Five educational circuits in the Ahanta West Municipality in the Western Region have participated in the maiden edition of Yinson Reading and Spelling Bee Competition.

The Yinson Reading and Spelling Bee Competition is a strategy by the GES in the Ahanta West municipality and Yinson Ghana to motivate and encourage pupils in the area of reading and spelling which has been identified as a major challenge with the performance of pupils in the municipality.

“Reading has been identified as one of the challenges impeding their performance, most pupils are either not motivated to read or unable to read at their grade level” the Municipal Director of Education Mr. Mark Adoba Adateke revealed.

This challenge, Mr. Adoba Adateke explains, is evident in the results of the pupils during their termly, municipal common, mock and Basic Education Certificate examinations.

“Reading has several advantages; it reduces stress, expands and strengthens our vocabularies as well as improve language and knowledge about the world” he said.

Mr. Adateke advised parents and guardians to find strategies to get their children to read at all times; “this will affect their performance in school and during their examinations”.

The contestants were drawn from the Kindergarten, Lower and Upper Primary through to the Junior High School (JHS) level.

The participating schools in the circuits were from Abura, Agona, Apowa, Dixcove and Ewusiejoe all within the municipality.

Three contestants represented each circuit at every level of the competition, they all showed their reading, spelling and phonetic skills in the keen contest.

At the kindergarten level, Ewusiejoe circuit took the first position, followed by Apowa and Abura.

The Apowa circuit was crowned winners at the lower primary level, Abura circuit took the first position at the upper primary level and the Agona circuit took the first position at the Junior High School level.

Corporate Social Responsibility Coordinator of Yinson Ghana Edward Mensah in an interview said the ‘Reading and Spelling Bee’ is going to be done annually until majority of pupils in the municipality can read and spell correctly, as well as be able to compete satisfactorily with schools in other districts and municipalities.

He said this is to motivate and sustain the interest of students in reading, promote healthy competition among pupils and schools as well as help improve results of students in English Language and prepare them for higher learning.

“This is also to give back to the communities in which we operate, we believe in education which also enables us to meet the qualification for a better job” Mr. Mensah added.

Each of the contestants and participating schools received certificates and a plague.

Over 70 story books were distributed to all the students who participated. Also, two Samsung tablets each loaded with over 1,000 story books were given to two outstanding students at the JHS level, a male and a female. They are Ebenezer Awusah from the Arthur Fischer Catholic School and Lisa Smith at Agona SDA Basic School.

There are 80 Kindergartens, 72 Primary Schools and 73 Junior High Schools with total enrolment of 31, 107 within the municipality.