Eugene shows colleagues way to form reading habit

Eugene Malley is a 12-year-old grade six pupil of New Covenant Preparatory School at Tefle in Ghana's Volta Region. He previously attended school at Sogakofe, three kilometres away where he regularly bought the Community Voice, a local newspaper. After a few months in his new school, Eugene realized he was missing the paper.

This community paper is part of a USAID-supported initiative under Education Quality for All project, which seeks to help children gain pleasure and comfort from reading as well as increase their ability to read with understanding.

In implementing this initiative, USAID supported the training of teachers to set up library corners in their classrooms and use other best practices to encourage reading among their children. At the community level, members of school management committees, parent-teacher associations, civic society groups and the local government assembly were sensitized to their roles in encouraging their children to read. Video and drama shows were also organized for the community and the community newspaper was published monthly.

When Eugene could not receive this newspaper in his new school, he wrote to the editor to request copies for the school. He now collects copies for sale to friends at school and at home.

"I saw the full list of current Ministers of State and their portfolios for the first time in this newspaper and keep copies of every issue for reference," Eugene said.

Now, more than 100 pupils from Eugene's school read the paper. As a result, they won most of the awards for answering correctly questions in the February 2007 issue of the paper. Other local citizens also showed interest in the paper. For instance, a visiting pastor who read the paper readily paid for 20 issues for his grandchild.

Teachers are also encouraging silent reading and friends reading together, and supporting their pupils to participate in quiz and writing competitions. In addition, parents are buying reading materials for their children and supervising them as they read.