Open letter to the Minister of Education and the Director-Generals

Dear Ministers and Directors of Education,

It had been the topical news for the past weeks when due to the exploiting attitude of some heads of senior high schools by charging exorbitant and unapproved fees, (according to the reports) the ministry had decided to ban the compulsory billing of students of some extra materials, including supplementary readers/books. It was in the process of bringing things to this orderly manner that the baby is being thrown away with the bathwater.

Research has shown that, the reading standard in this country especially among the youth and students is falling swiftly. That is to say we are becoming lazy in picking up books (novels especially) to read. Ask anyone on the street the last time he or she read any book and the answers you will hear will get you worried for the future of that individual and this country.

I was personally present at the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) national conference held in Koforidua in August this year when the minister of Education, Hon. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman bemoaned this regrettable attitude of some school heads and warned them not to exceed the legal fees her committee was coming out with for all schools across the country. I was particularly happy after the release of the across-board approved fees of Ghc230 and Ghc437 for day and boarding students respectively, which I think is very moderate.

In fact, I applauded the minister for bringing such sanity and equality into our educational system which of course has brought some sigh of relief for most parents. If one thinks of how some recalcitrant school heads could go far-cross this barrier and charge their students roof-hitting fees as much as Ghc1,500, we can clearly imagine what could be charged if there was no regulation and monitoring as this. I pity the school head suspended indefinitely due to this anyway.

Now, inasmuch as I applauded the authorities in charge for that breath-taking initiative, I was disappointed as well to know that, this moderate-approved fee did not include the compulsory charge of supplementary readers.

I know of this commendable tradition of most schools billing students of two or three supplementary readers every term. These books are usually given to them at the beginning of every term or before they go on vacation. The good thing about this practise is that, it has gone a long way to inculcate into most of these students the habit of reading. Not only that; it has helped to improve and integrate the usage of the spoken and written English language of these students. Now, the bad side of this good policy is that, not many students will voluntarily go into bookshops and purchase story or motivational books to read.

So if they are being “forced” to buy these books in school, it is just a way of forcing them to read as well, which in the long run gets many of them developing the love/habit for the culture and the art of reading—they feel they are obligated to read. The icy on the cake here is how well some of the schools I know do it: their teachers actually test them on some of these books they are given to read. Some also review the books in class with the students during their leisure time. The benefits of this is not for me to say but for us all to clearly imagine; but have you ever heard of the research that has shown that, there is a very great correlation between habitual reading and academic excellence? If you have, then that summarises it all.

I believe that the directive from the education ministry and GES to put other relevant books and stationary in the stores for students who wished to purchase them to do so at their own convenience and not to be part of the fees is not the surest way to make Ghana a reading nation and for that matter a leading nation.

As a young and upcoming author who acts as a voluntary READING Ambassador and hosts a radio programme that seeks to imbibe into every Ghanaian the habit of reading, I am therefore humbly writing this letter to plead with the Honourable Minister of Education and her deputies including the Director-Generals of Education not to throw the baby away with the bathwater. I humbly plead with them to treat this whole issue with kid gloves. I plead with them to re-consider the striking out of the compulsory charge of supplementary books/readers from their bill. Yes! It is true that “some bad nuts spoil the rest of the good ones” but I am humbly calling on you to rather exercise the patient to carefully separate this good nut from being spoilt by the ‘bad’ ones.

It is true some of the charges that appear on the students bill are just incomprehensible and annoying, but I believe that, the relative additional charge of Ghc16 to Ghc25 for the supplementary readers a term to the already approved fee will do more good than any pocket-damage harm to parents and students, if we totally leave it, assuming and believing the students will themselves go out there to purchase these relevant books to read! The sad news here is that, some of these students who are ever and always willing to read these books will not attach that premium to buying these books on their own if they are not given in school! Or let me say they don’t have budget for it. It is sad when you speak to senior high school students about books they have read and the only thing you hear from them is, “Yes, I have read my notebook; I have read course book; I have read my pamphlet.”

Now you begin to ask yourself, “So what happens to the educative and interesting novels and motivational books (especially those that have gone through some threshold of quality assessment and approval by the GES) that they are supposed to be reading and learning a lot from?” Margaret Fuller could not put it any better when she declared that “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” If this saying could complement the popular saying that “A reading nation is leading nation,” then our beloved country’s desire to breed great future leaders and make the nation a leading nation can be fast-achieved if steps like this is taken to get us reading voraciously and make us all avid readers.

That is what is good for the development of the individual and this country. Going on to tell you now about the numerous benefits of READING will just be like telling you the Pope is a Catholic. If not for anything at all, it is time we get the white man to start saying that, “If you want to hide something from an African, you put it in heaven, no more in a book.”

Hon. Education Ministers and Director-Generals, I would want to end here with high hopes and prayer that, the right authorities will treat this letter with the deserved attention and approval it deserves.

Thank you.

Yours Faithful,

Sylvanus Bedzrah

(A Reading Ambassador)