Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Library Authority, Hayford Siaw, has refuted the widespread belief that Ghanaians do not like reading.
During an interview on Monday, August 14, 2023, he boldly contested the prevailing notion, asserting that the conducive environment and atmosphere have yet to be established.
He also attributed the assertion to the scarcity of libraries in Ghana.
“Historically, in 1970 there was research done by the Ghana Library Authority, British Council and the Ministry of Education to really understand why there’s the perception out there that Ghanaians don’t like reading.
“And one of the outcomes was that we have a very poor school library system in this country. So it’s not a recent issue,” he said.
He expressed concern over the unfortunate reality that many schools are built without libraries, which significantly hinders the development of a reading culture.
“We build schools, we’ve refused to set up libraries, we refuse to put in the book resources, we refuse to have professionals to even go to the schools to manage the libraries in the schools.
“So look at most schools across the country and ask if they have a professional school available to them,” he said.
“If we really want to build the culture of reading, you don’t only tackle the Senior High Level, we need to tackle the basic level as well. So right from class one to JHS 3, we make sure we have a school library and professionals there to be able to support,” he added.