Let's improve creative writing among school children - Nana Koomson

Nana Ebo Koomson, President of the Western Regional Ghana Association of Teachers of English (GATE), has said that in spite of the evolution of modern forms of communications, writing still remains the main basis for language development.

Nana Koomson,, who doubles as the Head of Languages Department of the Sekondi Methodist Secondary School said this during an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Sekondi in the Western Region.

He appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) to adopt the necessary steps to ensure that school children are imbued with writing skills to improve the falling standards of the English Language in the country.

He said to boost writing in the country, creative writing should form an essential component of the extra-curricular activities in schools.

Nana Koomson said, in the past, school children mustered the art of writing letters to penpals, friends and distant relatives which was a useful way to improve their linguistic competence.

He called for the need to create possible avenues to run school magazines and news letters and help expose the hidden creativity talents of students.

He said though spelling mistakes and poor articulation is a concern, constant writing practice was the only way out.

Nana Koomson noted that, International Organizations such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) published writing competitions every three months for people to market their writing skills, and advised Ghanaians to organize similar writing camps and competitions to sharpen the writing skills among school children.

He said it was important that the Ghana Book Trust and the VALCO Literary Fund which used to serve as motivation for writers be re-armed to boost the morale of writing in the country.**