Department of Basic Education Holds Workshop for Level 100 Students

As part of the continuous assessment of the level 100 students of the Department of Basic Education for the course: Introduction to basic grammar and literature, a workshop on writing stories for children has been held at the old pavilion, north campus of the University of Education, Winneba on Saturday 8th October, 2016.

The workshop brought together 400 level 100 students of the Basic Education programme to be taken through various topics in literature including Children’s Literature and Stages in Children’s Literature handled by Mrs. Vivian Acquaye; Themes and Subject Matter in Children’s Literature by Mrs. Juliana Daniels; Pictures and illustrations in Children’s Literature Books by Dr. Ebenezer K. Acquaye; and Language in Children’s Literature books by Ms. Michelle Debrah.

Speaking at the event, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba, Rev. Fr. Professor, Anthony Afful-Broni, who was the special guest, commended the Department for organizing such an event. He said it was important that students are taught how to write for children in a way which was suitable to the Ghanaian context.

He noted that the various offices that he had acquired working experiences from makes him better appreciate the programme component of basic education. He touched on the various phases of writing a story book, which included the creators of the ideas, the writers, the printers and the marketers, all contribute to producing the story book. He commended the students for their commitment and dedication to their course of study, urging them to take seriously what they were taught to create employment avenues for themselves after school.

On his part, the chairman for the occasion, the Head of Department, Mr. Kweku Esia Donkoh, expressed his profound excitement about the event, stating that it was scheduled to be organized once every academic year for the level 100 students in the department. Explaining the purpose of the workshop, Mrs. Vivian Acquaye, situated the relevance of the course amid an era in the country where there is a severe fallen standards in education especially the English Language. She noted that materials used in teaching children in Ghana do not aid in their understanding of the concepts. She stressed on the need for teachers skills to be sharpened so as to be able to teach well. She noted with great displeasure a research carried out among basic schools in certain regions of the country, which revealed that most of children could not read, the fundamental reason being the kinds of reading materials employed were not appropriate for the Ghanaian Context, hence informing the relevance in organizing the workshop for their students.

Source: Media Relations Office