers through the award of contracts for them to publish relevant literary works for public consumption, the Provost noted that “reading exposes the reader to wisdom and experience as well as abilities to enhance his experience and abilities to perform more efficiently”.
He said “there is even a very strong correlation between a nation’s literacy ratio and the country’s poverty levels”.
Expressing concern about the lack of reading culture among a large section of the public, he said “the habit of reading is a fundamental skill upon which all formal education depends”, stressing that “unfortunately, it appears that effective and purposeful reading among students and the youth is disappearing.
“Even though students of today have more access to textbooks, as well as literary materials on the internet than ever, they only choose to listen to music, play video games, watch television and videos for long hours,” he stated.
He said the little percentage who chose to read rather read literary materials that contained information that was not meant for them.
For his part, the Vice Chancellor of KNUST, Professor Kwasi Kwafo Adarkwa, said since the world now revolved around literacy, information and knowledge, society should keep abreast of literary works.
“A child’s reading skills are important to their success in school and during their future work life” he stated, adding that, “ reading can be fun and an imaginative activity for children, and this opens doors to all kinds of new adventures for them”.
He urged the adult public to encourage children to cultivate the reading culture, saying ,“ if we introduce our children to reading at an early stage of their lives, they will undoubtedly be put on a sound pedestal and would have a head-start in their adult life”.
Later at a symposium to commemorate children literacy day as a foundation for their future development, a lecturer at the Department of Publishing Studies at the KNUST, Dr Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, said to become literate was the central purpose of schooling.
He pointed out that approaches to literacy teaching included skills, socio-cultural, historical, whole language, critical literacy and new literacy studies.
He pointed out that since textbooks had the ability to mould social beliefs, attitudes and values, they should reflect and legitimise national and cultural traditions as well as curricular goals.
Speaking on the topic, ‘developing basic literacy in book hungry communities; the role of textbooks’, Dr Opoku Amankwa said children should not only participate in a wide range of literacy events, but should also engage in texts of different types for them to gain the full benefits of literacy.
“Learners need to be introduced to materials that are meaningful and useful in the real world, and such materials should provide hands-on activities, that will bring relevance to the information the children are learning and be able to link up with their lives and experiences outside school,’’ he said.
Dr Opoku-Amankwa pointed out that as artefacts for learning and literacy development, textbooks should not simply aim at providing a body of knowledge, hoping that teachers can easily transfer it to learners.
Rather, he said, textbooks needed to open up ways to stimulate the pupil’s interest, develop creativity and autonomy as well as create cultural awareness, link school knowledge to society and integrate different disciplines by providing authentic materials and tasks which could assist such a process.
He said textbooks should also aim at providing value beyond school by giving attention to current developments in society and also “get students to cooperate and communicate by having them work together in groups on collective tasks”.
Dr Opoku-Amankwa said it was equally important for teachers to get good teacher’s guide as a way of enhancing their teaching skills for effective and efficient delivery.
“A good number of textbooks and their corresponding teachers guide in use in classrooms in Ghana however tend to follow the traditional textbook format, using artificial pedagogical approaches remote from the functional and linguistic needs of learners” he stressed.
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